Meryneith (''beloved of he goddess

Neith Neith (, a borrowing of the Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic form , also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an ancient Egyptian deity, possibly of Ancient Libya, Libyan origin. She was connected with warfare, as indicated by her emblem of two crossed b ...

''), also named Meryre (''beloved of

he sun-god He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

Re''), was an

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian official who lived in the Amarna Period, around 1350 BC. He is mainly known from his tomb found in 2001 at

Saqqara Saqqara ( : saqqāra ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for ...

. He is perhaps identical with the high priest of

Aten Aten, also Aton, Atonu, or Itn (, reconstructed ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system formally established in ancient Egypt by the late Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. Exact dating for the Eighteenth Dynasty is contested, thou ...

Meryre Meryre (also Meryra or Merire) ( "the one loved by Re") was an Egyptian noble and the only certain High Priest of the Aten. Amongst his other titles were Hereditary Noble and High Official and Fan-bearer on the Right Side of the King which em ...

, who is known from his tomb at Amarna. Not much is known of Meryneith's family background. He was perhaps born under king

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( , ; "Amun is satisfied"), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenization, Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. According to d ...

. His father was an official called Khaut. The name of his mother is not known. In the oldest parts of his tomb Meryneith bears the titles ''steward of the temple of Aten'' (imy-r pr n pr-jtn) and later ''steward of the temple of Aten in Memphis''. This office Meryneith might have held at the beginning of the reign of king

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton ( ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning 'Effective for the Aten'), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eig ...

. Perhaps around year 9 in the reign of king

, Meryneith changed his name to Meryre. Under Akhenaten only the sun was worshipped and Meryneith was either forced to change his name or voluntarily changed his name to fit the new royal religious politics. In his tomb at Saqqara, the name Meryneith was in the inscriptions was changed to Meryre. Most likely under king Akhenaten he held the titles ''scribe of the temple of Aten in Akhet-Aten (and?) in Memphis'' and ''Greatest of seers of the Aten''. The latter designation is the title of the high priest of Aten. A high priest of Aten with the same name is well known from his tomb at

Amarna Amarna (; ) is an extensive ancient Egyptian archaeological site containing the ruins of Akhetaten, the capital city during the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and a ...

. It is possible that both Meryre's are the same person. At the end of his career, at the beginning of the reign of king

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...

, he moved back to

Memphis, Egypt Memphis (, ; Bohairic ; ), or Men-nefer, was the ancient capital of Inebu-hedj, the first Nome (Egypt), nome of Lower Egypt that was known as ''mḥw'' ("North"). Its ruins are located in the vicinity of the present-day village of Mit Rahina () ...

and changed his name to Meryneith. According to the Egyptian Museum, "The inscriptions in his tomb make clear that he changed his name from Meryneith to Meryre (and back again) in order to adjust to the prevailing political climate." His Saqqara tomb has a rare private painted limestone statue (JE 99076) of Meryneith or Meryre and his wife "still fixed to the floor in its original location in the south-western chapel of the tomb." He now became ''first priest of Neith''.van Walsem, in: Raven, van Walsem: ''The Tomb of Merynieth at Saqqara'', 44 It seems that Meryneith died in the early years of Tutankhamun's reign. Most parts of the decoration of his tomb were finished in these years. It is possible that he ended his career in dishonor since he was never buried in his tomb. In the burial chambers of his tomb, no parts of any objects or funerary equipment with his name were discovered.

References

External links

Tomb of Meryneith/Meryre (found in 2001)
{{authority control 14th-century BC clergy Priests of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Atenism 14th-century BC Egyptian people