Alan Gardiner suggests that the Djed pillar represents "a column imitating a bundle of stalks tied together," (Egyptian Grammar, p. 502) but also suggests that the hieroglyph shows "vertebrae conventionally depicted". It is used in the word pesed, meaning "back" or "spine". (Alan Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, p. 566, also Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, p. 95.)
According to E. A. Wallis Budge, the Djed is the oldest symbol of Osiris, and symbolizes his backbone and his body in general. He states that originally Osiris was probably represented by the Djed alone, and that he had no other form. He regards the Djed hieroglyph as a conventional representation of a part of his spinal column and gives its meaning as "to be stable, to be permanent, abiding, established firmly, enduring." (Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, vol. 2, p. 913)
Walter Otto describes a similar item connected with Dionysos and the wine-mixing festival that took part on Khoes during the Anthesteria. "The large mask of the God hung on a wooden column, and the wine was not just mixed and ladeled up in front of it, but it was also presented with the first draught. A long robe (or a double robe) extends down from beneath the bearded head, and this gives one the impression of a full-figured idol. Ivy sprigs are brushed up over the mask much like the crown of a tree; and ivy twines around the unobstructed parts of the wooden column or grows up from its base, at times even growing out, like tree branches, from the robe of the god himself." (Dionysos: Myth and Cult, pg. 86)
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