MAAT IS THE GODDESS OF TRUTH, AND A DAUGHTER OF THE CREATOR SUN-GOD. SHE IS KNOWN AS A BEAUTIFUL WOMEN WEARING ON HER HEAD
THE OSTRICH FEATHER THAT IS THE HIEROGLYPH OF HER NAME.
Maat is extremely important because she personifies the ordered structure of the universe and opposes the forces of chaos.
Consequently the pharaohs of Egypt are shown in every major temple holding up an effigy of Maat to indicate that their rule
is based upon the principles that she stands for. In the afterlife, the dead have their hearts weighed against Maat in her
role as goddess of truth to see if they have lived lives sufficiently blameless to enter the realm of OSIRIS. Sometimes Egyptian
judges wore pendants of Maat in the law courts to show that their decisions were honest and unbiased.
MONTU
MONTU IS A WARRIOR GOD. HE HELD A PROMINENT POSITION INTHE REGION OF THEBES BUT HE BECAME LESS IMPORTANT WHEN THE GOD AMUN
CAME ON THE SCENE.
Still, his four major sanctuaries flourished for 2000 years. Montu is shown as a hawk-headed god wearing a crown of plumes
and a solar disc encircled by two images of the cobra-goddess WADJYT.
On military campaigns pharaohs such as Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC) were described as being like Montu in his glittering war
chariot. Montu's cult involved the worship of a sacred bull called Buchis. The necropolis for these bulls has been discovered
in the desert near Montu's principal temple at Armant, just south of Luxor.
