Judgement (afterlife)

A central theme of many religions is what happens to people upon death. Almost all religions are greatly devoted to the afterlife, emphasizing that what you do in your current life effects what happens to you in the afterlife. This usually takes the form of judgement by a deity, in which ones deeds and characteristics in life determine either punishment or reward (when one has been mostly good).

In Ancient Egypt, it was believed that upon death, ones fate in the afterlife was determined by the weighing of one’s heart. One’s heart was kept within the body during mummification so that it can travel with the deceased into the afterlife. Upon death, one entered the underworld (Duat), where Osiris, the God of the afterlife, weighed the persons heart on a scale against the feather of Ma’at, the goddess of order, truth, and righteousness. If the heart weighed more than the feather, meaning that the person was more wicked than good, then the heart would be devoured by Ammit, a demon with the head of a crocodile, the front half of the body of a leopards, and the back half of a hippopotamus, but with goat arms. If a person's heart was devoured by Ammit, then he would die a second death and be completely annihilated from existence.

Ancient Greeks believed that upon death, an individual would enter the realm of Hades, the Greek underworld, and be judged by King Minos, Aeacus, and Radamanthus. Depending on one's actions in life, an individual would be sent to one of three different planes: Elysium, the Asphodel Fields, or Tartarus. Elysium is for those who were righteous in life and is reserved for good people and legendary heroes. In Elysium people relax and enjoy a life of everlasting joy in a beautiful and comfortable field with trees and sun. The Asphodel Fields is the land of neutrality, where those who were either neutral, or whose good and bad deeds are about equal reside. It is a bland place symbolizing their lack of notability in life. The final realm, Tartarus, is the realm of the wicked. It is the deepest realm of Hades, and those who have performed wicked deeds are punished here for eternity. Punishment here reflects the wicked deeds committed in one's life (e.g., Tantalus killed and fed his son to the Gods, so he was punished by being made to stand in a pool surrounded by trees with fruit, but can partake of neither water nor fruit.). Mortals shared this realm with non-mortals.

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