Medjed

In Ancient Egyptian religion, Medjed (Egyptological: ), also known as Medjedu (Egyptological: ) is a minor deity mentioned in certain copies of the Book of the Dead.

Very little is known about Medjed. His ghost-like depiction in the Greenfield Papyrus was spread across Japanese social media in 2012, making him popular in Japanese popular culture and leading to his appearance in video games, anime, manga, and various other forms of Japanese art.

In the Book of the Dead The Book of the Dead is made up of a number of individual Ancient Egyptian funerary texts with accompanying illustrations. They are in general written on papyrus and were used from the earliest period of the New Kingdom () until around 50 BCE. These texts consist of magic spells, some of which are to grant the dead person mystical knowledge in the afterlife, or to give them control over the world around them through their journey in the Duat, or underworld.Taylor (2010), p. 51–56

Of the Book of the Dead copies that have been found, a limited number reference an obscure entity in spell 17b named "Medjed" (also spelled "Metchet"),Budge (1898), pp. 55–56. which means "The Smiter".Cariddi (2018), p. 197.Kytnarová et al. (2018), pp. 15-19. In an English translation of the Papyrus of Ani, Raymond O. Faulkner renders the portion of the spell referring to Medjed as follows:

Apart from this short passage, nothing is known about Medjed. Hermann Grapow proposed that Medjed could refer to a star (given that Medjed is said to radiate light and to have a connection with the cyclical flooding of the Nile), but as Ilaria Cariddi notes, the name is never written with a star determinative.Cariddi (2018), p. 203.

Visual depictions

According to Ilaria Cariddi, visual representations of Medjed can be found on only nine papyrus scrolls, all of which date to around the time of Egypt's Twenty-first Dynasty (1077943 BCE).Cariddi (2018), pp. 197200. These scrolls (of which the Greenfield papyrus is arguably the most well-known)Salvador (2017), p. 11.Cariddi (2018), pp. 201202. are as follows:

+PapyrusDateLocationCitationPapyrus Bodmer 101Twenty-first DynastyBodmer FoundationCariddi (2018), p. 197.Papyrus Bodmer 102Twenty-first DynastyBodmer FoundationPapyrus Turin 1818Twenty-first DynastyMuseo EgizioPapyrus Bodmer 100Mid-Twenty-first DynastyBodmer FoundationPapyrus London BMEA 9948Mid-Twenty-first DynastyBritish MuseumPapyrus Cairo S.R. VII 10222Mid- or late Twenty-first DynastyEgyptian MuseumPapyrus Cairo JE 95658Late Twenty-first DynastyEgyptian MuseumPapyrus Cairo JE 95637Late Twenty-first DynastyEgyptian MuseumCariddi (2018), pp. 197, 200.Papyrus GreenfieldLate Twenty-first Dynasty/Early Twenty-second DynastyBritish MuseumCariddi (2018), p. 200.

In these scrolls, Medjed is depicted as a dome with eyes, supported by two human-like feet. A few scrolls also portray the deity with a red knotted belt above or below his eyes.Cariddi (2018), pp. 197, 201. The scholars E. A. Wallis Budge, H. Milde, and Mykola Tarasenko have argued that Medjed's dome-like torso is either a shroud or a "shapeless body" that symbolizes the deity's imperceptible nature,Budge (1912), p. 13.Milde (1991), p. 44.Tarasenko (2012), p. 385. and Cariddi has proposed that Medjed's prominent eyes and legs could signify that he can "see, move and act even though humans cannot perceive him".Cariddi (2018), p. 203. In contrast, Bernard Bruyère and Terence DuQuesne have contended that Medjed is actually a personification of an oil jar, and that his red "belt" is actually a stylized lid fastener.Bruyère (1939, pp. 182185, 190, 192.DuQuesne (2008), p. 19.

In popular culture After the Greenfield papyrus illustrations were exhibited in 2012 at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and the Fukuoka Museum of Art, Medjed became an internet meme on Japanese social media, thanks largely to his "cartoon ghost"-like appearance.Cariddi (2018), p. 204.Salvador (2017), p. 11. He has since entered into Japanese popular culture and has appeared in video games (e.g., Fate/Grand Order, Persona 5)Salvador (2017), pp. 17–18. and anime (e.g., Kamigami no Ki and Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God).

Gallery

Medjed

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