Weighing of souls
The weighing of souls (Ancient Greek: psychostasia)[1] is a religious motif in which a person's life is assessed by weighing their soul (or some other part of them) immediately before or after death in order to judge their fate.[2] This motif is most commonly seen in medieval Christianity.[3]
Ancient Egyptian religion[edit]
In Egypt, this concept of a judgement after death to determine the fate of the deceased is first seen in the Old Kingdom around 2400 B.C.E. It was first imagined as a weighing in the Coffin Texts during the Middle Kingdom (2160-1580 B.C.E.). The most well known form of the ceremony, where people's hearts are weighed on a scale against a feather, is found in the Book of the Dead during the New Kingdom (1580-1090 B.C.E).[2]
The Weighing of the Heart would take place in Duat (the Underworld), in which the dead were judged by Anubis, using a feather, representing Ma'at, the goddess of truth and justice responsible for maintaining order in the universe. The heart was the seat of the life-spirit (ka). Hearts heavier than the feather of Ma'at were rejected and eaten by Ammit, the Devourer of Souls.
Among the Greeks[edit]
Later, during the contest of Achilles and Hector in the Iliad,[4] Zeus, weary from the battle, hung up his golden scales and in them set twin Keres, "two fateful portions of death"; this, then, is known as the kerostasia.[5][3] Plutarch reports that Aeschylus wrote a play with the title Psychostasia, in which the combatants were Achilles and Memnon.[6] This tradition was maintained among the vase painters. An early representation is found on a black-figure lekythos in the British Museum;[7] she observes "The Keres or ψυχαί are represented as miniature men; it is the lives rather than the fates that are weighed. So the notion shifts." In a psychostasia on an Athenian red-figure vase of about 460 BCE at the Louvre, the fates of Achilles and Memnon are in the balance held by Hermes.[8] Among later Greek writers the psychostasia was the prerogative of Minos, judge of the newly deceased in Hades.
Christianity[edit]
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The first known depiction of literal weighing of souls in Christianity is from the 2nd century Testament of Abraham.[10]
Archangel Michael is the one who is most commonly shown weighing the souls of people on scales on Judgement Day.[9] This depiction began to show up in early Christianity, but is not mentioned in the Bible.[9]
Demons are often depicted trying to interfere with the balance of the scales.[11]
Other[edit]
In the literature of the Mandaeans, Abatur, an angelic being, has the responsibility of weighing the souls of the deceased to determine their worthiness, using a set of scales.[12]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^
- Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1922), p. 183f;
- Isaac Myer, Oldest Books in the World (New York, 1900), VIII: The Psychostasia or Judgment of the Soul of the Dead, pp 265-79. (Reprinted by Kessinger, 2005) ISBN 9781169220263.
- ^ a b Brandon 1969.
- ^ a b Brandon 1969, p. 99.
- ^ Iliad, XXII.208-213.
- ^ J.V. Morrison, "Kerostasia, the Dictates of Fate, and the Will of Zeus in the Iliad" Arethusa 30.2, Spring 1997, pp. 276-296.
- ^ Harrison 1922, p. 183; Harrison reports that according to the Onomasticon of Pollux (iv 130), Zeus and his attendants were suspended above the action in a crane.
- ^ BM B639, line drawing is Harrison's fig. 26, p.184
- ^ Musée du Louvre G399, Beazley Archive.
- ^ a b c Hopler, Whitney. "Archangel Michael Weighing Souls". Learn Religions. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
- ^ Brandon 1969, p. 104.
- ^ Brandon 1969, p. 110.
- ^ Matthew Bunson, Angels A to Z (New York:Crown), 1996.
Further reading[edit]
Media related to Weighing of souls at Wikimedia Commons- Brandon, S. G. F. (1969). "The weighing of the soul". In Kitagawa; Long (eds.). Myths and symbols: Studies in honor of Mircea Eliade. Chicago University Press. pp. 91–110 – via Internet Archive.
