Mehen (Egyptian mythology)
| Mehen in hieroglyphics | ||||
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Mehen Mḥn The one who curls up / the one who surrounds himself |
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Mehen (after the ancient Egyptian verb for "roll up", "wrap around" or "encircle") is the name of a deity in the mythology of ancient Egypt . He was a god in the hereafter and one of the numerous protectors of the sun god Re .
description
Mehen was a snake god , whose body was shown either strongly coiled or completely curled up. In later times his head could be human. He was often depicted breathing fire.
proof
Mehen is mentioned figuratively and in writing for the first time in the pyramid texts of the Old Kingdom during the 5th Dynasty . However, it seems to have been known for a much longer time, as a certain board game called " Mehen " was dedicated to it and this has been around since 3000 BC. Was played. The cult of Mehen flourished in the Middle Kingdom , in the New Kingdom Mehen belonged to the ensemble of gods of the so-called "Underworld Books" ( Amduat ), in which he was named along with other protective deities.
Mythological role
Mehen was a god from the hereafter who received the deceased king or the sun god Re in the underworld ( Duat ) and then accompanied and protected him on his journey through the underworld by wrapping the head of the king / Re or the entire body. In the Old Kingdom, in the pyramid texts, it was mainly the deceased king who was supposed to be protected, from the Middle Kingdom onwards it was exclusively Re.
- Old empire
In the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, the role of the mehen is apparently not yet implicitly defined, since there it frequently changes roles and tasks. In addition, he is only mentioned there four times. The pyramid texts are primarily about the ascent of the late king into heaven. After a safe journey to heaven, the king is allowed to join the gods, Mehen is to stand by him.
In spell 332 , for example, Mehen is equated directly with the late King: "The deceased came out as 'Mehen' and ascended with fiery breath, thereby turning around." In saying 626 (from the Pyramid of Queen Neith ) is Mehen with the deceased Queen linked: “Neith came out as a swallow , she landed as a falcon! Her face is that of the Mehen who accompanies her! ”In Proverbs 659, however, the deceased is identified with the falcon god Horus , who is looking for his father Osiris :“ Take these white teeth that are in Mehen and which are sore around them, because they are called 'arrows' ”! This call comes from Re and is addressed to the king in the form of Horus. Mehen plays a more passive role there.
- New kingdom
From the New Kingdom onwards, Mehen were assigned different hours during the night in the underworld during which he performed. The most important of these were the seventh hour in which Re had to face off against his mythological archenemy Apophis , as well as the eleventh hour in which Mehen was praised for his protection. Only when Apophis was defeated could Re rise on the eastern horizon and usher in the new day.
The texts show that Mehen surrounded the sun god all the time and never changed or even left his post. However, other deities such as Khnum and Osiris are also mentioned in the books of the dead ; they too were guarded by mehen (most frequent quotation: "He who is in the mehen"). Meh's main post was the so-called "day barge des Re". The only known epithet of Mehen is Ankh ("life").
literature
- Joyce Tyldesley : Egyptian Games and Sports. (= Shire Egyptology , Volume 29). Osprey Publishing, 2008, ISBN 0747806616 , p. 15 f.
- Joyce Tyldesley: The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt. Penguin UK, Oxford 2010, ISBN 014196376X , p. 92 f.
- Peter A. Piccione: Mehen, Mysteries and Resurrection from the Coiled Serpent. In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt , 27th Edition. Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 1990, ISSN 0065-9991 , pp. 43-52.
- Benedikt Rothöhler: Egyptian board games except Senet, unpublished MA thesis. Philosophical Faculty I of the Bavarian Julius Maximilians University, Würzburg 1997, pp. 10–23. online as PDF ( memento from September 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )