for every culture there's an equivalent of the underworld whether it's hell gehenna the
elysian fields or diu there's always some place nasty that houses all the evil ones
or have angered the gods and the egyptian culture is no different in their mythology you're given
a chance at a life in the field of reeds where you'll spend the rest of eternity happily that is
of course if amit doesn't devour your unworthy soul but who or what is this emmett join us as we
find out and more on why she's called the devourer of the dead among other hair-raising names
amit otherwise known as amud or ahmet was the personification of divine retribution
in ancient egyptian mythology amit was a greatly feared female creature that was depicted as having
the head of a crocodile torso and forearms of a feline mostly a lion or leopard and the
bottom half of a hippopotamus many times she also took the form of a human she was usually pictured
sitting beside the scales of ma'at ready to devour the souls for all the wrongs committed in life
to put this in perspective if you lived in ancient egypt in a world of gods and pharaohs
who themselves were linked to gods the topic of the afterlife was a great concern for you
one of the biggest concerns about life after death would be the fate of your soul
would you ascend the ladder to heaven held by the good god shu or would you be condemned to
suffer eternally as a wandering spirit in a land of demons existing only as a remnant of your soul
your greatest concern after death would be about your judgment before the god osiris the weighing
of your deeds against the feather of mahat and a terrifying creature waiting to devour you
this creature as you may have guessed is ammit the devourer of the dead
emmett's appearance was one that struck the hearts of those who were to be judged by the god
osiris as she was represented by a collection of three of the largest
man-eating animals on the planet that were feared by egyptians at the time
this revered mythical creature whose name was also spelled as ahmet amhemit amman or amet
was an encapsulation of what the egyptians at that time feared the most an afterlife of damnation
cursed to wander the underworld for all eternity and being devoured by a man-eating creature
the ancient egyptian meaning of her name
amit and her several name variations in spelling and pronunciations mean one thing literally
devourer and this was the basis for several titles she acquired like eater of souls eater of hearts
the devourer of the dead greatness of death demoness of the underworld devourer of millions
bone-eater dweller or devourer of amenta and demonis of death the name devourer of
millions has led to the suggestion that the god emhe was one of her physical representations
some scholars of ancient egyptian mythology have linked amit with tuaret the hippopotamus goddess
because of their likeness in appearance and their common role in fighting against all forms of evil
in most egyptian traditions she lived by the scales of justice umpired by osiris but other
sources claimed that she like amhe lived by the lake of fire into which the souls found
wanting were thrown according to people who believe in this narrative of her she didn't
really devour the souls but protected the lake this also meant that she was linked to sekhmet
one of the oldest egyptian deities due to her lion-like characteristics
and her role in safeguarding the lake of fire her role in the judgment after death
when a person died the ancient egyptians believed that their soul would journey to the hall of two
truths where it would face judgment although cyrus presided over the proceedings along with 42 gods
who sat in judgment each reading off the soul's denial for each type of sin after the denials have
been read the dead person's heart would be set on a scale and weighed against a divine feather
usually depicted as an ostrich feather found on the headdress of ma'at the goddess of truth and
justice if the heart was lighter than the feather the soul was deemed fit to transcend to heaven
if the heart weighs more than the feather the person's soul is condemned
the heart and the soul attached to it is fed to amit who is sitting eagerly at the base of
the scales for any tasty morsel of fresh souls having your heart eaten by the devourer of souls
was referred to as the second death which meant that the person's soul would not be allowed to
continue their journey towards immortality in the afterlife and would roam and become restless
forever for those who see amit as the great protector of the lake of fire
unworthy souls were simply cast into the fiery lake to be consumed though she was called a demon
she is not evil the ancient egyptians must be thankful that osiris was not too harsh
and one of the prosecutors thoth was a pretty enlightened being else many souls would have
been cast into damnation without getting a chance to prove they were worthy of a blissful afterlife
some scholars however believe that a person doesn't have to be totally good to pass this
divine test the heart just has to be reasonably balanced that is having committed more good
than evil to be able to weigh less or just as much as the feather of ma'at there were also
a couple of spells and amulets the deceased could use to sway the judgment in their favor
one of the other ways of making it into the house of reeds the egyptian equivalent of
heaven was to have prior knowledge of the book of the dead the book of the dead was a
protective guide that provided the correct ways of addressing gods of the world and hence on how to
answer any questions or persuade the gods that they had committed no wrongdoing while alive
if they failed to answer these questions correctly or use the right responses
it meant that they had lived a sinful life and you know what that means for their souls
the texts from the book were also interred with the dead to ensure they evaded the punishment
and execution of amit while amit is sometimes classified as one of the ancient egyptian gods she
is more accurately assigned the role of a demon or a sinister goddess of the underworld which
when you think about it doesn't absolutely paint the full picture of her
she could be called the patron of death and execution
once she devoured the ba the physical manifestation of the soul that could wander
but also needed to climb the ladder to heaven and become immortal represented as a bird hawk with a
human head that symbolizes the dead ka the other part of the soul is the life force of the soul
when both are combined they produce the divine spark of life known as the octu the thought of
having one soul ba devoured by a monster depicted by three fierce animals leaving them a fragment of
a soul sent chills down the spine of many ancient egyptians how she was worshipped egyptian gods
like osiris maftet anubis and other more popular gods have cult-like followership for osiris his
followers prayed to him and made sacrifices of a variety of animals in his name these worships were
also done by dedicating their lives to learning about osiris in the hope of becoming immortal
while for a lesser god like moft sacrifices were made in temples with lotus flowers and incense
burners however unlike these other egyptian gods and deities ahmet was never worshiped
she wasn't strictly a goddess not entirely a demon but her image was thought to ward off evil
amit was the personification of all the ancient egyptians feared
and a constant reminder for them to live by the principles and laws of ma'at
although many referred to her as a demon she was actually a force of order maintaining the balance
of the underworld moreover since each person was at least given a chance to defend their
life before being co-signed to eternal damnation it's safe to say she is one fair god acting on the
order of a more superior being well we've come to the end of another interesting time on our channel
we do hope you enjoyed the video as much as we did bringing it to you do you see any truth in
all that has been said about amit what are your thoughts and opinions about her be sure to let
us know in the comments section below and hey don't forget to hit that like button as well as
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