In
Ancient Egyptian religion, Medjed is a minor and obscure god mentioned in the ''
Book of the Dead''. His ghost-like portrayal in illustrations on the
Greenfield papyrus earned him popularity in modern Japanese culture, including as a character in
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s and
anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
.
Archaeological evidence
The ''Book of the Dead'' refers to a group of
Ancient Egyptian funerary texts generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the
New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE. These texts consist of a number of magic spells, written by priests, intended to assist a dead person's journey through the ''
Duat
The Duat ( egy, dwꜣt, Egyptological pronunciation "do-aht", cop, ⲧⲏ, also appearing as ''Tuat'', ''Tuaut'' or ''Akert'', ''Amenthes'', ''Amenti'', or ''Neter-khertet'') is the realm of the dead in ancient Egyptian mythology. It has been ...
'', or underworld, and into the afterlife. Spell 17 mentions, amongst many other obscure gods, one Medjed (meaning "The Smiter"), in the following line:
E. A. Wallis Budge interpreted the corresponding passage in the New Kingdom Papyri, known as the "Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead" as follows:
In the illustration to the spell on sheet 76 of the
Greenfield papyrus, a figure thought to be Medjed
is depicted as a dome with a pair of eyes and eyebrows, supported by two human-like feet.
File:Greenfield papyrus - sheet 12 - vignettes.png, Greenfield papyrus, sheet 12. Medjed is depicted on far-right, with feet facing both directions.
File:Greenfield papyrus - sheet 76 - vignettes.png, Greenfield papyrus, sheet 76. Medjed is depicted on centre-left, with both feet facing the right.
According to John Taylor of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, nothing else is known about Medjed.
In popular culture
After the Greenfield papyrus illustrations were exhibited in 2012 at the
Mori Art Museum
The is a contemporary art museum founded by the real estate developer Minoru Mori (1934–2012) in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in the Roppongi Hills complex both of which he built in Tokyo, Japan.
The exterior architect of the museum's ga ...
in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
and the
Fukuoka Museum of Art, Medjed became a sensation on Japanese
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
due to the resemblance to a stereotypical
ghost costume
Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people.
The term also was tradition ...
. The god was embraced by
Japanese popular culture
Japanese popular culture includes Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, anime, manga, video games, music, and doujinshi, all of which retain older artistic and literary traditions; many of their themes and styles of presentation can be ...
. He became an
internet meme, as well as a character in video games
and in anime (e.g. as the protagonist of ''Kamigami no Ki'', 2016).
See also
*
Ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture
The ancient Egyptians believed that a soul ( kꜣ and bꜣ; Egypt. pron. ka/ba) was made up of many parts. In addition to these components of the soul, there was the human body (called the ''ḥꜥ'', occasionally a plural '' ḥꜥw'', meani ...
*
Medjed (fish)
Medjed was a kind of elephantfish worshipped at Oxyrhynchus (Ὀξύρρυγχος) in ancient Egyptian religion. These fish were believed to have eaten the penis of the god Osiris after his brother Set had dismembered and scattered the god's bo ...
, believed to have eaten the
penis
A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males d ...
of the god
Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...
after his brother
Set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
dismembered and scattered the god's body
References
Notes
Citations
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Internet memes
Book of the Dead
Egyptian gods