443 TRANSITIONS OF THE EGYPTIAN CONCEPT OF MꜢꜤTY 444 HOOFDARTIKELEN tury onward. Breasted deduced that the dual ending of mꜢꜥt is merely emphatic usage of mꜢꜥt illustrating an example of ‘morning’ and ‘early morning’4). Bleeker studied the Dual TRANSITIONS OF THE EGYPTIAN 1 Maat in the iconography of the Book of the Dead. Since one CONCEPT OF MꜢꜤTY ) Maat was green and the other white, he concluded that the Dual Maat symbolized the concept of maat in this world and Tokihisa HIGO the netherworld5). Abstract The goddess Maat is a personification of the concept of maat, which is generally understood as the order of the universe, justice and truth, etc. While the goddess Maat is usually personified as one entity, she is occasionally depicted in the form of two goddesses and named Dual Maat (mꜢꜥty). The words wsḫt nt mꜢꜥty (the broad hall of Dual Maat) in Chapter 125 of Book of the Dead shows that she became prominent from the New Kingdom onward. Dual Maat reflects the Egyptian notion of dualism. Although the reduplication of the goddess Maat in the netherworld has been discussed by schol- ars, it is not clear yet what the reason for this reduplication is. The present article focuses on the attestation of mꜢꜥty in earlier texts: the Pyramid Texts, the Palermo Stone and the Coffin Texts. It will be seen that the word mꜢꜥty was predominantly used for the Fig. 1: Dual Maat depicted name of the bark or the two barks associated with the solar bark in the First Hour of the Amduat or the festival of Sokar, rather than with the dualistic divine name. The later, clear appearance of the reduplicated Maat may have Dual Maat has always attracted much attention6). Yoyotte, been the result of intricate syncretic ideas attested in the Coffin for instance, questioned the widely accepted idea to interpret Texts, identifying the bark(s) of Sokar with two Maat goddesses, the mꜢꜥty as a goddess in the two worlds. On the basis of the sun barks, the twin children of Atum and the Eyes of Horus. Ptolemaic mythology of Letopolis he concluded that Dual maat was to be identified with the sun and the moon, the sun god during day and night7). Seeber’s investigation of the Dual Maat (mꜢꜥty) judgement scene collected images of Dual Maat in various forms. They are not only the double goddess, but also a male The ancient Egyptian goddess Maat (mꜢꜥt) is a personifica- and female god, and the two goddesses, one wearing an tion of the concept of mꜢꜥt, which is generally understood as ostrich feather on her head, the other wearing double feathers the order of the universe, justice, truth, etc. As a goddess of resembling the imntt sign8). Seeber also concluded that maat justice or truth, she appears in numerous sources throughout functioning as a navigator in the solar cycle did not represent the history of Egypt. The Old Kingdom attestations of mꜢꜥt the ‘reduplication’ of maat but the ‘division (Aufteilung)’ with the goddess with an ostrich feather show that the con- into two parts (in this world and the netherworld)9). Gries- cept of maat had become personified already in the pyramid 2 hammer and Altenmüller mentioned mꜢꜥty in the Coffin age ). Texts in the light of dualism and syncretism. Altenmüller Apart from the goddess Maat, the word mꜢꜥt has its dual pointed at the syncretic relationships between mꜢꜥt or mꜢꜥty form mꜢꜥty, named “Dual Maat” in several textual and icon- and the other divinities10). Smith also looked at mꜢꜥty in the ographic sources. The first iconographical attestation of 3 Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, suggesting that mꜢꜥty in mꜢꜥty is in the First Hour of the Amduat (Fig. 1) ). In the these texts had a relationship with Re rather than Osiris11). procession scene of the solar bark, mꜢꜥty appears in the dou- While the reduplication of the goddess Maat has been men- ble form of the goddess Maat beside the bark. The goddesses tioned by scholars, it is not clear yet what the exact reason for are also depicted in Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, this reduplication is. Most studies on mꜢꜥty are based on the where they are involved in the judgement of the deceased. textual sources from the New Kingdom onward, even though The Amduat being the earliest iconographical source of Dual mꜢꜥty dates back to the Old Kingdom. In other words, the Maat, and the Book of the Dead being the first attestation of the wsḫt nt mꜢꜥty (the broad hall of Dual Maat), mꜢꜥty had clearly become prominent from the New Kingdom onward, 4 th ) Breasted 1912, p. 299, n. 2. attracting much scholarly attention from the early 20 cen- 5) Bleeker 1929, p. 61. 6) Yoyotte 1961; Hornung 1963a, pp. 9-10, Nr. 52, 53 and Plate of 1 Erste Stunde; Hornung 1963b, p. 17 and p. 23; Grieshammer 1970, ) I would like to thank Olaf E. Kaper for his helpful advice for the pp. 89-90; Altenmüller 1975, pp. 71-72; Seeber 1976, pp. 139-147; present work. I also thank Koen Donker van Heel and Juan José Archidona ­Corteggiani 2007, pp. 304-305; Smith 2017, p. 260. Ramírez for correcting my English. I am grateful to Nederlands Instituut 7) Yoyotte 1961, p. 61ff. voor het Nabije Oosten for giving me opportunities to work on the Coffin 8) Seeber 1976, p. 139-146, fig. 52, 54 and 55. Corteggiani provides Texts de Buck’s Archive and to reproduce part of the source for this work. another iconographic source of mꜢꜥty from a relief in Temple of Kom- This work is supported by JSPS Overseas Challenge Program for Young Ombo, where the pair of male-female god is inscribed with inscription Researchers (2018-2019), Takanashi Research Grant for Young Researcher (2019-2020) and NINO Incoming Mobility Grant (2019). (Corteggiani 2007, p. 305). 2) E.g. Tomb inscriptions of Ḥtp-ḥr-Ꜣḫty (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden 9) Seeber 1976, p. 141. F 1904/3.1-b: ḥm-nṯr mꜢꜥt) and Urk I 198: ir.n.(i) mꜢꜥt. 10) Altenmüller 1975, pp. 71-72. 3) Seeber 1976, p. 141. 11) Smith 2017, p. 260. 445 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXXVI N° 5-6, september-december 2019 446 concept of mꜢꜥty throughout the history of Egypt still requires in this context is quite obscure. Although it is possible to much further investigation. Interestingly, in a recent Middle understand tfnt as Tefnut, as Sethe and Mercer suggested18), Egyptian grammar, the author actually asked the reader: this does not explain tfn19). It is, however, clear that tfn and “What might mꜢꜥtj double justice mean?”12) The answer: “Perhaps absolute justice”13), just as Breasted had suggested tfnt are each other’s counterparts. in 317b could be ‘the 100 years ago. So the debate is still far from settled. air god Shu’ and verb ‘to be empty’. The word mtrw (wit- As part of this author’s research on mꜢꜥty in Egyptian ness) could be written both and , civilization this article re-examines the textual evidence of mꜢꜥti or mꜢꜥty in the Old Kingdom sources and the Coffin with being a preposition or a part of mtrw. So, one could Texts. read as Shu and as the m of predication: ‘Shu is wit- MꜢꜥti in the Pyramid Texts ness’. The alternative is to read as a verb and as part of mtrw: ‘the witness is lacking’. It is a complex issue. The earliest attestation of mꜢꜥty dates back to the Pyramid By contrast, the sentences with mꜢꜥti are explicit: mꜢꜥti has Texts of Unis14). By this time the dual form of mꜢꜥt was writ- heard (the case) and has ordained that the throne of Geb shall ten mꜢꜥti. The attestations in the Pyramid Texts are Pyr. be returned to Unis. As subjects of verbs (sḏm/wḏ ) mꜢꜥti 317a; 317b; 1315a and 1785b. appears to be the dual divinity responsible for the judgement. The first and second attestation from the beginning of 260 For this reason, both Altenmüller and Seeber recognized her/ illustrates the judgement scene involving the king and the them as the earliest attestation of Dual Maat20). But is this gods15). really an attestation of mꜢꜥti as Dual Maat or is it a simple nisbe adjective21)? [Case 1, 2] Pyr. 316a-317c Altenmüller also suggested that the pair of tfn and tfnt [316] could still be identified with Dual Maat due to the syncretic a ḏd-mdw i Gb kꜢ Nwt Ḥr pi W iwꜥw it.f relationship between Shu and Tefnut, and Dual Maat in the b W pi zbii iii fdnw n fdw ipw nṯrw Coffin Texts22). But as was seen above, tfn and tfnt (involved c inw mw d(i)(w)w ꜥbꜥbt irrw hy m ḫpš n itw.sn in a judgment procedure) and mꜢꜥti (acting as judge) have d i.mr.f mꜢꜥ ḫrw.f m irt.n.f different roles in this scene and thus they cannot be identified [317] with each other. While all this hangs in the balance, these two attestations a iw wḏꜥ n W tfn ḥnꜥ tfnt iw sḏm.n mꜢꜥti of mꜢꜥti, involved in the judgement of the deceased king, are b iw Šw m mtrw iw wḏ.n mꜢꜥti only occurrences from the Old Kingdom. c pẖr n.f nswt Gb ṯzii.f sw n mrt.n.f Recitation. O Geb, Bull of the Sky. Unis is Horus, heir of his [Case 3] Pyr. 1312c-1315d father. [1312] Unis is the one who has gone and returned; the fourth of these c pḥwi P pn m Ḥkt four gods who bring water, who have brought purification and 23 who make jubilation with the foreleg of their father.