Medjed Explained

Medjed
Type:Egyptian

In Ancient Egyptian religion, Medjed (Egyptological:) is a minor deity mentioned in certain copies of the Book of the Dead. While not much is known about the deity, his ghost-like depiction in the Greenfield papyrus has earned him popularity in modern Japanese culture, and he has appeared as a character in video games and anime.

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.[1]

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"),[2] which means "The Smiter".[3] [4] 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.[5]

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).[6] These scrolls (of which the Greenfield papyrus is arguably the most well-known)[7] [8] [9] are as follows:

!Papyrus!Date!Location!Citation
Papyrus Bodmer 101Twenty-first DynastyBodmer Foundation[10] [11]
Papyrus Bodmer 102Twenty-first DynastyBodmer Foundation
Papyrus Turin 1818Twenty-first DynastyMuseo Egizio
Papyrus Bodmer 100Mid-Twenty-first DynastyBodmer Foundation
Papyrus London BMEA 9948Mid-Twenty-first DynastyBritish Museum
Papyrus Cairo S.R. VII 10222Mid- or late Twenty-first DynastyEgyptian Museum
Papyrus Cairo JE 95658Late Twenty-first DynastyEgyptian Museum
Papyrus Cairo JE 95637Late Twenty-first DynastyEgyptian Museum[12]
Papyrus GreenfieldLate Twenty-first Dynasty/
Early Twenty-second Dynasty		British Museum[13]

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.[14] 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,[15] [16] [17] 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".[18] 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.[19] [20]

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.[21] [22] [23] [24] He has since entered into Japanese popular culture and has appeared in video games (e.g., Fate/Grand Order)[25] and anime (e.g., Kamigami no Ki and Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God).[26] [27]

In the 2016 Japanese video game Persona 5, his name is used for a fictional antagonistic hacker group that describe themselves as the "true executors of justice".[28]

See also

References

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. [#Taylor|Taylor (2010)]
  2. [#Budge|Budge (1898)]
  3. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  4. [#Kytnarová|Kytnarová et al. (2018)]
  5. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  6. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  7. Web site: Taylor. John H.. What is a Book of the Dead?. British Museum. 22 September 2010. 17 April 2015. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150417192941/http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2010/09/22/what-is-a-book-of-the-dead/#comment-57. 17 April 2015.
  8. [#Salvador|Salvador (2017)]
  9. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  10. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  11. Web site: Sur la trace du dieu Medjed . . 4 April 2023 . fr . Brugière, Sébastien . 14 July 2021 . 4 April 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230404212010/https://fondationbodmer.ch/sur-la-trace-du-dieu-medjed/ . live .
  12. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  13. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  14. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  15. [#Budge1912|Budge (1912)]
  16. [#Milde|Milde (1991)]
  17. [#Tarasenko|Tarasenko (2012)]
  18. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  19. [#Bruyère|Bruyère (1939]
  20. [#DuQuesne|DuQuesne (2008)]
  21. [#Cariddi|Cariddi (2018)]
  22. News: 7 August 2015 . Meet Medjed, The Egyptian God Who's Big in Japan! . . live . 7 August 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201220014953/https://www.tor.com/2015/08/07/medjed-obscure-egyptian-god-is-popular-in-japanese-culture/ . 20 December 2020.
  23. News: Stimson . Eric . 31 July 2015 . The Obscure Egyptian God Medjed and His Bizarre Afterlife on the Japanese Internet . . live . 7 August 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201208113755/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-07-31/the-obscure-egyptian-god-medjed-and-his-bizarre-afterlife-on-the-japanese-internet/.91149 . 8 December 2020.
  24. [Medjed#Salvador|Salvador (2017)]
  25. [#Salvador|Salvador (2017)]
  26. Web site: Egyptian God Medjed Stars in New TV Anime Series Starting in November . 25 October 2010 . 13 May 2021 . . en . 13 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210513130717/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-10-25/egyptian-god-medjed-stars-in-new-tv-anime-series-starting-in-november/.108063 . live .
  27. Web site: Mateo . Alex . 20 November 2020 . Tōtotsu ni Egypt Kami Net Anime Reveals Extended Promo Video, December 7 Premiere . 23 January 2023 . . en . 24 November 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221124131728/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-11-20/tototsu-ni-egypt-kami-net-anime-reveals-extended-promo-video-december-7-premiere/.166558 . live .
  28. Web site: August 16, 2020 . August 21 Persona 5 Guide . October 28, 2023 . . en.

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