2613-2181 BCE), the value she represented – as well as the magic which sustained that balance – seems evident in architecture and carvings of the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. Although the personification of Ma’at as a goddess does not appear until the Old Kingdom (c. Heka’s first “creation” was ma’at, and so the concept of balance and harmony as an essential aspect of life became the most deeply held conviction of Egyptian society from the Early Dynastic Period (c. Wilkinson writes:įor the Egyptians, heka or ‘magic’ was a divine force which existed in the universe like ‘power’ or ‘strength’ and which could be personified in the form of the god Heka…his name is thus explained as ‘the first work.’ (110) Ma’at allowed the universe and life on earth to function as it should – in balance – and heka was the power which sustained ma’at.

The force of magic ( heka) was with him, personified in the god of magic Heka, and it was this force which gave power to ma’at, the principle which was later personified as the goddess of the same name. According to one version of the story, the god Atum emerged from the swirling waters of chaos to stand on the first dry land, the primordial ben-ben, to begin the act of creation. Ma’at was established at the beginning of time by the gods when the earth and universe were formed. What made a judgment legal and binding was how closely a legal decision aligned with ma’at.Įgyptian law was based on the central cultural value of ma’at (harmony and balance) which was the foundation for the entire civilization. Photo by genibee, Flickr, Creative Commons Sarcophagus with Ma’at, the personification of truth, balance, and order.

The tale of the eloquent peasant