Ammit

For this week's episode - we're heading back over to Ancient Egypt to look at the fiercesome goddess of the Underworld and Devourer of Hearts, Ammit. What Egyptian creatures is this monster made up of? How is she linked to the underworld? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

This week we’re heading back over to Ancient Egypt because it’s been a while and it’s one that I love covering and we just don’t cover enough - reasoning there is that there are actually only a few monsters in this mythos, and I don’t want to use them all up too early! 

Just to let you know, my process is that I separate them all up into mythologies and geographies so I get a fair coverage of each one, working with as many monsters within them as I can find. Then I sort them out at the beginning of the year so that it’s spaced out - so I have already organised most of the year already.

That’s why you won’t see too many on Innuit mythology in the next few months, as there’s only a couple of monsters and I don’t want to just boot them off after a year of podcasting!

DESCRIPTION:

Anyway, on with the show! The monster we’re focusing on this week is Ammit - she is a legendary monster from Egyptian mythology that you might not be so familiar with and you certainly wouldn’t want to mess with. 

Ammit is one of the goddesses of judgement in the Underworld of Egyptian myth - and works mostly alongside the gods of the dead, Anubis and Osiris to make sure that only worthy souls end up in the lovely Underworld. If you don’t know much about that process, don’t worry! I didn’t either, so I’m going to summarise it later on in the episode. 

Ammit is described as a pretty horrific creature - she has the head of a crocodile, the body of a lion or sometimes a cheetah and the butt of a hippopotamus. These three animals represent the largest, and deadliest creatures known to the Ancient Egyptians - so she was pretty terrifying, and embodied everything that Egyptians feared. But hold up, she didn’t do anything to anyone without good reason.

She is considered a funerary deity, and is called the Devourer of the Dead or Eater of Hearts. Ammit would sit basically on a judge’s panel in the Underworld, which is known as Duat in Egyptian, escorted by Anubis to the Scales of Justice. When at the scales, the person’s heart would be placed upon one side, and a feather would be placed on the other. The feather came from the goddess Ma’at, who was the goddess of truth - and if your heart was heavier than the feather, it meant you had evil or dishonestly weighing you down. 

It's an ancient Egyptian tradition to make sure that every person had a fair chance to get into the Underworld, even if their heart was heavy with sin. So they would then go to Anubis and his panel of judges to reason with them and justify why their heart was heavy. If their excuse was not good enough - in comes Ammit, who is called the Eater of Hearts for good reason. 

Ammit would eat the heart used for judging, and the person was believed to then never be at rest, and was said to die a second time. In other stories, Ammit would chuck the heart into the river of fire that ran through the Underworld and it would be destroyed. Thus linking Ammit to the idea of literal hell and destruction throughout Egyptian culture. 

Now what would happen if you did have a solid good little heart? Well Ammit wouldn’t get fed - she was a fair judge and never did anything without good purpose. The soul would then pass onto Osiris, King of the Dead, who would grant them immortality and allow them into the Underworld. 

You’ll notice there that I called Osiris King of the Dead - shock horror - Erin, don’t you mean Anubis?! NOPE - no, I do not. You’re technically correct - he still is a god of the dead, but he doesn’t reign over it anymore, basically he has been at his post SO LONG that his role changed over time - and he’s not actually considered the god of the dead, but the god of embalming and mummification instead. Again, will get into that story later. 

ORIGIN:

Now onto etymology - Ammit comes from the word ‘m-mwt in ancient Egyptian, which means devourer of the dead which is very apt for her. I would love to tell you what the hieroglyphs are for this, but they’re not generic ones that I know - so I would just explain them incorrectly. 

Now to really understand this monster, you need to know about the way Egyptians dealt with death. So here’s a quick overview;

Once Egyptians had died back in the day, firstly they would be mummified and embalmed with a priest, usually in an Anubis or Jackal mask or headpiece. We all know mummification is gross, but they pull out every organ and burn it to ash, other than your heart - this is important. Then you, and your organs would be buried within a tomb, the grandiosity depending on their status in life, covered in ancient afterlife texts such as prints from the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Netherworld, the Book of the Sky or the Pyramid texts. They would be buried with their most precious belongings, including sometimes their pet cats, but the most important thing was food - for their long journey to the afterlife. 

Once they got to the afterlife, they would choose their vehicle to ride to the underworld with - this depended on their status and what they were like in life. Pharoahs were the only ones allowed to use boats, and you could always use your coffin as a last resort. However, if you were a criminal, you would often be denied this first part of the journey - leaving you lost in the netherworld forever. Ancient Egyptians feared being decapitated, which was a punishment reserved purely for treason - as it would render them useless in the afterlife. 

Once they got through the first part of the Underworld, they would arrive at the Hall of Ma’at, where the scales of Justice were kept. This is where the judgement took place and where Anubis and his panel would be waiting. They would first be required to recite every Judge by name as a first test - then their heart would be taken and put on the scales, opposite the feather of Ma’at. You know this bit, I told you earlier - but if you were bad then Ammit ate your heart, if not you could carry on. Anubis and his gang of gods would then present you to Osiris, the god of the dead - who would decide whether you would continue. 

Now I will explain about Osiris and Anubis. Everyone thinks that Anubis is god of the dead, and technically you would be right - however, Osiris is THE god of the dead following his death in Egyptian myth. He was the original king god before Set, his evil brother - decided to kill him and spread his body parts around Egypt. His wife Isis, found all his pieces and Anubis, being the god of the dead at the time - mummified him as the first ever mummy, and brought him back. The king was now undead and as a sign of respect - Anubis stepped down to allow the king of the gods to reign instead as King of the Dead. Isis and Osiris’ son Horus, with the hawk head, would go on to bring down Set and become the rightful king of the gods eventually. 

ANYWAY, what was the bonus of getting through to the afterlife? Well you would be reborn to a second life in the paradise of Sekhet-Aaru, or the Field of Reeds - where you could eat, drink and be merry with the same rights as the gods, and could even commune with your living relatives for all of eternity.

This was really, really important in Egyptian culture - and the idea of the afterlife was essential to being a part of it. They were terrified of the idea of having a disrespectful burial, and to not meet the mark when it came to honesty or basically being sin-free, they would get a bit nervous. So it was written into Egyptian culture to be honest and good - which would keep their hearts nice and light. 

There are no real animals to compare Ammit to though, although she is made up of three of the most man-eating monsters within Egyptian land, this says enough that they existed - and did we think a platypus or okapis would exist? Nope - but they do!

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now for this week and cultural significance, it’s a bit tricky because Ammit is a lesser known goddess but she is in the Book of the Dead and in pyramid art of the Underworld judging process if you look at this too! Otherwise, there’s really fantastic independent art on her, as she’s such a great mix of animals, she’s a real process to draw up.

For other more modern cultural bits, like movies, TV and video games, I’m just going to talk about some of my favourite Egyptian based movies - they might not specifically have Ammit in, but you can gather some more bits about the Egyptian pantheon and culture.

For movies, with Ammit in particular, there are actually two! You can see the Weighing of the Heart and the Pyramid with her. For other Egyptian myths, you have Prince of Egypt, Gods of Egypt from 2015, which is terrible, but why not, The Mummy from 1999 or even Death on the Nile - the new one that should have come out last week! 

For TV, you’ve got American Gods, Mummies Alive, Stargate, The Secrets of Isis and Tutenstein. 

Lastly, for video games, we have Age of Mythology, Ankh, Assassins Creed Origins, Entombed, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, Titan Quest, SMITE and Valley of the Kings.

For my book recommendation this week, I would suggest Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice by John Baines and Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Pitch is a great read.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? Now I’m going to say no - however, this comes with a thought. Generally I would say no to a creature that is very literally an amalgamation of 3 different animals. However, the Egyptian gods were also mixed up with their animal heads, so how far can I really judge them apart? Also, she was noted as a sentient being, who could talk - so how is she any different from the other Gods? 

To add to that - she’s a creature of the underworld, just like the gods in the sky, I can’t judge that any of them exist other than from a personal level where I can’t say I believe in deities - however, I do worship the Olympians myself, so I can’t really detach them from this either. 

So my only point here is that she lives in the Underworld, so who knows if that exists truly - or what version or religion has got this right, as no one can tell us after the point of death right? My only other one is that she’s a sentient being with a crocodile head, cheetah chest and hippo butt - like that’s ridiculous, but I get her point. 

I understand I have just talked in circles, but you know what I mean.

OUTRO: 

What a killer monster, who really isn’t that much of a monster. Although maybe by definition she is, considering she’s a mix up of all these deadly creatures from Africa - who defines monsters these days? I think she’s a great monster to cover as she sits within the gods and within the monster category, and isn’t worshipped - so she’s a really fun one!

Next week we’re heading back over to Greece because I love it - and we’re looking at the horrible Harpies, half birds, half ladies! Come squawking in next Thursday!

Also as a heads up, I’ll be taking a well deserved two week break from the podcast following the next episode, as it’s my birthday and also the year anniversary of the podcast the week I get back! So you’ll have me next week, but afterwards, I’ll be back on the 24th March with more monsters.

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast, ya know if you feel like it.

Come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.