Heart

 

To conclude my final day in Cagliari, I visited the Tutankhamun exhibition in La Tomba of the Bastione San Remy. 

In general, the exhibition offers a fascinating insight into how grandiose and meticulous the Egyptians were regarding the funerals of their kings. It is intriguing to reflect on their belief that death is merely another journey to eternal life, as if our journey on Earth were not already challenging enough.

However, amidst all this ancient sophistication, one particular detail caught my attention. During the judgement in the afterlife, the heart of the deceased was weighed on a scale against the feather of the goddess Maat, the symbol of truth and justice. If the heart was as light as the feather, the soul was permitted to access eternal life; if it weighed more, it was deemed to be burdened with guilt and lies. Faced with this outcome, the deceased would see the intervention of Ammit, the "Soul Eater", who devoured the heart and condemned the soul to eternal destruction. 

It seems the entire achievement of a human life is measured solely by the weight of the heart, not by long records of good deeds or the golden palaces they built, but by the absence of guilt and lies. Reflecting on this, I must admit that Donald Trump immediately came to my mind. Oh gosh.

Turning back to the concept of the heart, I am reminded of the mythology of Nias, which also focuses on the heart, though as a source of guidance for life. 

According to tradition, Hia, the first human on Nias, passed away but continued to accompany his children through his heart, which was carved out upon his death and preserved in a bottle. 

However, an event resembling the expulsion from Eden occurred amongst his descendants when his daughter-in-law threw the heart into a ditch. 

This act triggered a tempestuous storm and rain that flooded the earth, carrying the heart away to the sea and beyond. Consequently, the human conscience of Nias was lost, leaving humanity to fend for itself until foreigners from beyond the sea would bring it back. 

Indeed, when missionaries eventually arrived in Nias to preach the Gospel, it is said that one of the noblemen remarked that the white man had brought back the heart Nias people had lost.

While the Egyptian heart was weighed against guilt and lies as a means of examination, the Nias heart was a conscience tragically lost to human wickedness and a failure to face up to truth and justice. 

Although these two traditions have nothing to do with each other, as a Nias person confronting these ancient Egyptian beliefs, I cannot help but feel that both are deeply relevant to our contemporary times, in one way or another.