Maat

An ostrich feather rests on Maat’s head. She is a goddess and an idea, expressing truth, justice, righteousness, order, balance, and cosmic law. Maat gives life to kings and is shown holding the ankh to their noses. She represents the proper relationship between the cosmic and earthly, the divine and human, the earth, the heavens, and the underworld. Her presence supports the sun’s daily renewal, the cycles of the sun and moon, the annual flooding of the Nile, stable government, and social harmony.

Maat is described as the daughter of Ra, the creator sun god, and elsewhere as the daughter or aspect of Atum. She travels with Ra in his sun barque and delights his heart. Thoth is her husband and is said to have written down her laws. Kings offer a small figure of Maat to the gods and must act as her champion. In the afterlife, the dead are judged by whether they have lived and spoken in Maat. She therefore belongs to the order that keeps chaos from overtaking divine, earthly, and underworld life.