What is the name of the creature that devours hearts in the underworld? Ammit is the answer.
In ancient Egyptian funerary belief, Ammit waited beside the scales during the Judgment of the Dead. Anubis weighed a deceased person’s heart against the feather of Ma’at, the principle of truth and cosmic order. If the heart was heavier, Ammit consumed it, preventing the person from reaching the blessed afterlife.
Ammit’s name means “Devourer of the Dead.” She was imagined with the forequarters of a lion, the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, and the head of a crocodile—the three animals ancient Egyptians considered especially dangerous. Despite often being called a goddess, she was more commonly treated as a fearsome guardian demon and was not worshipped in a conventional cult.
A common mix-up is confusing Ammit with Anubis or Osiris. Anubis conducted the weighing, while Osiris presided over the judgment; Ammit carried out the terrifying consequence for an impure heart.