ABSTRACT
In order to understand law in this society, it is important to realize that the ideology of the time was a religiously determined whole. A society shaped by religion, as Egypt was, saw every aspect of the world as being under the sway of divine power which established and maintained order. Hence, among the Egyptians there arose a religious concept central to the appreciation of the social order with its inherent rules. It was called maat – mythologically personified and anthropomorphically represented as a goddess of order, harmony, truth and justice. This goddess embraced not only the cosmic order, but also the entire realm of terrestrial life where human affairs take place. Thus Maat became the divinity to whom everyone was responsible for his deeds. The concept of maat manifestly touched upon morality and ethics; in fact, the entire order of society was bound up with this doctrine (Helck 1980b; Teeter 2001; Ockinga, this volume).
