Meretseger
also MertsegerThe goddess of the pyramidal peak. She was the guardian of the necropolis in the Valley of the Kings. In this domain of hers she avenged misdeeds by striking criminals and oath-breakers blind, but she was also known to be merciful towards the repentant. The workers at Deir el Medina called her Peak of the West after the place where she lived. The draughtsman Neferabu dedicated a stela to her in which he describes his punishment by the goddess and her forgiveness:
...
Made by the servant in the Place-of-Truth, Neferabu, justified.
[I was] an ignorant man and foolish,
Who knew not good from evil;
I did the transgression against the Peak,
And she taught a lesson to me.
I was in her hand by night as by day,
I sat on bricks like the woman in labor,
I called to the wind, it came not to me,
I libated to the Peak of the West, great of strength,
And to every god and goddess.
...
I called upon my Mistress,
I found her coming to me as sweet breeze;
She was merciful to me,
Having made me see her hand.
She returned to me appeased,
She made my malady forgotten;
For the Peak of the West is appeased,
If one calls upon her.
M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol.2, p.108
Meretseger as a coiled cobra
Stela of Paneb, 19th dynasty
A purely local deity, she disappeared with the cessation of royal burials at Thebes during the 21st dynasty.
