Seti I Before the Eternal Huntress, Neith, the Goddess of Hunting, Wisdom & War
Tomb of Seti I (KV17), Valley of the Kings, West Thebes.
Photograph by Araldo De Luca
Upon the smooth face of a limestone pillar deep within the Theban Tomb of King Seti I (KV17), the king stands in quiet devotion before the goddess Neith, the ancient huntress and weaver of destiny, a deity older than the sun-god and guardian of kings upon earth and in the hereafter.
Her presence beside Seti is no idle embellishment. Neith is a goddess of warfare, archery, and divine protection, and Seti himself came from a proud military lineage, the son of generals who rose to the throne through loyalty, strategy, and the sword. For a king who spent his life as a soldier before he ever ruled Ancient Egypt, to stand before Neith was to stand before the divine embodiment of his own identity: protector, warrior, restorer of order. Upon her head is not the Deshret crown she is more often seen in, but instead her archaic emblem thought to be that an oval shield with crossed arrows.
In this sacred chamber, she blesses the deceased king, guiding him into the next world as both creator and defender, arrow and shield. Seti receives her with calm reverence, for here the borders of life and death soften, and the warrior-king becomes a traveller in the company of the gods.
Painted more than three millennia ago, the colours remain rich and luminous. A testament to both the devotion of Seti and the mastery of the artists who shaped his eternal home.
