Anubis or Inpu, Anpu in Ancient Egyptian (

Anubis or Inpu, Anpu in Ancient Egyptian (/əˈnjuːbɪs/;[1] Ancient
Greek: Ἄνουβις, Egyptian: inpw, Coptic: ⲁⲛⲟⲩⲡ Anoup) is the Greek name of the god of death,
mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the Underworld, in ancient Egyptian
religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. Archeologists have identified
Anubis's sacred animal as an Egyptian canid, the African golden wolf.[2][3][4][note 1]
Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts. Depicted as
a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3100 – c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also
an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055 – 1650 BC) he was replaced by Osiris in his role as
lord of the underworld. One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife.
He attended the weighing scale during the "Weighing of the Heart," in which it was determined
whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead.[5] Despite being one of the most
ancient and "one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods" in the Egyptian pantheon,
Anubis played almost no role in Egyptian myths.[6]
Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized regeneration, life, the soil of the Nile River,
and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis is associated with his
brother Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog's head or in canine form, but with
grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined.[7] Anubis' female
counterpart is Anput. His daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet.
In Egypt's Early Dynastic period (c. 3100 – c. 2686 BC), Anubis was portrayed in full animal form,
with a "jackal" head and body.[16] A "jackal" god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions
from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, and other pharaohs of the First Dynasty.[17] Since Predynastic
Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, "jackals" had been strongly associated with
cemeteries because they were scavengers which uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh.[18] In
the spirit of "fighting like with like," a "jackal" was chosen to protect the dead, because "a common
problem (and cause of concern) must have been the digging up of bodies, shortly after burial, by
jackals and other wild dogs which lived on the margins of the cultivation."[19]
The oldest known textual mention of Anubis is in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 – c.
2181 BC), where he is associated with the burial of the pharaoh.[20]
In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the most important god of the dead. He was replaced in that role
by Osiris during the Middle Kingdom (2000–1700 BC).[21] In the Roman era, which started in 30 BC,
tomb paintings depict him holding the hand of deceased persons to guide them to Osiris.[22]
The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources. In early mythology, he was
portrayed as a son of Ra.[23] In the Coffin Texts, which were written in the First Intermediate
Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), Anubis is the son of either the cow goddess Hesat or the cat-
headed Bastet.[24] Another tradition depicted him as the son of Ra and Nephthys.[23] The
Greek Plutarch (c. 40–120 AD) stated that Anubis was the illegitimate son of Nephthys and Osiris,
but that he was adopted by Osiris's wife Isis:[
For when Isis found out that Osiris loved her sister and had relations with her in mistaking her sister
for herself, and when she saw a proof of it in the form of a garland of clover that he had left to
Nephthys - she was looking for a baby, because Nephthys abandoned it at once after it had been
born for fear of Seth; and when Isis found the baby helped by the dogs which with great difficulties
lead her there, she raised him and he became her guard and ally by the name of Anubis.
George Hart sees this story as an "attempt to incorporate the independent deity Anubis into
the Osirian pantheon."[24] An Egyptian papyrus from the Roman period (30–380 AD) simply called
Anubis the "son of Isis."[24]
In the Ptolemaic period (350–30 BC), when Egypt became a Hellenistic kingdom ruled by Greek
pharaohs, Anubis was merged with the Greek god Hermes, becoming Hermanubis.[26][27] The two
gods were considered similar because they both guided souls to the afterlife.[28] The center of
this cult was in uten-ha/Sa-ka/ Cynopolis, a place whose Greek name means "city of dogs." In Book
XI of The Golden Ass by Apuleius, there is evidence that the worship of this god was continued
in Rome through at least the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in
the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Although the Greeks and Romans typically scorned Egyptian animal-headed gods as bizarre and
primitive (Anubis was mockingly called "Barker" by the Greeks), Anubis was sometimes associated
with Sirius in the heavens and Cerberus and Hades in the underworld.[29] In his dialogues, Plato often
has Socrates utter oaths "by the dog" (kai me ton kuna), "by the dog of Egypt", and "by the dog, the
god of the Egyptians", both for emphasis and to appeal to Anubis as an arbiter of truth in the
underworld.

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Anubis or Inpu, Anpu in Ancient Egyptian (/əˈnjuːbɪs/;[1] Ancient

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