Ammit was the composite creature that devoured the hearts of the unworthy in the ancient Egyptian afterlife.
During the Judgment of the Dead, the deceased person's heart was weighed against the feather of Ma'at, the principle of truth and cosmic order. Anubis operated the scales, while Thoth recorded the result and Osiris presided over the judgment in later traditions. If the heart was found too heavy, Ammit consumed it, preventing the deceased from attaining a blessed afterlife.
Ammit combined the forequarters of a lion, the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, and the head of a crocodile—the three animals Egyptians regarded as especially dangerous. She was therefore not simply a monster attacking travelers in the underworld, but an agent of judgment. Her name means “Devourer of the Dead.” A common mix-up is to confuse her with Apep, the serpent embodying cosmic chaos, or with Khonsu, who appears as a heart-devouring figure in some earlier funerary texts.