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Rags to Riches

The Story of Weni

Weni Egypt

The exemplary life of the noble Weni, who served under the first three kings of the dynasty, is inscribed on the walls of his tomb at Abydos.

One of the longest narrative inscriptions of the period, the autobiography records how Weni rose from almost obscure origins through the court’s hierarchy from an ‘inferior custodian’ to a ‘Friend’ of Pepi and a High Court judge at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) - the important cult centre of the vulture goddess Nekhbet.

Eventually he was appointed Governor of the South under Merenre. As a most respected judge (’I was more excellent to the heart of His Majesty than any official of his’) he was the sole arbiter in a harem conspiracy case involving the Queen Weret-lmtes: ‘Never before had the like of me heard a secret matter of the King’s harem, but His Majesty caused me to hear it’.

Bearing in mind Manetho’s assertion that the p