Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Peter A. Piccione*
The Mysteriesof Mehen nature of any initiation ritual and the extent to
which it affected the personal identification of
In Egyptian literature, the "mysteriesof Me- the initiate.
hen" are referredto only once by name, i.e., in It is in these contexts that we see Mehen fully
the CoffinTexts, and there with only very little and obviously associated with mysterious be-
identifying context. However, this referenceis havior and secret knowledge, albeit only as a
importantbecauseit is the firstvisible indication small element in a larger mystery.However, the
of a relationship between the god Mehen and fact that more formalized mysteries specifically
recondite knowledge in Egyptian theological
centering around this peculiar deity did exist is
thought. indicated in Coffin Text Spells 493 and 495,2
The primary function of the god Mehen in where the deceasedsays:
religious belief is depicted in the New Kingdom
netherworldliterature.Accordingto the Book of iw bj.i n dt.f iw swy.t.i n c.s ink pw mk n
Amduat, the Book of Gates, and the Book of hbn.tyw m-ht stlw Mhn
Night, Mehen ostensibly is an immense coiled
serpentwho standson the night-barkof Ra, and My soul belongs to its body; my shadow
he guides the passage of the sun-god in his belongs to its condition.
netherworldjourney. Primarily, though, he en- I am the guard of the criminals after (the
compasses Ra in his many coils, and protects mannerof) the mysteriesof Mehen.3
him from all outside evil.1
Becauseof the esoteric nature of these mortu- The stSwmhn, "mysteriesof Mehen,"are identi-
ary texts and the fact that the representationsof fied with very little context or explanation; yet
these books had a self-acknowledgedmysterious by their mention here, they appear to be a
character,we understand that Mehen's specific formalizedset of rituals and beliefs relatedto the
role, as exemplified within them, shared this serpent-deity.This conclusion is basedupon the
character and was also kept as a secret. Few general nature of stBzv, "mysteries," not as
Egyptologists would disagreethat knowledge of dogma or creedbut rather,similarly to Bleeker,
these texts and their representationswas im-
parted to the Egyptian cognoscenti through 2 A. de Buck, CT 6, 77d, i.
some elaborate and dramatic rite of initiation, 3 CT Spell 495. Similarly, P. Barguet, Les textes des
although many would differ about the exact sarcophages egyptiens du Moyen Empire (LitterairesAn-
ciennes du Proche Orient; Paris, 1986), 243-44. However,
cf. R. O. Faulkner,Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts (herein-
* A preliminaryversionof this paperwas presentedat the after ECT) 2 (Warminster,1977), 135: "My soul belongs to
annual conference of the American Research Center in my body, my shade is at my side. I am the guard of the
Egypt, April 1989,in Philadelphia.Abbreviationsof biblio- prisonersafterthe secretaffairsof the Coiled One;"and CT
graphical citations are those cited by the Lexikon der Spell 493, ibid., 134, "[My]soul, my body and my shade are
Agyptologie,vol. 7. at its side, for I am indeed the guard of the prisonersafter
1 E. Hornung,Amduat2 (AA7), 130-31. the secretmattersof the Coiled One."
43
44 JARCE XXVII (1990)
as a system of secret and dramatic rituals to that turn away" (sbBwstnmw).10The sun god,
reveal hidden aspects of the gods.4 In general Ra,11 sits at the center of these roads on his
though, as Ritner has suggested in the context throne of ''millions of years,"and he guards the
of this spell, Mehen does not protectthe sun god gates of the roads.12On his head he is depicted
only by surrounding and enclosing him in his wearing a crown reminiscentof an Stf,although
coils in order to shield him from outside evil, its constituentpartsare formedby the heads and
but also by encircling and containing the ene- bodies of serpents. The brim of the crown is
mies of Ra- to hold them prisonerin his coils- formedby a serpentwith a head at both ends of
and thus encumberingtheirinimicalities.5There- its body, probably to be understoodas Mehen.13
fore, the passages in CT Spells 493 and 495 According to the spells, just as the fiery roads
would mean that in assuming a role of guardian protect the adjacent sides of Mehen's bark, so
over criminals, i.e., the enemies of Ra, the the starboardside of the bark also protects the
deceased has taken on a function of the god roadways.The deceasedis identifiedas Wrdprw
Mehen, as revealedin the dramaticpresentation m ir.t, "the Wearyone who came forth from the
of his mysteries. eye," and he is also described as one who has
Other secret knowledge related to Mehen, created the protective fire around Mehen. The
which may be part of the more formalized text of CT Spell 758 is inscribed within a wide
mysteries, is found in the series of Coffin Text oval that entirelyencircles the roads,which Zan-
Spells 758-760.6Presently,the only known copy dee has conjecturedis specifically a representa-
of these is inscribed on the headboard of the tion of Mehenhimself,14although certainlythere
outer coffin of the imy-r msc Spi (Sepi III) from are no other featureswhich would support such
his MiddleKingdomtombat el-Bersha,now loca- an identification. It is clear though that the
ted in the Cairo Museum, CG no. 28083.7 How- object of the deceasedhere is to approach Ra at
ever, since a portion of Spells 758-759 did the center and not to be kept off by the dangers
descend into the New Kingdom Book of the of the roads.
Dead, Chapter 131, then we would assume that Spell 759 revealsthe name of these fieryroads,
these spells enjoyed a somewhat wider distribu- and they are specifically the wSw.t mhn, the
tion than that which their one extant example "Roadsof Mehen":15
would otherwisesuggest.8
These spells depict a realm of the afterlife in iw.i rh.kwi hftyw.f imyw sbhw.t is
which the bark of Mehen encirclesnine concen- iw rh.n.i wSw.t[Mhri\
tric roads, four of which are specificallyroads of
I am acquainted with his enemies which are
fire, which it circumnavigates for millions of in the gates.
years. In the vignette of the spell, the four roads I know the Roads of [Mehen].16
of fire are depicted in red paint, and they alter-
nate with five black roads (fig. I).9 According to
the texts, upon these roads of Mehen are "gates (Leiden,1960), 164, recognizedonly the four fieryroads in
the scene.
10Stnm, "lead astray," WB 4, 343, although in this
4 Cf., C. J. Bleeker, "Initiation in Ancient Egypt," in context as "turn away," similarly "detourner,"P. Vernus,
Initiation: Contributionsto the Theme of the Study Confer- Athribis,BdE74, 174.
ence of the International Association for the History of 11So also Zandee,Death as an Enemy, 164, n. 10, mis-
Religions Held at Strasburg,September17th to the 22nd takenly called "un osiris" by Lacau, CG 28001-28086, 175,
1964, edited by C. J. Bleeker (Studies in the History of while H. Ranke, Das altdgyptischeSchlangenspiel,SHAW
Religion #10;Leiden:Brill, 1965),55-57. 4, 19, inaccuratelyidentified him as an anthropomorphic
5 R. Ritner,JNES 43 (1984):219f. formof Mehenhimself.
6 de Buck, CT 6, 386-90; P. Lacau, CG 28001-28086, 12Cf. Ranke, op. cit., 16-18, for his description of these
170-99, pis. 24-25; vide Barguet,Les textesdes sarcophages, spells.
594-96; Faulkner,ECT 2, 290-93. 13So BD 172,see below for discussion.
7 CF 28083,Lacau,op. cit.; cf. PM 4, 183-84. 14Death as an Enemy, 164-65.
8 BD 131, Tb (Allen), 107. 15de Buck, CT 6, 389c-d.
9 The vignette is renderedonly with the five black roads 16Accordingto de Buck,CT 6, 389, no. 1*, "the tracessuit
in de Buck, CT 6, 386, while J. Zandee,Death as an Enemy so also Barguet,Les textes des sarcophages,595,
MEHEN, MYSTERIES,AND RESURRECTION FROM THE COILED SERPENT 45
Make way for me, open the gates for me, (oh)
you (pl.) who are in Mehen,
for I know the circuit of Ra and those which
are in him (i.e., the gates).19
clockwise direction, with its tail on the outside it is clear that it was in popular use from the
and head at the centerof the spiral. Apparently, Predynastic Period through the Old Kingdom,
the direction of rotation was not significant, along with the boardgames of mn and zn.t. It is
since nearly equal numbers of surviving boards depicted very early with these two games as part
show the serpent coiling in both clockwise and of the mortuaryaccoutrementsof Hesyre in his
counter-clockwise directions.25The board con- mastabaof the Third Dynastyand in an offering
tains 127 squares arranged into four spirals. list of Rahotep in his Fourth Dynasty mastaba
Here also the number of squares on the board at Medum.30Thereafter, based upon a sudden
was not standardized;as in the corpus of mhn- and complete dearth of evidence for the mhn-
boards, this number ranges from as little as game after the fall of the Old Kingdom, both in
twenty-nine to as many as nearly 400 squareson the archaeological and artistic records,we con-
a single board.26Similar to a limited number of clude that it fell into rapid disuse, probably a
m/m-boards, OIM 16950depicts a second head, victim of the social disordersand disruptionsof
that of a duck or goose, emanating from the tail the First IntermediatePeriod. There is no evi-
of the serpent on the outside of the board.27A dence to suggest that after that time, the game
heavy residue of brown pigment in the pores of was played again in Egypt. However in the
the stone and between the game-squares indi- Twenty-sixth Dynasty, after a hiatus of nearly
cates that at one time, it was thickly plied with two millennia, the Egyptians did resumedepict-
brown paint, probably to emulate the natural ing the play of that game on the walls of their
coloration of the serpent which the board tombs. This development was part of the so-
represented. called neo-Memphite revival, when Old King-
Basedupon what we know of this game in the dom artistic motives were applied to later art
work of Ranke and others, the feline game- forms.31Still, thereis no evidencein the archaeo-
pieces moved in a spiral along the squares, logical record to indicate that the game was
apparently, from the tail on the outside to the remanufacturedand played at that time. After
head of the serpent at the center, according to this brief and final reappearancein the artistic
rules which are not preciselyunderstoodtoday.28 record, the game of mhn passed entirely from
What is clear, though, is that on gameboard Egyptian custom.
OIM 16950, the paint is still thickly applied to
the cross-slots between the squares,while in the A Religious Context for the M/m-game
longer spiralling grooves, it is worn thinly and
smoothly, suggesting that some small object As a parallel to the Old Kingdom game of
regularly rolled or passed through the spiral to mhn, the wEw.tMhn, "Roadsof Mehen,"in the
achieve this wear. This conclusion would sup- CoffinTexts were formed by concentric circles;
port the assertionsof Klebsand others,29against and just as the draughtsmen spiralled around
Quibell, that the marbles were actually utilized the gameboard toward the center, so the de-
on the board and in the spiral, along with the ceased,accordingto CT Spells 758-760, likewise
feline draughtsmen. traveled in a spiralling direction in order to
According to the appearance of the mhn- approach Ra enthroned at the center of the
game in the archaeologicaland artistic records, roads. Just as the track of the ra/m-gameboard
was segmented with individual squares, so the
25 Hoerth, "Gameboards," 99, 104-6. "Roads of Mehen" were also broken up incre-
26 Similarly, ibid., 103. mentally by gateways through which the de-
27 So also Ranke,
Schlangenspiel, 7 and n. 5, although he ceased had to pass and which otherwisehad the
was unable to identify the species of bird.
28 Q.v. Quibell, Excavations at Saqqara 1911-1912, 20; 30 Supra, n. 23 and Petrie, Medum,
pl. 13, respectively.
Ranke, Schlangenspiel, 4-14, 29, passim; L. Klebs, Reliefs 1, 31 E.g., in the tombs of Ibi
(Theban Tomb 36) and
113; H. Junker, Giza 4, 36-38; P. Montet, CdE 30 (1955): Ankhefensakhmet, q.v., respectively, PM l/l2, p. 65 (9);
189-97. J. Capart, Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 1 (1938): figs.
29 Klebs, Reliefs 1, 113; Ranke, Schlangenspiel, 5, llf, 29; 1-3 and D. K. Hill, Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 20
Junker, Giza 4, 37. (1957): 35-41, 97f.
48 JARCE XXVII (1990)
power to turn him away. There is no doubt that ceased's action was one of "escape" from the
the coiled m/m-serpent, which gave its name to snake.36
that Old Kingdom gameboard,was identical to However, Sethe would appear correct in this
the deity properly named Mehen- this same context. Mehen is both gameboardand serpent.
deity who otherwisepersonifiedthe circularroad- While the king is conceived of as "coming
way in the CoffinTexts and who similarly lent forth" from that board, he is, at the same time,
his name to those roads.32It is apparent then understood as being reborn in a blast of the
that either the mhn-gameboardwas the basis on serpent'sbreath.The entire action functions less
which the "Roads of Mehen" were conceived in as a matter of "escape" than as a stage in the
the afterlife or that both the gameboardand the processof ascension.
"Roads of Mehen" originated in the same well- The dual notion of Mehen as gameboardand
spring of Egyptian religious thought. snake from whose fiery breath the deceased is
A parallel for the assimilation of the mhn- reborn is expressed more clearly in PT Utt.
game and afterlife roadway occurs even earlier 758, inscribedin the pyramid of Queen Neith.37
than that indicated in the Coffin Texts, i.e., It is addressedto a serpent-deitynamed nb jht,
during the Old Kingdom- although in a slightly "Lordof the Horizon":
different context, for certainly in Pyramid Text
Utt. 332, §541, the deceased king comes forth iwr N.t m fnd ms N.t p(w) m msd.t
from a mhn-gameboard during his ascension sdr N.t m kjb.(t).khms N.t m mhn.k
into heaven:
Neith is conceived in the nose. This is how
Neith is born in the nostril.
dd mdw N. pw nw pr m mhn
Just as Neith rests in your coils, so Neith sits
pr.n N. m hh.f inny in (i.e., "residesin") your m/m-board.38
zb.n N. ptwy iy.n N. tSwy
Recitation: It is this N. who has come forth This entire passage refers to the birth of Queen
from the mhn-board. Neith into the afterlife from the breath and
When he came around, N. came forth from its nostrils of the serpent.Residing within the coils
fierybreath. of the serpent is synonymous with being upon
Just as N. has traveled(to) the two skies, so N. the ra/m-gameboard,and is part of the resurrec-
has returned(to) the two lands.33 tion process.
For the same reason in PT Utt. 659, the
This passage describes the circular direction of deceased king is exhorted to move his pieces
travel on the board, as well as exiting on the around a ra/zn-boardin the context of his own
breath of the snake. Kurt Sethe understood the deification:
text in a similar manner.34Furthermore, he
interpreted the m/m-game in this and similar szp n.k ibhw.k ipw hdw m Mhnw
contexts as some kind of ordeal or legal trial for psrw hj.sn m ssr m rn.sn pw n ssr
the deceased.35Faulkner, on the other hand,
Take for yourself these your white ivory pieces
contended that mhn in this text referredonly to
the proper name of the serpent-deity,not spe- (lit. "teeth")39from the m/m-board.
Go around them as an arrow in this their
cifically to the gameboard, and that the de- name of 'Arrow'.40
32 Ranke, Schlangenspiel, 16-18.
33 Sethe, Pyr. 1, §541a-c; cf. Ranke,
Schlangenspiel, 8
Montet, CdE 30 (1955): 191, 193. 36 Faulkner, Pyr., 107, n. 2.
34 Sethe, Pyr., Ubersetzung 3, 13: "NN. ist das, was aus 37 G. Jequier, Pyramides des reines Neit et Apouit, pl. 26,
dem Schlangentopf-Brettspiel hervorgegangen ist." How- 11. 697-98.
ever, cf. Junker, Giza 4, 37, "T(eti) ist der Jager (nw) der aus ss pt §§2288d-2289a, Faulkner, Pyr., Supplement, 87; cf.
dem ra/m-Spiel siegreich hervorgegangen ist"; Montet, CdE Sethe, Pyr., Ubersetzung 3, 15.
30 (1955): 196, "Ted, c'est le chausseur qui sort de la fosse- 39 So R. Ritner, review of Fs Zandee, in JNES, in press.
piege," so mhn, "pitfall," i.e., a trap used in hunting. 40 Sethe, Pyr. 2, §1866a-b, p. 454; cf. Ranke, Schlangen-
35 Sethe, Pyr., Ubersetzung 3, 15. spiel, 24, n. 1; alternatively, Montet CdE 30 (1955): 197.
MEHEN, MYSTERIES,AND RESURRECTION FROM THE COILED SERPENT 49
Similarly, in PT Utt. 626, also from the pyramid Similar to its appearance in the Pyramid
of Queen Neith, the deceased is described as Texts, in the Book of the Two Ways the mhn-
being upon the ra/m-board within the same board facilitates the transition to resurrection.
context as her identificationwith the falcon-god So CT 1103asks the question:
named Wr:
inm phr.f mhn cd sch.f wdc-mdw Dhwty m
dd mdw pr.n N.t m Wrhn.n.s m bik nhpw
hr n N.t m mhnw Szmw (pw)
Who will travelaround the ra/m-board,whose
Recitation: 'It is as Wr that Neith has gone rank is great,whom Thoth will judge in the
forth, and it is as the falcon that she has early morning?45
alighted.
The face of Neith is in the ra/m-boardof (this) Sethe's notion that divine judgment is exempli-
Shesmu.'41 fied in the successful transit of the gameboardis
consistent with Thoth's role here as a judge of
The deceased'spresenceupon the ra/m-board the individual who goes around and through
is associatedwith her divine transformationand the board. Therefore, similar to Sethe's conclu-
ascension. The reading of this text differs from sion, both PT Utt. 332 and CT 1103 would
that of Leclant in his study of PT Utt. 626.42 define the ra/m-boardas a place of ordeal in the
While the relation of Shesmu to the ra/m-board life of the deceased,leading to final judgment by
remains unclear, Leclant's arguments to associ- the god and hence, eternal life. Journeying
ate that deity with the board are not persuasive, acrossthe ra/m-boardis tantamountin theoryto
based as they are on the outdatednotion that the traveling through the serpent, while exiting the
mhn-board originally representednot a coiled board denotes rebirth from the body of the
serpent, but a pitfall, i.e., a trap used to snare snake.
animals.43However, Quibell and Ranke long This interpretationdiffersfrom that of Ranke,
ago demonstratedthe mhn-board'soriginal con- who earlier had construed the ra/m-game as a
nection to the coiled serpent, an identification struggle between the deceased player and the
that still remains firm despite any assertions to ra/m-serpentitself. He suggestedthat the goal of
the contrary.44Leclant argues that Shesmu's the game was to kill the serpentby dismember-
dual nature as a deity of the oil and wine press, ment, as indicatedby the slotting of the spine,46
as well as a butcherof the enemies of the god, is and to remove its fangs, which he argued were
appropriatefor this passage. However,his asser- detrimental to the deceased.47However, this in-
tion is unacceptablethat the mhn-boardthrough terpretation is vitiated by the function of the
which the queen passes is actually Shesmu's ra/m-serpent/gameboardin the Pyramid Texts
trap to crush her head. Such a notion, replete and by the beneficial and protective role of the
with danger for the deceased,is wholly inappro- god Mehen in the resurrectionprocess, as we
priate to the spell, which otherwise promotes stated at the beginning of this study. Hence,
the ascension and spiritual transformation of Mehen should be construedas the mentor of the
the dead queen. player,not his opponent.
The notion of the god's birth from a serpent
in his cycle of resurrectionwas not lost on the
41 PT §2265a, Jequier, Pyramides des reines Neit et Apouit,
Egyptians even later in the New Kingdom. It is
pl. 8, col. 6 (p. 26 for the correct reading of szmw); Faulkner, a concept that finds expression throughout the
Pyr., Supplement, 80 (szmw uncorrected); J. Leclant, "T. P. Book of Amduat, so e.g.: the Fifth Hour, in
Pepi Ier, V: Le chapitre 626 des Textes des Pyramides," in
FsZandee, 78-79; 81-85.
which Sokar is born from the back of a three-
42 "La face du roi est dans le piege (ou la constriction) de headed winged serpent during the course of the
(ce) Shesemou," ibid, 82.
43 So Junker, Giza 4, 37; Montet, CdE 1955: 196; Vandier, 45 de Buck, CT 7, 428c.
Manuel 4/1, 518-19; cf. supra note n. 34. 46 Ranke, Schlangenspiel, 29.
44 Quibell, Excavations at 47 Based upon a misinterpretation of PT Utt. 659 and BD
Saqqara 1911-1912, 19; Ranke,
Schlangenspiel, 8-10. 172 (infra), q.v. ibid., 24-27.
50 JARCE XXVII (1990)
as spots over the blue glaze to denote the skin In conclusion we note the following: the
pattern of the snake. The eyes and mouth are m/m-game was understoodas a means of trans-
modelled and outlined in black paint. formation to rebirth through a process of jour-
While the body of the serpentis molded to the ney. In the Pyramid Texts, this was to journey
base, the head is fully three-dimensional and across the board and through the serpent in
stands erect above the surface. Significantly, the order to issue forth reborn in a blast from the
serpent coils in a counter-clockwise direction, serpent'snostrils. Later in the CoffinTexts, this
with the head on the outside and the tail inside, notion was reinterpretedas to journey within
which is opposite to the traditional orientation the context of the "circuit of Ra," which prob-
of ra/m-gameboards.The museum fichedescribes ably was conceptualized from the pre-existing
the objectas ''partof game with amuletic signifi- mhn-gameboard.By the new Kingdom, the lin-
cance." Clearly the piece is a votive object, gering memory of the gameboard, in conjunc-
almost certainly for the god Mehen. However, it tion with notions of rebirth from the serpent,
is not a gameboard. fostered the development of mhn-style amulets
Despite key differencesbetween FM 31009and to facilitate the transition to resurrection.At the
the mhn-board,e.g., the orientation of the head, same time, the memory of the ra/m-game was
contour of the body, and lack of game-squares, associatedwith the mysterioustwo-headedaspect
it seems evident that FM 31009, while manu- of Mehen that was otherwise related to the birth
factured in the New Kingdom, was inspired by of the sun god. This aspect of his was not
at least a memory- however faulty- of the generally promulgatedbut was kept m stj.f, "as
earlier mhn-gameboard. Therefore in keeping his secret,"i.e., only for those who were in the
with the role of Mehen and the game's sym- know, and it was thus, perhaps, part of the
bolism, this votive object and any others like it "mysteriesof Mehen."
would have promoted the resurrection of the
deceasedand facilitatedrebirththrough the body OrientalInstitute
of the serpent. Universityof Chicago