Goddess Maat and the Law

Feather of truth
appear with
Goddess Maat
There is little living literature that reports the exercise of ancient Egyptian law. Maat was the spirit in which jurist  was  applied  rather  than  the  detailed  legalistic  exposition  of  rules  (as  found  in  Mosaic  law  of  the  1st millenary BCE). Maat was the norm and basic values that formed the background for the coating of justice that had to be implemented in the spirit of truth and loveliness. From the fifth dynasty (2510-2370 BCE) onwards the Vizier responsible for justice was addressed the Priest of Maat and in later periods tries wore images of Maat. Later  scholars  and  philosophers  also  would  be  concepts  from  the  wisdom  literature,  or  Sebayt. These weird texts dealt with standard social or professional positions and how each was best to be resolved or named in the spirit of Maat. It was very real advice, and extremely case-based, so that few specific and general feels could be derived from them.

Through the Greek period in Egypt history, Greek law existed alongside Egyptian law. The Egyptian law continued  the rights of women who were granted to act independently of men and own substantial individual property and in  time this influenced the more restrictive convening of the Greeks and Romans. When the Romans taken charge of Egypt, the Roman legal system which existed throughout the Roman Empire was indispensable in Egypt.

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