Egyptian funerary religion
The Heart in Egyptian Judgment
Funerary chapters ask that the deceased receive and retain a heart, and that it not become an adversary. Tirard’s broader account treats these requests as safeguards for future existence. At judgment the heart represents conduct or conscience and stands opposite truth in the scale. Its owner appeals to it not to testify against them before the divine circle.
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalFunerary chapters ask that the deceased receive and retain a heart, and that it not become an adversary. Tirard’s broader account treats these requests as safeguards for future existence.
Further detail
TraditionalAt judgment the heart represents conduct or conscience and stands opposite truth in the scale. Its owner appeals to it not to testify against them before the divine circle.
Context & interpretation
Tirard’s 1910 account interprets selected funerary texts and rituals through the scholarship of her period. Local cults and surviving manuscripts vary; her comparisons and proposed origins are not a modern Egyptological consensus.
Original passages
Source 1
The Book of the Dead
soul with a magic formula that the heart should not oppose, or rather should not place himself as an enemy to the deceased. This chapter,Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 81
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0081
- Original scan leaf
- 91
- Recorded leaf number
- 81
- Current Reader position
- 75
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
- Location review
- Original scan location confirmed against the reviewed Reader mapping; the earlier recorded number is retained above.
Source 2
The Book of the Dead
The heart represents the conduct or conscience of the deceasedOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 148
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0148
- Original scan leaf
- 158
- Recorded leaf number
- 148
- Current Reader position
- 139
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
- Location review
- Original scan location confirmed against the reviewed Reader mapping; the earlier recorded number is retained above.
Continue exploring
Heart Scarab
A protective beetle amulet connected with the heart and judgment.
Shared source pageMaat
Truth, justice, and cosmic order represented in funerary judgment.
Shared source pageWeighing of the Heart
The funerary judgment scene that balances the heart against truth.
Same subject and traditionBa
The mobile aspect of the soul in Tirard’s account, pictured as a human-faced bird able to leave and return to the mummy.