Anubis: Secrets of the Egyptian God of the Underworld

Anubis was the ancient Egyptian god of mummification and guided souls as they passed from the world of the living to the underworld.

Like most Egyptian deities, Anubis was a complex god with diverse associations, whose meaning and spheres of influence varied from early Dynastic to Greco-Roman times.

Anubis was one of the oldest known deities, but later gave way to Osiris and became a god more closely associated with mummification. He is now best known for his role in the myth of Osiris and his importance in the funerary rituals that ensured the continuation of life after death for the ancient Egyptians.

Anubis was one of the oldest known ancient Egyptian gods. He can be attributed to the predynastic period, and he was often mentioned in inscriptions of the pharaohs of the First Dynasty. In the earliest depictions, the god appears in the animal form of a jackal. Later he was anthropomorphized into a jackal-headed deity.

Experts suggest that the concept of the jackal god originated either as a result of attempts to control jackals and prevent such behavior, or to comfort family members by instilling in them that the bodies were being devoured by the gods.

Interestingly, jackals are predominantly brown in color, but Anubis is depicted as a black jackal. Black was the color of the fertile soil from the Nile, which was essential for the harvest cycles. Therefore, the Egyptians associated the color black with the cycle of birth, death, and renewal.

The name Anubis came from the Greeks. The Egyptians called him Anpu or Inpu. The etymology of this name shows a close connection to the word inp, meaning "to decay," and inpu, meaning "king's child." This makes sense since in most Egyptian mythology Anubis was the adopted son of Osiris, king of the gods. Anubis had many epithets, such as "Lord of the West", "Guardian of the Scales", "Master of the Necropolis", and "Dog that swallows millions".

Anubis was more prominent in the early pantheons of Egyptian gods, especially in Upper Egypt, where he was originally considered the chief god of the dead. His mythology was then merged with that of Osiris, who was popular in Lower Egypt. Although various versions survive, Anubis eventually became the god of mummification, cemeteries, and funerary rituals. During the Middle Kingdom, he also becomes the guide of souls traveling to the underworld.

Like Osiris, Anubis was closely associated with the god Upuaut, or "Revealer of Paths," a gray-haired, wolf-headed deity who was sometimes depicted as a gray jackal deity. The cult of Upuauth originated in Upper Egypt, where he was responsible for funerary rites and the management of the dead. Early in Egyptian history, however, the attributes of Upuautus were largely absorbed by Anubis. He became a deity with an important role in royal processions and military actions.

Its importance is demonstrated by the fact that the cult of Anubis flourished while the cult of other gods waned, especially amid the growing popularity of the Heliopolis Ennead (nine key Egyptian deities, including Osiris and Isis) in the early Middle Kingdom.

Egyptian mythology is complex in that it is not built on a single universally accepted canon of events. Several conflicting myths can be accepted at the same time, and the mythology of Anubis is an example of this. Anubis is best known for his role in the afterlife created for Osiris, but his role differs in different versions of the myth.

In some versions, Isis finds the abandoned baby Anubis when she searches for body parts of her murdered husband Osiris. She learns that her sister Nephite had a child with Osiris but discarded it in fear that her husband, Seth, Osiris' murderer, would discover the treason.

Or Anubis was born long before the death of Osiris, and Isis deliberately went with a pack of dogs in search of him, having learned that he was abandoned by Nephite. Taken together, this is the most common version of the birth of Anubis. However, earlier sources suggest that he was the son of Ra and Hesat. Others claim that he was the son of Seth, but was abducted by Isis. Still others claim that Anubis' real mother was Bastet.

Regardless of the circumstances of his birth, Anubis plays an important role in the myth of Osiris. Loyal to Isis, he helped develop the practice of embalming and performed the mouth-opening ritual (Opening of the Mouth) that made Osiris the first mummy.

In some versions of the myth, the young Anubis helps Isis embalm Osiris, and the god of healing Thoth gives him additional assistance. In other stories, Anubis was already a well-established deity.

For example, in the Pyramid Texts of Unis, Anubis acts as a guide in the search for Osiris' body parts. Some stories claim that when Osiris was reborn in the underworld, Anubis left his post as god of the dead to pay his respects to Osiris. This story may have originated with Anubis' devoted followers to preserve the god's reputation when Osiris became more popular.

In the Jumilhac papyrus, a funerary manuscript from the Ptolemaic era, the importance of Anubis in the Osiris myth is shown in more detail. In this narrative, Anubis repeatedly defeated Seth when he attempted to steal Osiris' body from the wabet where the body was embalmed. On the first attempt, Seth reincarnated as Anubis to get past the guards. But when Seth left with the body, Anubis went after Seth and showed no fear when Seth turned into a bull. This incident eventually led to Anubis castrating Seth and returning to the wabet with the body of Osiris.

Another time, Seth turned into a big cat, but was again defeated by Anubis, who branded him with a red-hot iron. This myth also explains how leopards get their spots. During Seth's final attempt, Anubis killed Seth and then put on his burnt skin.

Anubis' important role in the myth of Osiris was the key to his popularity and longevity in Egyptian religion. He held an important place in rituals and ideology concerning the afterlife. Anubis held the position of the god of embalming and was also the guardian of the dead and the guide of souls.

The priests wore masks of Anubis as they prepared the body of the deceased for its final resting place, and they were also skilled in herbal medicine. The use of aromatic herbs in the embalming process was believed to help Anubis locate the deceased to guide and protect him. His use of his sense of smell reflected his canine traits.

After the living had performed the funeral rites, including the ceremony of the Opening of the Mouth, which allowed the deceased to breathe, see, eat and drink again, Anubis became the first deity to greet the deceased and lead them to the Duat and the Hall of Truth. The deceased would then wait with the other souls at the entrance to the hall where they would be comforted by Kebhut, daughter of Anubis and goddess of purification.

During the heart-weighing ceremony, Anubis was the center of attention as he helped Osiris judge the souls of the dead. During this ceremony, the heart of the deceased was weighed on the feather of Maat (goddess of order and truth), and if the scales balanced, the deceased could pass on to Aara, the Reed Field, or the Egyptian afterlife.

The scales were balanced only if a person was good throughout his life. If the heart was heavier than a feather, it was thrown to the floor and devoured by the monster Ammut, and the soul of the deceased ceased to exist.

The deceased needed a connection with the earthly world to supernaturally absorb the offerings left by the living and to sustain the soul. Therefore, the guardian of cemeteries, whose role was assumed by Anubis, was an integral part of the Egyptian pantheon.

A completely different myth of Anubis is contained in the Tale of Two Brothers. It describes Anubis as the older brother of Bat, the lesser-known local Egyptian bull god. The D'Orbinay papyrus, dating from the nineteenth dynasty, is the only known copy of this story.

It begins with demigod brothers Bata and Anubis living on a farm with Anubis' wife. The age difference between the brothers suggests that the couple behave more like parents towards Bata.

While Anubis is away, his wife tries to seduce Bata. But when he angrily rejects her, the wife tells Anubis that Bata attacked her. Anubis tries to kill Bata in revenge, but he swears his innocence. To prove it, he cuts off his penis and throws it into a crocodile-infested lake.

Anubis returns home and kills his wife. Meanwhile, the gods take pity on Bata and create a wife for him. Unfortunately, Bata's new wife leaves him to be with the Pharaoh, but Bata comes up with a cunning plan. Bata disguises himself as a tree, which his wife orders to be cut down. But a splinter falls into her mouth, which impregnates her, and Bata is reborn. Ascending the throne, he appoints his brother as his successor, and they are reunited as friends.

There is a suggestion that the tale is a political satire and uses the gods as allegorical figures. An overt theme is the relationship between royalty and divinity. At the beginning of the narrative, the narrator declares that "the virility of a god" lives in Bata. It is a divine spark in the form of a splinter that impregnates Bata's unfaithful wife and gives birth to the next ruler.

Royalty is even at the center of the confusing situation of Bata's wife, who also becomes his mother. It suggests that royal women must be both wives and mothers, and move from one role to the other. Historian Susan Hollis also believes that the story reflects the power struggle following the reign of Merneptah in the 19th Dynasty, when his sons, Sethi II and Amenes, tried to succeed him.

Between the Late Period (664-332 BC) and the Ptolemaic (332-30 BC) period, Anubis became increasingly associated with necromancy, and could be invoked to communicate with the dead. Greeks and Romans were fascinated by him, and he was the only Egyptian deity worshipped outside Egypt in his animal form.

In the Greco-Roman period, Anubis was combined with the Greek god Hermes to create Hermanubis, the god of guidance and guide of souls to the underworld. Anubis or Hermanubis was worshipped in the Roman world until the 2nd century AD, and was most often depicted on gemstones or amulets. He was also found on terracotta lamps, and effigies of Anubis were found in Pompeii. Famous Roman writers such as Vergilius and Lucianus mention Anubis, albeit rather critically.

Anubis was popular among philosophers and alchemists in medieval Europe. This was probably because the Egyptians, or at least the Egyptians of the Ptolemaic era, created many of the beliefs in alchemy, and subsequent alchemists followed their research. By the Renaissance, however, Thoth and its counterpart associated with Hermes, named Hermes Trismegistus, were increasingly being replaced by Anubis.

Anubis appears frequently in pop culture, but is usually not accurately portrayed. Although Anubis was a cult and important deity in ancient Egypt, he is usually portrayed as an evil god of the dead in modern movies. In the Mummy franchise, Anubis is the main villain.

In the famous video game Spelunky 2, the player has to fight Anubis for his scepter. In the Nickelodeon series House of Anubis, despite having no physical appearance, Anubis' "curse" results in death. In the novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman, perhaps a more accurate depiction, as Anubis appears as a quiet man trying to make a living running a funeral home.