Maât is, in the Egyptian Mythologie, the goddess of the order, the balance of the world, equity, peace and justice. It is the opposite of the isfet (chaos, injustice, social disorder,…).

Maât is an entity symbolizing the universal standard: the balance established by the Creator, the justice which makes it possible to act according to the right, the order which makes conform the acts of each one to the laws, the truth, uprightness and confidence.

Maât is always anthropomorphic, like the majority of the personified abstract concepts: it is a woman, in general sat close on her heels, or upright. She is most of the time vêtue long sticking dress of the goddesses and carries their usual jewels. Maât confers to the other gods certain its qualities, but its aspect does not lend to them and does not take either the appearance of other divinities. Its attribute is the feather-name (the same one is carried by Shou). It often holds the signs of life. The element of Maât is the Air and the color of its skin is ocher yellow.

Beyond this first approach, the concept is a little more complex. Maât is initially of divine size: girl of Re (solar god and creator) and partner of Thot (god scholar having taught the hiéroglyphes with the men), it is also the mystical sister of Pharaon, it ensures cosmic balance and it is thus thanks to it that the world functions in a harmonious way. It is also the light that Re brings to the world.

So it is basically related to the Pharaonic institution, the first duty of Pharaon being to make respect the law of Maât in all the Egypt. This is why, on the walls of the temples, Pharaon is represented making the offering of Maât to a divinity: it is to say that, in its acts, it conforms to the requirements of the goddess. Thus, when Séthi {{Ier}}, in the temple of Abydos, offers Maât to the principal gods, in the form of a statuette of the goddess, it shows her competence to them; in return, the gods get to him life and domination (Osiris) and forces victorious (Horus).

It is necessary to be conscious of what the major mission of Pharaon raises of Maât: “ in maât ” (to bring Maât, organize the country and to ensure its unit), “ DER isfet ” (to push back Isfet, in particular to push back the enemies); the famous pallet of Nârmer transcribes this double mission. One can also evoke the solar anthem of the Moyen Empire: D intallé the king on the ground of alive forever and with any eternity so that he judges the men and destroys Isfet.

Precisely, and it is its second dimension, terrestrial that one, Maât is also the social and legal expression of the established order and the symbol of justice and equity. In the facts, it is the role of the vizier, which carries the title of “Prophet of Maât”, that to return justice in the name of the goddess and thus of Pharaon which incarnates it: Practical justice and you will last on terre.
Alleviate that which cries; do not oppress the widow;
Do not drive out a man of the property of his father;
Do not carry not reached to large in their possession;
Take care not to punish wrongfully.

In the weighed heart, Maât, as light as a Feather, are the counterweight of the heart which must be as light as it so that Ka, the heart of late, can reach the world of the happy one. It is represented by a capped woman of the feather of ostrich or simply by this feather itself.

With one later time, " ma' at" also mean the truth or the knowledge right of oneself.