Ancient Egyptian Games: Mehen
Faulkner’s Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian gives the translation of the word ‘Mehen’ as literally meaning “coil” and is used in reference to the goddess Mehen, or ‘Coiled One’, and also the board game called Mehen.
I am this one who escaped from the coiled serpent (Mehen),
I have ascended in a blast of fire, having turned myself about.
The two skies go to me, the two earths come to me,
I have trodden on the green k3d-plant, which is under Geb,
I have travelled the roads of Nut.
- Pyramid Texts Utterance 332.
The game Mehen was played very early in Egypt’s history. Several games have been found in first dynasty tombs. The board upon which the game Mehen is played is a coiled snake, its body cut into segments. The exact rules are unknown but it is thought that up to six players can play, each player competing with the other to be the first to move their piece from the tail of the snake, which is often shaped to resemble the head of some bird, to the head of the snake.
“Mehen is the only multi-player ancient Egyptian board game known, the others (Senet, Aseb, Hounds & Jackals, etc.) being all two-player games. The main function of the serpent-shaped Egyptian god Mehen was to protect the sun-god Ra from his enemies by coiling around him. In the Old Kingdom, the race-game Mehen took the name and shape of the god: a coiled serpent with the gaming spaces on its back. As “bodyguard”, Mehen symbolises the sun-god’s immediate neighbourhood for the deceased. The deceased walks towards Ra on the back of the serpent-god.
By the early Middle Kingdom, the ‘cuts’ used on the snake’s back of the Mehen board to separate the playing spaces were thought to ‘kill’ the snake —which would have been a very threatening and evil thing. Mehen’s role was essential, for if Ra were not protected from his enemies, he might not rise in the morning, which would result in the cessation of all life. In Egyptian belief, ‘life’ applied not only to the living but also to the dead, who were believed to travel with the sun and to rise, reborn, with him at dawn. From that time forth, the game apparently ceased to be played, possibly banned and forbidden.”
- Board Game Geek
Read more about Mehen at Wikipedia.
Visit Chocolatey.com for more images of Mehen boards.
The Cambridge University Press has a very good article on Mehen with pictures.
Another photo of a stone Mehen game board at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.
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Previous Ancient Egyptian Games articles:
Ancient Egyptian Games: Senet
Ancient Egyptian Games: Hounds & Jackals
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this is a good page about Mehan and i have gained some good knowledge of this game!