ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Am-heh

Am-heh, also known as the Egyptian deity "Ammit", is a character from ancient Egyptian mythology. Egyptians used to believe in many gods and goddesses, and Am-heh was one of them.

Am-heh had the body of a lion, but he looked a bit different than the other lions. He had a special head with a curved snout that made him look a little bit like a crocodile. So, you can imagine him as a lion-crocodile creature!

Now, in ancient Egypt, people believed that after they die, their soul would go to a place called the Underworld. The Underworld was like an afterlife, kind of like a special world where the dead go.

When someone died, their heart was believed to be very important. Egyptians thought that there was a special trial in the Underworld, and the heart would be weighed against a special feather of truth. If the heart was heavy with bad deeds, it meant the person did a lot of bad things when they were alive. To Egyptians, this was a big problem because it meant that the person couldn't go to a happy place in the Underworld.

So, here comes Am-heh! He had a very important role in this trial. Am-heh would be waiting for the heart to be weighed, and if the heart was heavy with bad deeds, Am-heh would eat it! This was a way to show the person had done bad things and couldn't go to a nice place in the Underworld.

But don't worry, this may sound scary, but it was just a story the ancient Egyptians believed in. They wanted to encourage people to be kind and do good things in their lives, so their hearts wouldn't be heavy with bad deeds.

In summary, Am-heh was a lion-crocodile character from Egyptian mythology, who would eat the hearts of people who did bad things so they couldn't go to a nice place in the Underworld. But remember, it's just a story!