Sheut

šwt

What it is

The shadow, understood as a real part of a person and as something with its own presence and protective force.

What it needs after death

To remain with the body. Shadow boxes were included among tomb equipment.

What “soul” loses

That it is a part at all. It is the least discussed and the least understood, and Egyptian texts treat it as substantial rather than as an effect of light.

The other parts

kꜣ

The vital essence, created at birth on Khnum's potter's wheel alongside the body, and the thing whos...

bꜣ

The mobile, individual part: personality and the capacity to act, shown as a human-headed bird.

Akh

ꜣḫ

What a person becomes if everything works: ba and ka successfully reunited after death, transfigured...

Ren

The name, treated as a real component of a person rather than a label attached to one.

The heart: the seat of thought, memory, will and character, and the organ that testifies at the judg...