Many religions have a recurring belief that another life occurs after death. Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptians also share this belief, but the way they believe in an afterlife slightly differs from one another. Both religions include the concept of the souls of the deceased being judged before moving on to the afterlife. Although, the ways in which they are judged seem to be slightly different.
When Greek souls died, the journey they experienced was guidance to the entrance of the Underworld from Hermes, and passage across the River Styx from the ferryman, Charon. They would continue past Cerberus, the multi-headed dog who would ensure souls didn’t escape from the underworld, until they finally arrived at the place they would be judged.
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Here they would stand before forty-two gods who would hear them confess their sins, confer, and decide if the soul should move on to the second part of the judging process. This second part was where the heart of a person, which was thought to contain all the actions and deeds of a person’s life, was placed on a scale. It was counterweighed by the feather of Ma’at, who was the goddess of truth and justice. If the heart was heavier than the feather, it would be eaten by the goddess Ammut and the soul of that person would cease to exist. If the heart was equal weight to the feather, the soul would move on to the afterlife. It would arrive at the Field of Reeds, which was the Egyptian afterlife and was similar to Elysium as they were both thought of as the “good places” in the afterlife. After this, the ferryman, Hraf-hef, took the soul across Lily Lake. There is no Egyptian equivalent to Tartarus because the ancient Egyptians did not develop a concept of hell based on their belief that ceasing to exist was worse than any eternal suffering they may have experienced. There was also no place similar to the Fields of Asphodel because, in the Egyptian afterlife, you experienced two fates, either your soul ceased to exist, or you went to the paradise called the Field of