Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 06:46:19 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Scientists Confirm Historic Massive Flood in Climate Change
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20060228/
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

THE DJED PILLAR

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: THE DJED PILLAR  (Read 328 times)
0 Members and 17 Guests are viewing this topic.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« on: January 20, 2009, 08:14:55 pm »



                                               








                                                                Djed Pillar






Many theories have been advanced in an endeavor to explain what the symbol known as the djed pillar represents.

It has been regarded as a combination of the four pillars that the Egyptians believed supported the four corners of the earth, as a tree with lopped branches, and as a human spinal column.

The view most generally held at present is that it depicts a bundle of stalks tied together.

Its origin, however, was forgotten by later Egyptians and it was though to be the backbone of the god Osiris. This was the interpretation that seems to have been universally accepted in the time of Tutan-
khamun.

In remote antiquity the djed pillar was a fetish with a cult of its own. Priests of the cult still functioned in the Old Kingdom, or at least bore the appropriate titles. The center of the cult may at first have been situated at Busiris or at Mendes, in the Nile Delta, but by the Old Kingdom it had a sanctuary at Memphis where its independent existence was soon lost and it was absorbed by the powerful cult of the local god, Ptah, an event commemorated by the inclusion of the djed pillar among the emblems mounted at the head of that god's scepter.

A more important legacy of the ancient cult was a ceremony, known as Raising the Djed Pillar, which took place at Memphis on the eve of the coronation of Egyptian kings and at their jubilee festivals. In that ceremony the king, aided by a number of priests, raised a djed pillar from the ground with ropes and placed it in an erect position.

The significance of the ceremony is partly explained by the meaning of the  word djed, "stability" or "duration," the concept being that the king and his kingdom gained stability and duration from the performance of the ceremony. But it also symbolized the revival of the kingship after it had "died" with the demise of its previous holder.

Revival after death and the whole conception of resurrection were closely bound up with the cult of Osiris and it is not surprising that the emblem which represented that conception should have been adopted, not later than the beginning of the New Kingdom, by the adherents of the Osirian cult.

The djed pillar soon became one of the most common amulets to be placed on mummies.

A spell in the Book of the Dead (Chapter 155) was devoted to it and the words of the spell were engraved on one of two djed amulets found on the mummy of Tutankhamun. It reads

"Thou hast thy backbone, O weary one of heart;
thou shalt place thyself upon thy side so that I may give thee water beneath thee[?].
I have brought thee a djed pillar of gold;
mayest thou be pleased with it."

According to the instruction that is appended to the spell in the Book of the Dead, the djed pillar should be made of gold and be placed on the neck of the deceased on the day of his funeral.

Both of Tutankhamun's djed amulets, suspended on gold wire necklaces, lay over his throat. The inscribed amulet, which is illustrated here, is completely overlaid with gold, so that the material used for its core cannot be seen. In addition to the spell, it is inscribed on the front with his throne name written, as usual within a cartouche.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2009, 09:08:43 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2009, 09:13:00 pm »








                                                                Djed






From
Wikipedia.org

 
The Djed pillar represents the concept of 'stability' and is the symbolic backbone of the god Osiris.

The Djed symbol is a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability. It has been interpreted as the backbone of the Egyptian god Osiris, especially in the form Banebdjedet (the ba of the lord of the Djedet).

Djedu is the Egyptian name for Busiris, a centre of the cult of Osiris.

During the Renewal Festival, the djed would be ceremonially raised as a phallic symbol symbolising the "potency and duration of the pharaoh's rule".

It has been compared to the Sumerian concept of temen.

The hieroglyph for "djed" may have given rise to the letter Samekh.

 
 




Gordon-Schwabe theory



In their 2004 book The Quick and the Dead, Andrew H. Gordon and Calvin W. Schwabe speculated that the Ankh, Djed and Was symbols have a biological basis derived from ancient cattle culture, thus:


the Ankh - symbol of life - thoracic vertebrae of a bull (seen in cross section)

the Djed - symbol of stability - base or sacrum of a bull's spine

the Was - symbol of power and dominion - a staff made from a dried bull's **** 
              that was the symbol for the goddess Wosret or Wasretɛïɜ

              The Was has a forked top and a tripod base.

              One suggestion is that the staff was pushed into the ground and a line
              of sight set through the fork, hence the ruler of all he surveyed.




Gordon and Schwabe's speculation is based on the Egyptian belief that semen (or more generally spoken - the source of life) was formed from spinal fluid. Applying the above correspondences, according to Gordon and Schwabe, the essence of life starts here in the Ankh - it flows down through the vertebral canal, past the strong base of the spine (the Djed), and out through the ****,

the Was
- symbol of power.







^ Quoted from:



Applegate, Melissa Littlefield.

The Egyptian Book of Life:
Symbolism of Ancient Egyptian Temple and Tomb

Art. HCI, 2001. Page 173.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2009, 09:25:27 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy