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Djed pillar
ḏdWhat it actually depicts
A column with four horizontal bars stacked at the top. Probably a bundle of reeds or stalks tied together, and in the Osirian reading, his backbone.
What it meant
Stability, endurance, the quality of a thing that lasts.
Where you see it
Painted on the floor of coffins under the spine. Built into architecture as a column. Raised upright in a ceremony at the Sed festival and at Abydos.
What gets said that is wrong
Read as a decorative column. It is a verb: to be stable. The rite of raising the djed, in which the king hauls the pillar upright with ropes, is Osiris being brought back from lying down, performed as physical work by the head of state.
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