![]() ![]() Close-up of Sheet 76 of the Greenfield Papyrus (from Fig. Just in case, he is the one on the right. Close-up of Sheet 12 of the Greenfield Papyrus (from Fig. Due to his odd appearance, Medjed is just impossible to miss and/or to ignore, even to the most casual of observers. 4 and 5), but sometimes is described as a mound with eyes and feet (British Museum, 2017). So let us take a closer look at him: he is a shrouded form, like a cartoon ghost (Figs. Medjed is featured on the papyrus sheets from Figures 2 and 3. Picture is a courtesy of the British Museum ( ©Trustees of the British Museum). (In case you are wondering what a “Book of the Dead” is, I will come back to that in a moment.) Figure 2. The vignettes mentioned in the description above appear on top of each sheet in a manner resembling - and I hope Egyptologists will forgive me for this comment - a comic strip (Figs. The Greenfield Papyrus dates from the historical period known as New Kingdom, possibly from the end of the 21 st Dynasty or the beginning of the 22 nd, around 950–930 BCE (British Museum, 2017). Many of the spells included on her papyrus are illustrated with small vignettes, and besides these there are several large illustrations depicting important scenes.” As a member of the ruling elite at Thebes, she was provided with funerary equipment of very high quality. It was made for a woman named Nestanebisheru, the daughter of the high priest of Amun Pinedjem II. Originally, over thirty-seven metres in length, it is now cut into ninety-six separate sheets mounted between glass. “The ‘Greenfield Papyrus’ is one of the longest and most beautifully illustrated manuscripts of the ‘Book of the Dead’ to have survived. The curator’s comments on the online collection of the British Museum summarizes it nicely: Greenfield, who donated it to the British Museum in 1910. In this case, this particular papyrus belonged to Mrs. If the name of the papyrus seems a little awkward, that is because it is common for ancient Egyptian artifacts (especially papyri) to be named after the collector who owned it during the heyday of Egyptomania. The main source of knowledge on Medjed is the so-called “Greenfield Papyrus” (Fig. Support’s on the way! (Image taken from Megami Tensei Wiki: ). But before getting into that, let us learn a little bit about this god. And so I decided to investigate the matter of Medjed’s popularity in Japan. He certainly fits the bill for the whole hacker thing, but so would many other deities and mythological monsters, from Egypt or elsewhere. In any event, I was baffled as to why the game’s writers had chosen Medjed. I remembered his name because of his very unusual appearance (as we will see below) and also, pretty much accidentally, knew something about the very scarce mythology behind him - he is mentioned only a couple of times in all inscriptions we currently have from Ancient Egypt. I am talking extraordinarily minor here, maybe barely qualifying to the rank of deity: he is absent from nearly every textbook and encyclopedia of Egyptology. Honestly, I was really surprised to see Medjed referred to in the game, because he is a very minor god. (…) If you reject our offer, the hammer of justice will find you. We do not need the spread of such falsehood. The hackers’ ultimatum also masterfully included the mythology of Medjed, as we will see below. Their message is very nicely worded, naturally similar to those of real hacker groups, but also (albeit probably unintentionally) curiously reminiscent of the way ancient Egyptian religious texts were written (see, for instance, the spells in the Book of the Dead Faulkner, 2010). 1) that later became the name of the whole group.Īt a certain point in the game, the player receives an ultimatum from Medjed. Better put, it was the pseudonym of one lovely little hacker (Fig. In Persona 5, Medjed is the name of a group of hackers. ![]() Persona 5, unfortunately, did not add any new deities to the series roster, but it brought a worthwhile mention to one very peculiar god: Medjed. ![]() ![]() These included the “top brass” of the Egyptian pantheon, like Isis and Horus, alongside several others. In my former article, I discussed all the Ancient Egyptian deities and monsters who appeared in Persona games. Thus, it was only natural that I would come back to the topic after the release of Persona 5 (Atlus, 2017) earlier this year. Not so long ago I have devoted a good deal of time and effort analyzing Egyptian mythology in the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona video game series (Salvador, 2015). Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.Įmail: (at) gmail (dot) com Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart. ![]()
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