We explain who Anubis was in Ancient Egyptian mythology, what his characteristics were, and what symbols represented him. Please read other MTV articles for more information. If you share it, it will be of little help to us.
Who is Anubis?
In Ancient Egyptian religion and mythology, Anubis or Inpu was the name of the god of the dead and lord of the underworld (Duat). He was considered the ruler of the deceased during the Early Dynastic period and the Old Kingdom, but in later times he was displaced from that role by Osiris. He was depicted as a human figure with a jackal’s head and an ankh cross in his hand.
Anubis’s best-known epithets were “he who resides on his mountain,” “the lord of the sacred land,” “he who is in the embalming chamber,” and “he who measures hearts.” He was commonly depicted on the walls of funerary or mortuary temples, as he was also the patron saint of embalmers and inventor of the mummification technique.
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His cult spread throughout Ancient Egypt, especially in the city of Hardaï (also called Cynopolis, “city of dogs”), for almost three millennia: from approximately 3200 BC until Christianity replaced the Egyptian religion between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.
However, Egyptian texts are unclear regarding Anubis’s mythological origin. Some claim he was the son of Bastet, Idhet, or even Ra and Nephthys, or that he was an illegitimate son of Seth, fathered by Nephthys and raised by Isis to save him from his father’s wrath.
He was generally considered an ancestral deity and ruler of the world of the dead until Osiris ascended to the throne of the underworld. From then on, Anubis became a mere embalmer, protector of tombs, and guide of the souls of the deceased to their afterlife. His role was to weigh, for example, the hearts of the recently deceased on a scale, to determine whether or not they were worthy of entering the world of the dead.
Anubis also plays an important role in the mythological story of Osiris, central to Egyptian religion at the time. When Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his brother Seth, Anubis helped Isis and Nephthys reconstruct and embalm his body so that he could return to life in the afterlife, where he would be king of the dead. This myth is the reason why the pharaohs, representatives of Osiris in the human world, were embalmed and mummified.
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Characteristics of Anubis
In general, the god Anubis was characterized by the following:
- He was one of the oldest gods of Egyptian religion, and was worshipped throughout the Egyptian Empire for almost three thousand consecutive years.
- He was represented as a human figure with the head of a jackal, and in hieroglyphic writing, by a canine or wild cat lying on its belly, either on the ground or on a funerary chapel. This is possibly because jackals were the dominant scavenger species in the ancient Egyptian deserts, hence their association with death and corpses.
- They were linked to the color black, which in Egyptian religion signified not only death but also the afterlife: regeneration, eternal preservation, and fertility.
- As was often the case with Egyptian gods, in various cities they were associated with Osiris himself and even with Horus, especially in his manifestations as Khenthamentiu, Tepyyeduef, or Nebtadyeser. Furthermore, their role as guide of recently deceased souls led the ancient Greeks to associate them with Hermes, giving rise to the name “Hermanubis” at the heart of their cult in Cynopolis.
- Their mythological origins are unclear, especially with regard to the story of Osiris. It is possible that his birth was invented and reinvented to adapt to the different religious variations that developed over the centuries.
Symbols of Anubis
Anubis was a funereal god, and therefore associated with scavengers, such as the jackal, the wild dog, and the wild cat, which is why he is often depicted in this way, especially alongside the mother goddess Isis. For this reason, the priests in charge of mummification wore ritual masks shaped like jackal heads.
Furthermore, the black color with which this god was associated not only referred to decomposing corpses but also to earth rich in organic matter. Therefore, his role was ambiguous and also symbolized fertility, fertilizer, and abundance.
On other occasions, Anubis was depicted holding a scale, as one of his roles included weighing the hearts of the recently deceased, placing an ostrich feather, a symbol of cosmic order or Ma’at, on the other side of the scale. If the heart weighed the same as or less than the feather, the soul could enter the realm of the dead; if not, it was destined for a suffering end in the jaws of Ammit, a creature part lion and part crocodile.
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Egyptian Mythology
Egyptian mythology encompasses the set of beliefs, rituals, stories, and symbols produced in Ancient Egypt (from approximately 3200 BC to 31 BC) from its predynastic period until the rise of Christianity around the 5th century. Its iconography and the richness of its stories are comparable to Greco-Roman tradition, and largely influenced it through a complex process of syncretism and hybridization.
The Egyptian pantheon was ruled by numerous gods, most of them represented as human figures with animal heads, and among them there was a complex range of ambiguity and overlap, so that the boundaries between the worship of one god and that of another were not always clear. Thus, two distinct gods could become one over time, as happened with the gods Ra and Aten, who became Aten-Ra.
The Egyptian gods not only ruled nature, but also the order of humans. In fact, the pharaohs were their incarnation on Earth, and for that reason they were destined to rule: to preserve universal balance or ma’at, without which the world would inevitably end.
However, over time, Egyptian religion focused on the story of Osiris as its fundamental mythological core: the journey of the sun god, lover of his sister Isis, who is betrayed and murdered by his jealous brother Seth, lord of the deserts.
The story culminates with the goddesses Isis and Nephthys gathering and embalming the body of Osiris according to the practices of Anubis, thus bringing about his resurrection as lord of the underworld. This is a fundamentally agricultural myth, describing the cycles of drought and flooding near the Nile, thanks to which the fertile soil became usable.
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Egyptian Gods of Death
Death played an important role in Egyptian mythology, as part of the process of transmigration of souls and the preservation of universal balance, ma’at. For this reason, the world of the dead (Duat) and the process of death itself were accompanied in its various stages by different gods and deities, such as:
Anubis
Lord of the necropolis, patron of embalmers, and guide of the recently deceased to the underworld, this jackal-headed god was also responsible for weighing the hearts of the deceased to determine if they were worthy of entering the realm of the dead.
Osiris
Initially a sun god, inventor of agriculture and Egyptian religion, he was a mythical king who drowned in the Nile, deceived and betrayed by his brother Seth, who then dismembered his body and scattered it throughout Egypt. His wife Iris and his sister-in-law Nephthys then gathered his body, embalmed it, and mummified it, and Osiris was reborn in the Duat as lord of the dead and administrator of the eternal laws of Ma’at. Only those worthy of entering the realm of Osiris could later be reborn.
Ammit
A goddess known as the “devourer of the dead,” she was depicted as a monster with the body of a lion and the head of a crocodile, often with the claws of a bird of prey. She played a punishing role in the judgment of the recently deceased, devouring the hearts of those discarded by Anubis, robbing them of their chance at rebirth.
Thoth
He is an ancient god, associated with wisdom and writing, science, magic, and arcane knowledge. The goddess Ma’at, the embodiment of order, is his wife, and the goddess Seshat is her feminine version, associated with libraries, construction, measurement, and astronomy. Thoth played an important role in Anubis’s measurement of souls, as he was the one who recorded the weight of the deceased’s hearts and issued the corresponding verdict.
Nephthys
Wife of Seth and assistant to Isis in the restoration of Osiris’s body, Nephthys was a goddess associated with both festive aspects of Egyptian religion and with funeral rites and embalming. In the latter role, she was the protector of one of the canopic jars: the vessels in which the organs removed from mummies were placed. This role was performed by Nephthys (protector of the Hapi jar, intended for the lungs) along with Isis (protector of the Amset jar, intended for the liver), Serket (protector of the Qebehsenuef jar, intended for the intestines), and Neith (protector of the Duamutef jar, intended for the stomach).
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References
All the information we provide is supported by authoritative and up-to-date bibliographic sources, which ensure reliable content in line with our editorial principles.
- Anubis on Wikipedia.
- Ancient Egyptian Religion on Wikipedia.
- The Mummies of Anubis on National Geographic.
- Anubis (Egyptian God) on The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- Anubis Information, definition, Characteristics, Symbols, and More – concepto.de
