MEHEN MN, OUROBOROS BR

Mehen

In Egyptian mythology, the name Mehen (Coptic: Ⲙⲉϩⲉⲛ), meaning 'coiled one', referred to a mythological snake-god and to a board game. The earliest references to Mehen occur in the Coffin Texts where Mehen is a protective deity who is depicted as a snake which coils around the sun god Ra during his journey through the night, in the afterlife, for instance in the Amduat. There is also the game by that name and the precise relationship between the deity and the Mehen game is unknown. For instance it is not known whether the game derives from the mythological character, or the character derives from the game.

It is known that the object known as mehen depicts a game rather than a religious fetish as studies of paintings in tombs and game boards and equipment demonstrate this. The rules and method of playing the game are unknown,

The Amduat (Ancient Egyptian: jmj dwꜣt, literally "That Which Is In the Afterworld", also translated as "Text of the Hidden Chamber Which is in the Underworld" and "Book of What is in the Underworld". Arabic: كتاب الآخرة, romanized: Kitab al-Akhira) is an important ancient Egyptian funerary text of the New Kingdom of Egypt. Like many funerary texts, it was found written on the inside of the pharaoh's tomb for reference. Unlike other funerary texts, however, it was reserved only for pharaohs (until the Twenty-first Dynasty almost exclusively) or very favored nobility. 

The book tells the story of Ra, the Egyptian sun god who travels through the underworld, from the time when the sun sets in the west and rises again in the east. It is said that the dead Pharaoh is taking this same journey, ultimately to become one with Ra and live forever.

The underworld is divided into twelve hours of the night, each representing different allies and enemies for the Pharaoh/sun god to encounter. The Amduat names all of these gods and monsters. The main purpose of the Amduat is to give the names of these gods and monsters to the spirit of the dead Pharaoh, so he can call upon them for help or use their name to defeat them.

The twelve hours of the night in the underworeld are divided as follows for the Sun/Pharaoh.

In hour 1 the sun god enters the western horizon (akhet) which is a transition between day and night.

In hours 2 and 3 he passes through an abundant watery world called 'Wernes' and the 'Waters of Osiris'.

In hour 4 he reaches Imhet the difficult sandy realm of Seker, the underworld hawk deity, where he encounters dark zig zag pathways which he has to negotiate, being dragged on a snake-boat.

In hour 5 he discovers the tomb of Osiris which is an enclosure beneath which is hidden a lake of fire; the tomb is covered by a pyramid-like mound (identified with the goddess Isis) and on top of which Isis and Nephthys have alighted in the form of two kites (birds of prey).

In the sixth hour the most significant event in the underworld occurs. The ba (or soul) of Ra unites with his own body, or alternatively with the ba of Osiris within the circle formed by the mehen serpent. This event is the point at which the sun begins its regeneration; it is a moment of great significance, but also danger.

In hour 7 the adversary Apep (Apophis) lies in wait and has to be subdued in chains by the magic of Isis and Set, and the strength of Serqet, who is assisted by the god Her-Tesu-F.

In hour 8 the sun god opens the doors of the tomb and Horus calls upon a monstrous serpent with the unquenchable fire to destroy the enemies of his father, Osiris, by burning their corpses and cooking their souls.

In hour 9 they leave the sandy island of Seker by rowing vigorously back into the waters.

In hour 10 the regeneration process continues through immersion in the waters.

In hour 11 the god's eyes (a symbol for his health and well-being) are fully regenerated.

In hour 12 he enters the eastern horizon ready to rise again as the new day's sun.

Once the deceased finished their journey through the underworld, they arrived at the Hall of Maat. Here they would undergo the Weighing of the Heart ceremony where their purity would be the determining factor in whether they would be allowed to enter the Kingdom of Osiris.

Life Eternal signified by the endless serpent ring of seemingly unending time. I posit that immortality is attained by the creative logos and compounded through literary studies.
As well as enumerating and naming the inhabitants of the Duat, both good and bad, the illustrations of the work show clearly the topography of the underworld. The earliest complete version of the Amduat is found in KV34, the tomb of Thutmose III in the Valley of the Kings.

In the German-Egyptian dictionary by R. Hannig, it is said that the Mehen (mḥn) or the Mehenet (mḥnt) snake is equivalent to the Ouroboros.

The present study is an ancient symbol, the image of a serpent curved around into a circle such that the tip of its tail is at the mouth. Tghis is called by the Greek term ouroboros  οὐροβόρος which translates to tail-devouring. This symbol continues to attract the attention of researchers with a diverse array of interests such as mythography, iconology, analytical psychology, history of science, and history of religion, but oddly enough not linguists. Regarding the historical origin of this icon, this symbol and its name, modern scholars  generally say that it is originally Egyptian. This view of an Egyptian origin, is in general agreement with earlier generations of scholars, especially those of the Renaissance, and the classical and late antique authors from which the modern drew. 

Modern Egyptology, in particular, is inclined from its very inception to connect the ouroboros  with Egypt. Probabvy because in 1823, less than a year after announcing the principles of the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing to the world in the Lettre à M. Dacier, J.-F. Champollion featured an ouroboros as a decorative device in the center of the title page of his Panthéon égyptien. The first post-decipherment work on Egyptian religion, issued in parts between 1823 and 1831.

It has now become more obvious that the Ouroboros did not derived from an ancient Egyptian original. One might well ask, however, whether or not the logos ouroboros of the emblem seen on the books  of early Egyptology, the relatively fixed icon of an encircled serpent with its tail in its mouth, expressive of ideas such as life eternal, or renewal, cyclic time, eternity, and immortality is identical with the concept of the Mehen of pharaonic Egypt in that....

A close, unprejudiced examination of the Egyptian primary sources in their own contexts suggests that the evidence points to the fact that the classic ouroboros may have developed out of Egyptian antecedents.The problem is twofold, being both linguistic and iconological in nature. 

On the linguistic side is the claim that the Egyptian expression sd-m-rA ‗tail-in-mouth‘ refers to the ouroboros, and the implication that this expression is the likely origin of the Greek term οὐροβόρος ‗taildevouring‘ through a process of interpretatio græca. There is then the question of just what ouroboros might mean in relation to the Egyptian sources, and how preconceptions associated with the term affect attempts at objective analysis of the Egyptian iconography. Once such preconceptions are set aside, the scope of relevant iconological material and associated ideas will be seen to be somewhat broader and their internal organization more coherent, as new hermeneutic possibilities present themselves. It has been stated often enough that the expression sd-m-r translated to 'tail-in-mouth‘ is the Egyptian equivalent of the term ouroboros. The point is made almost casually, as an aside, as if it were a settled truth beyond any need of factual support or documentation. Indeed, this idea has been canonized by inclusion in an ―Uroboros‖ entry in the Lexikon der Ägyptologie, and yet sdm-r, strictly speaking, never occurs anywhere as an Egyptian name or term for the ouroboros,