14 July 2004

What is that?



So, I'm sitting in the law library at the courthouse typing away and I get up to take a break. I walk past a table filled with brochures all about the legal rights of Virginians. That's when I noticed the brochure with the illustration above on it.

I have no idea why Justice is sitting there next to an ostrich. If anyone out there has any info it would be appreciated.

[addendum]
Ask and ye shall receive. This morning when I checked the e-mail there was a message from Waddling Thunder telling me that he thinks the ostrich is a traditional symbol of justice being blind.

Having never heard that before I did a little research. It turns out that an ostrich feather is the symbol of the ancient Egyptian goddess Ma'at. She was the goddess of truth, justice, and all things of good order in the universe. According to ancient Egyptian theology when one dies the soul is placed on one scale and the ostrich feather is placed on the other in order to see if your soul is too heavy from the wrongs in your life. If it is your soul is demon fodder; if not you get a good afterlife.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, who knew? I looked at it and said, "Emu! Gotta be an emu!"

Ken Lammers said...

My first thought was, "Is that a turkey?"