words meant “True of Voice,” and they appeared in the
renditions of the BOOK OF THE DEAD. In the JUDGMENT
HALLS OF OSIRIS, ruled over by the god, souls were
declared ma’at kheru,or could be deemed unworthy of
paradise but of enough virtue to join the ever-moving ret-
inue of Osiris. The souls of the damned as well as their
physical remains were devoured by the demon AMEMAIT,
obliterating them for all time, which was the ultimate
horror for Egyptians.
macehead An early Egyptian weapon, attached to a
shaft and highly decorated, maceheads serve as modern
historical texts, as the surviving examples commemorate
actual events that took place on the Nile. Certain exam-
ples of maceheads dating to NAGADAI (4000–3500 B.C.E.)
have been discovered. These were disc-shaped and proba-
bly ritual objects, used in cultic ceremonies and not as
weapons. Nagada II maceheads were pear-shaped and
often elaborately decorated.
By the later predynastic periods, maceheads with
PALETTESwere included in MORTUARY RITUALS. HIERAKON-
POLISis the defining site for the discovery of such objects.
The NARMERmacehead and palettes were found there, as
well as the SCORPIONmacehead.
Such objects provide data concerning historical
chronologies and events, as these mortuary decorations
were used to commemorate events by the inhabitants of
the Nile Valley.
Mafdet (Mefdet, Maftet) The feline goddess of
Egypt who appeared as a CATor as a lynx, she is men-
tioned in the PALERMO STONE, having aided the god RÉby
overthrowing his enemy, the evil serpent APOPHIS (1).
Mafdet was normally depicted as a woman wearing a cat
hide or a lynx skin. She was a patroness of the dead and
protected the living from snakebites. Devotion to feline
deities remained popular in Egypt throughout all histori-
cal periods.
Magas(fl. third century B.C.E.)Royal prince of the Ptole-
maic Dynasty
He was the son of PTOLEMY III EUERGETES I(r. 246–221
B.C.E.) and Queen BERENICE(3). Magas did not inherit
the throne, which went to PTOLEMY IV PHILOPATOR (r.
221–205 B.C.E.). The prince was reportedly brutally mur-
dered by Ptolemy IV as a result of being suspected of
treason. Their mother, Queen Berenice, and an uncle died
in the same royal purge.
magat A symbol of the spiritual ladder upon which the
god OSIRISascended into heaven in cultic traditions, the
magatwas used in MORTUARY RITUALSand was deemed a
powerful insignia for invoking the goddess NUT. She
sponsored Osiris’s ascent into heaven. The magatwas also
inscribed with images of the goddess Isis, denoting her
role in the resurrection and ascension of Osiris. The
deities of Egypt allowed a supernatural LADDER to
descend from the heavens to aid Osiris in his ascension.magic Called hekaby the Egyptians, the performance
of rituals in order to assume supernatural powers or to
attain a desired end, magic was also called sheta,which
meant “secret or unknown.” Shetau aktetwere unknown
properties, and the shetau neterwere the texts, rituals,
and spells that produced results.
The god RÉreportedly created heka,which allowed
humans to call upon the gods and to have some control
of their own destinies as mortals. Such magic was ele-
vated to a divine status when used by the deities and was
considered a simple form in the hands of human beings.
Magic was a traditional part of religious rites in Egypt,
viewed as the enabling force by which men and gods
alike succeeded in their endeavors. Magic was the bind-
ing force between the earth and other worlds, the link
between mortals and the divine.
Few Egyptians could have imagined life without
magic because it provided them with a role in godly
affairs and an opportunity to become one with the divine.
The gods used magic, and the ANKHwas the symbol of
power that was held in the deities’ hands in reliefs and
statues. Magic as a gift from the god Ré was to be used for
the benefit of all people. Its power allowed the rulers and
the priests to act as intermediaries between the world and
the supernatural realms.
Three basic elements were always involved in heka:
the spell, the ritual, and in a related fashion, the magi-
cian. Spells were traditional but could also evolve and
undergo changes during certain eras. They contained
words that were viewed as powerful weapons in the
hands of the learned of any age. Names were especially
potent as magical elements. The Egyptians believed that
all things came into existence by being named. The per-
son or object thus vanished when its name was no longer
evoked, hence the elaborate mortuary stelae, and the cus-
tom of later generations returning to the tombs of their
ancestors to recite aloud the names and deeds of each
person buried there.
Acts of destruction were related to magic, especially
in tombs. The damage inflicted on certain hieroglyphic
reliefs was designed to remove the magical ability of the
objects. Names were struck from inscriptions to prevent
their being remembered, thereby denying eternal exis-
tence. In the Old Kingdom tombs (2575–2134 B.C.E.) the
hieroglyphs for animals and humans not buried on the
site were frequently destroyed to keep them from resur-
recting magically and harming the deceased, especially by
devouring the food offerings made daily.
The Egyptians believed rituals to be part of all reli-
gious observances and set up an elaborate system ofmagic 223