ANTITHESIS BETWEEN LOVING GOOD AND HATING EVIL IN ANCIENT EGYPT

For the ancient Egyptians, mAat and nfrt denoted the concept of “good”. mAat, in particular, had meanings relating to socio-ethical ideals. It denoted all agreeable acts and attitudes the concept of “good” might imply. “Evil” was the antonym of mAat, but isft and Dwt broadly denoted this meaning. Isft, particularly, broadly signified socio-ethical aspects, and got strongly connected with disagreeable acts and the concept of error. The exact meanings that mAat and ist signify are tough. Hence, the “good” and “evil” adopted hereunder could signify most the complex meanings; especially those denoting ethical meaning of these two words (i.e., mAat and isft). The current research paper, thus, investigates the antithesis between love of good and hatred of evil. The objective is to uncover the rationale and functional relationship behind this antithetical relation. Next, the impact of this antithesis on the notion of intended meaning, and on giving some contextual meanings.