Ancient Egyptian "Weighing of the Heart" ceremony

FINISHED
10 Sessions
50+ hours
Artist: Sean Zee

My sleeve is an interpretation of the Ancient Egyptian "Weighing Of The Heart" ceremony. According to Egyptian history, after death, your heart would be removed and placed on a scale with a feather on the opposite side. If the feather weighed more than the heart, as in my sleeve, your soul would make it into the after life. So the upper portion shows Anubis preparing the King's body for his eternal afterlife.

I have always loved Egyptian art and history. I thought this story would make for some cool artwork. I told Sean my idea and let him run with the theme. While this may look gloomy, it's actually a positive representation of moving on to the afterlife.



Anubis, the God of the dead, preparing the King's body for the afterlife. Here, Anubis is removing the brains of the King which, oddly enough, the Egyptians considered the brain to be useless.



Opening in the chest cavity for removal of the heart.




Close up of Bastet, the cat Goddess



Close up of canopic jar. Four of these would be placed in the tomb with a mummy and held the organs of the dead (heart, lungs, liver and kidneys), which they believed they needed for the afterlife.



Close up of scale used to weigh the heart and the feather. Notice how the scales are made out of an Egyptian column and a winged scarab that is holding a sun disk. The scarab beetle would roll it's dung and, to the Egyptians, they represented the rising and setting of the sun.



Close up of scarab:



Close up of feather:



Close up of heart: