Egyptian funerary religion
Weighing of the Heart
The deceased enters the hall of Osiris and declares purity before the gods. Tirard describes chapter 125 as exceptionally important and commonly selected for burial with the mummy. Thoth verifies a balance carrying the heart and a figure or feather of Truth. The scene integrates confession, scrutiny, and a favorable verdict, rather than showing a random weighing of physical mass.
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalThe deceased enters the hall of Osiris and declares purity before the gods. Tirard describes chapter 125 as exceptionally important and commonly selected for burial with the mummy.
Further detail
TraditionalThoth verifies a balance carrying the heart and a figure or feather of Truth. The scene integrates confession, scrutiny, and a favorable verdict, rather than showing a random weighing of physical mass.
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
evidently intended to be said after the weighing of the soul, we read : " Let him enter boldly, and come out in peace atOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 143
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0143
- Original scan leaf
- 153
- Recorded leaf number
- 143
- Current Reader position
- 134
- 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
one of the scales he sees his own heartOpen 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
Anubis
Guardian of the mummy and guide into the judgment hall.
Shared source pageMaat
Truth, justice, and cosmic order represented in funerary judgment.
Shared source pageThe Heart in Egyptian Judgment
The organ made witness to a person’s conduct at the balance.
Same subject and traditionNegative Confession
The deceased’s declarations before forty-two assessors, denying wrongs involving violence, falsehood, theft and misuse of shared resources.