Amun's game of the goose and snake (First Dynasty of ancient Egypt)
Mehen and Amun's goose
This ancient egypt game, also called Mehen after the snake god a protective deity which coils around the sun god Ra during his journey through the night, for instance in the Amduat ("Text of the Hidden Chamber Which is in the Underworld", an important ancient Egyptian funerary text).
The aim of the game was to enable Amun's goose (the chenalopex whose flight crosses Africa from Cairo to Cape Town) to free the sun from darkness. For everyday use, these objects could be made of terracotta, but when they were to feature in funerary furniture, they were carved from more durable materials, i.e. stone.
Snake identification
There are many snakes that enjoy crawling on the warm soil of Egypt.
Not all have lethal bites, like the cobra, so dangerously majestic that it became the crown's defender.
At the pinnacle of harmfulness is the ceraste or horned viper, from whose bite you couldn't escape until about fifty years ago.
Here, the snake represented is the mythical mehen, used, among other things, to guide the deceased on their long journeys to long-desired eternity.
In the tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the sun's nocturnal journey on his boat is protected by the meandering mehen surrounding his ram-headed image.
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The boat of the night sun, tomb of Ramesses I
Free the sun from darkness
This eternity was to be translated, for the transforming dead, by their fusion with the dazzling light. When the many obstacles had been overcome, after passing through the twelve gates of night, the miracle was accomplished: the solar goose could give birth to her gosling, the rejuvenated star.
Note : mehen should not be confused with Apep, the god of evil forces and night, the personification of chaos, evil and darkness, who attacks Ra's boat where the mehen serves as a guide.
Ra, in the form of a cat, smiting Apep with a knife. Papyrus of Hunefer, 19th dynasty