Djed pillar
A pillar crowned with four crossbars that stood for stability and endurance, later read as the backbone of the god Osiris.
Meaning
Petrie gives its meaning as stability or duration. The 155th chapter of the Book of the Dead, to be said over a djed of gold set into sycamore wood, begins “Here is thy backbone thou still-heart!” It was set in place on the first day of the year, as was done for the followers of Osiris. On coffins, Budge notes, the right hand of the dead grasps the Tyet and the left the djed.
Origin and history
Budge called it a symbol of the highest religious importance to the Egyptians: the setting up of the djed at Busiris, standing for the body of Osiris made whole again, was one of the most solemn ceremonies in his worship.
What it first pictured
Scholars have read it differently. Petrie thought it probably showed the four columns that held up the heavens, later mistaken by the Egyptians for the backbone of Osiris. Budge thought it probably represented the tree trunk in which Isis hid her husband’s body, with its four crossbars for the four cardinal points.
See also
Eye of Horus, Scarab, Was sceptre, Shen ring, Cartouche, Tyet.
Sources
- Amulets, illustrated by the Egyptian collection in University College, London, W. M. Flinders Petrie, 1914, Constable and Company, London (Internet Archive), No. 35
- Egyptian Magic, E. A. Wallis Budge, 1901, Internet Archive (Getty Research Institute copy), Amulet 4
Last reviewed September 25, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research