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140 Judgment of the Dead
soul is judged by Osiris (the judge of the underworld),
who weights on a balance the heart of the
dead person against a feather to determine
whether the dead deserves eternal beatitude. Souls
who do not measure up will be consumed by the
devourer of the dead.
In the ancient Vedic texts of India, a distinction
was made by the underworld judge, King Yama,
between liars and those who had been sincere. A
weighing of good and evil is also mentioned in
later Brahmanic texts. In Chinese Mahayana
Buddhism, the judge of the dead (Yen-lo Wang),
along with other divinities of Chinese origin,
determine the fate of the dead. In Japanese
Buddhism one also finds a judge of the dead,
known as Enma. In Chinese Taoism a judgment of
the dead occurs in which the soul is assigned to
one of many hells or paradises found on the
Chinese mythological landscape.
In the ancient Greek world Hades was an
underworld kingdom that hosted the shadows of
the dead while the Elysian Fields were accessible
only to the righteous. In the Homeric poems
Minos is mentioned as a regulator rather than
properly a judge of the dead. With the development
of Pythagorean doctrine, a true afterlife
judgment was conceived in Pythagoras’s notion of
reincarnation. Orphism introduced the afterlife
judgment of Rhadamantos, Triptolemos, and
Aiakos in its mythological system. Plato mentions
the judgment of the dead by these three figures at
the conclusion of Gorgias. In ancient Roman literature
one finds judges of the dead who originated
in Greece, Rhadamanthos, and Minos.
In early Judaism the deeds of the dead were
recorded and a judgment of the dead mentioned
to establish punishment for the sinners or reward
for the righteous (culminating in resurrection). In
Christianity the judgment of the soul is believed to
occur upon the death of the individual, who will
be assigned either eternal condemnation or
reward (hell or heaven) or, in some Christian
churches, purgatory. Some texts also mention a
final judgment day, held at the end of time by God
or by the Son, Jesus Christ, which will culminate in
the resurrection of the righteous and eternal
damnation for sinners. In Islam a notion of an
imminent judgment day draws primarily from
Jewish literature; in the Koran a description of a
trial of the soul refers to a scale weighing good and
evil deeds, and consequently to eternal reward
(paradise) or penalty (hell).
See also Judaism; Zoroastrianism
For Further Reading:
Eliade, Mircea, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion. New
York: Macmillan, 1987.
MacGregor, Geddes. Images of Afterlife: Beliefs from
Antiquity to Modern Times. New York: Paragon
House, 1992.
Van Der Leeuw, G. Religion in Essence and
Manifestation. Vol. 1. 1933. Gloucester, MA:
Peter Smith, 1967.