It’s been about a week since my last post on account of having relatives visiting for vacation, but I haven’t forgotten about writing completely!
No, today I want to write about Senet, an ancient Egyptian game that even has a place in mythology! This board game can be played today and is a whopping 5,000 years old. It’s also found in many Egyptian tombs, lending credence to its popularity back in the day.
Doing History!
Senet is the oldest known board game in history, although the rules modern players know may not be the original rules, as they were never written down. Even fragments of boards can be found as early as 3,100 BC, which, for you lovers of board games who may not know much Egyptian history, means this game was being played even in Egypt’s First Dynasty. Some graffiti indicates that it may have been played even during the Old Kingdom (before Alexander the Great’s conquest).
The game eventually evolved to even have some religious significance! The Book of the Dead references the game and it features prominently in the myth of the goddess Nut.
Thoth’s Gamble
Even the Egyptian gods loved to play senet, as we’ll see here.
Once upon a time, the god Ra was basically the head honcho of all the gods. He was the sun god, sailing his boat across the horizon each day and then journeying through the underworld each night. As he sailed, his bloat glided across the back of Nut (pronounced “noot”), the goddess of the sky. The night came when she would swallow him at the end of each day and thus begin his underworld journeying.
Everything was great between them until Ra found out she was pregnant with five children! That wouldn’t have been so bad if not for the prophecy (where in the world do all these so-called set events come from?) proclaiming that one day Nut would have a son who replaced Ra. You know, that thing all ancient rulers are fearful of (Cronus, King Herod, etc.)!
Being the leader and all, Ra proclaimed that it was simply illegal for Nut to give birth on any day of the year. Pretty sure pregnancy doesn’t work like that, but the gods might just function differently.
Anyway, Nut is fairly distraught over this bit of legislation and runs to Thoth (Mr. Ibis for all you American Gods fans), the god of wisdom and writing, for a solution. Thoth mulls it over and decides the best way to get around such a tight restriction is to create a loophole.
So Thoth pays a visit to the moon god, Khonsu. Khonsu is apparently a huge lover of senet and a gambling addict who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near casinos. What a perfect person to exploit!
Thoth decides to challenge him to a friendly game of senet. The stakes: an extra hour of moonlight every time Thoth won.
Khonsu, being an addict, couldn’t resist. Not only would he get to play senet, but he would also be able to brag about having bested the god of wisdom himself!
The only problem with this fantasy is that Thoth is, after all, the freaking god of wisdom! He easily won the first game and got an extra hour of moonlight. Doing the moon thing is tiring, and Khonsu’s reputation was on the line to boot, so he quickly agreed to another game in an attempt to win back the bit of daylight he’d lost.
But he lost again.
Then he lost again.
And again.
Eventually, Thoth had managed to secure five days worth of moonlight! Khonsu wound up working overtime. The poor guy was so exhausted that he couldn’t display his beautiful full moon every day anymore. As he tired, the moon grew smaller and smaller each day until he eventually had to take a day off to rest. When his strength returned, the moon would wax until it reached its full size once again.
As for Nut, Thoth stuck these extra days between the last day of one year and the first day of the next, thereby setting them apart from the actual calendar year. Victory for Nut, who was likely pumping her fist triumphantly because she didn’t have to be eternally pregnant with five babies, which would probably cause all kinds of back problems in addition to the boat going over her each day.
Basically, the Egyptians realized their calendar was garbage and screwed up their farming seasons, so they had to throw some extra days in there to account for the fact that there are actually 365 days in a year, not 360. Of course, if the story is true (can you prove to them it's not?), then this means that the previous calendar was fine, but it had to be adjusted later.
How to Play
Want to take a shot at playing this game for yourself? Lucky for you, the rules have been reconstructed and guessed at. Now you can challenge poor, exhausted Khonsu to senet and exploit his terrible gambling addiction!
Bear in mind that this is only one reconstruction of the rules. There are multiple reconstructions as people attempt to recreate the game in the absence of written rules. Darn ancient people and their lack of literacy! Even Jumanji bothered to come to with the rules written inside the game board!
What You Need:
1 Senet Board: Of all the games I’ve talked about in this series so far, this is easily the easiest board game to find. Its reconstruction has been quite popular, so now there are apps and game boards even on Amazon. All the pieces are easy to obtain because you can just buy them.
2 Players
Rules: (Taken from the Otagu Museum)
1. Place the pieces on the top row of the board, alternating between spools and cones.
2. Each player tosses the sticks which serve as dice. The person who “rolls” the highest number gets to go first.
3. Throw the sticks or roll the dice to move one of your pieces.
4. One square can only have one piece on it at a time.
5 You can’t move your piece to a square already occupied by one of your own pieces.
6. Pieces can jump over other pieces.
7. Pieces can swap places with your opponent’s piece if you land on its square.
8. Pieces cannot be swapped if they are next to a piece that is the same as them –or two in a row. A row of three or more of the same pieces together can form a ‘blockade’. This cannot be jumped or swapped by an opponent but you can jump over your own blockade.
9. You must make a move if it is possible.
10. If no move is possible, you pass your turn.
11.The first player to get all their pieces off the board wins.
Special Squares
• Square 15 is the 'House of Life'. This is a safe square; a piece cannot be swapped off it.
• You must land on Square 26, the 'House of Happiness' in order to progress further. This is a safe square.
• Square 27 is the 'House of Water'. Landing on this square sends the piece back to Square 15, the 'House of Life'.
• Pieces can leave the board from Squares 26 ('House of Happiness'}, Square 28 (three ba-birds), Square 29 (two men), and Square 30 ('House of Ra-Horakhty') if the correct number of spaces is thrown. These are all safe squares.
Have Fun!
Here’s a video to go along with this guide:
