Medjed

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. 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"), which means "The Smiter". 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. 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). These scrolls (of which the Greenfield papyrus is arguably the most well-known) are as follows: 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. 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, 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". 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. == 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. He has since entered into Japanese popular culture and has appeared in video games (e.g., Fate/Grand Order, Persona 5) and anime (e.g., Kamigami no Ki and Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God). ==Gallery==

File:Medjed Cairo 95658.png|alt=A vignette from a larger papyrus scroll. On the far right is Medjed, who appears as an oculated dome-like figure, supported by two human-like feet. The entity wears a knotted belt around his waist.|A vignette from the Papyrus Cairo JE 95658 scroll. Medjed is shown on the far left. File:Medjed Bodmer 100.jpg|alt=A detail of Medjed, taken from a larger papyrus scroll. The entity appears as an oculated dome-like figure, supported by two human-like feet. The entity wears a knotted belt around his forehead.|A detail taken from the Papyrus Bodmer 100 scroll. Medjed is the figure at centre. File:A depiction of Medjed from Papyrus Bodmer 101. 21st Dynasty.jpg|A detail taken from the Papyrus Bodmer 101 scroll. Medjed is the figure at centre. File:Greenfield papyrus - sheet 12 - vignettes.png|alt=A vignette from a larger papyrus scroll. On the far left is Medjed, who appears as a dome-like figure with a pair of eyes, supported by two human-like feet.|A vignette from the Greenfield papyrus, sheet 12. Medjed is depicted on far-right, with feet facing both directions. File:Greenfield papyrus - sheet 76 - vignettes.png|alt=A vignette from a larger papyrus scroll. In the middle is Medjed, who appears as an oculated dome-like figure, supported by two human-like feet.|A vignette from the Greenfield papyrus, sheet 76. Medjed is depicted on centre-left, with both feet facing right. File:Medjed.svg|A depiction of Medjed based on the Greenfield papyrus ==See also==