Anubis

**Anubis**


 * Other Names:**

Anpu, Inpew, Ap-uat, Yinepu


 * Meaning of Name:**

“Royal Child” or “Young Dog.” There is some speculation that the name of Anubis may have been derived from an Egyptian word meaning “to putrefy.”


 * Hieroglyphics:**

or

//Tepy-Dju-Ef// (“He Who is Set Upon His Mountain” - to guard the necropolis from the heights of the desert cliffs)
 * Titles**:

//Ip-Ibw// (“He Who Counts the Hearts”)

“Guardian of the Veil” (of death)

//Iry-Mxat// ("Keeper of the Balance")

"Lord of Sepa"

//Neb-Ta-Djeser// ("Lord of the Duat")

“The Dog Who Swallows Millions”

//Imy-Ut// (“He Who is Before the Divine Booth" - of embalming)

“Jackal Ruler of the Bows” (signifying his victory over the nine bows meant to be hostile forces of the Duat)

//Neb-Qrst// ("Lord of the Burial")

“The One Who Eats His Father”

//Khenty-Seh-Netjer// ("Guardian of the House of Purification")

//Hery-Seshta// ("Overseer of the Mysteries" - the secrets of embalming)

“He Who Belongs to the Mummy Wrappings”

//Khenty-Imentiu// (“Foremost of the Westerners” - a reference to the Egyptian belief that the realm of the dead lay to the west in association with the setting sun, and to their custom of building cemeteries on the west bank of the Nile.)


 * Family:**

Anubis was thought to be the son of Nephthys and Osiris, and was later adopted by Isis. Sometimes he was considered to be the son of Hesat and Ra and to have had a daughter, Kebehwet. On rare occasions his mother-wife was thought to be Bast.

Anubis was the guardian of the dead, who greeted the souls in the Duat and protected them on their journey. It was he who deemed the deceased worthy of becoming an //Akh// (star.) Ancient Egyptian texts say that Anubis silently walked through the shadows of life and death and lurked in dark places. He was watchful by day as well as by night. He also weighed the heart of the dead against the feather symbol of Ma’at, the goddess of truth.

One of the reasons that the ancient Egyptians took such care to preserve their dead with sweet-smelling herbs was that it was believed Anubis would check each person with his keen canine nose. Only if they smelled pure would he allow them to enter Sehet Aaru (the Kingdom of the Dead.) This “odor of sanctity” idea was adopted by Christian doctrine, which maintained that the corpses of saints never stank, but always smelled as sweet as flowers.

Anubis was said to protect souls as they journeyed through the Duat, and thus be the patron of lost souls (and consequently orphans ). Jackals were believed to lead the deceased through the Duat - a hymn states that "Anubis knows the roads to the beautiful west." The wakening of the dead was also thought to be a function of Anubis - he would appear by the mummy, and awaken the soul. In the wall decoration of tombs Anubis is generally depicted placing his hands on the chest of the deceased to warm the heart (Ab) to life.

According to the Book of the Dead, it was Anubis himself who embalmed the dead body of Osiris. Indeed, when the Legend of Osiris and Isis emerged, it was said that when Osiris had died, Osiris' internal organs were given to Anubis as a gift.

High priests wore the Anubis mask to perform the ceremonial deeds of Anubis, the Embalmer. The preliminary stages of mummification involved the opening - the violation - of the body, an action that only Anubis himself would have been allowed to perform. The priest who took on this role was called //Hery-Seshta// ("Overseer of the Mysteries.") It was thought that he would be magically become the funerary god himself and so be able to legitimately cut open the corpse for the mummification process. Priests also wore the Anubis mask to collect fees for funerals and offerings to the dead. A few such masks have survived. We can see openings for the priest’s shoulders and under the animal’s muzzle are two holes for the human eyes. The priests who planned funerals were known as the "Men of Anubis."

A very old deity, Anubis reined over divination and the funerary arts. The London-Leiden Greek papyrus describes scrying with Anubis using a bowl filled with ink or oil. Anubis was depicted on the bottom of a divination bowl, so that the seer saw Anubis first, leading the other gods who would come to reveal the secrets of the future. Amulets of Anubis, made of bronze, gold, and faience, were buried with the dead with the formula "Anubis for you and your protection!"

The worship of Anubis as a god of the dead is likely older even than that of Osiris. Prayers to Anubis have been found carved on the most ancient tombs in Egypt. In numerous texts from as early as the Old Kingdom, Anubis is asked to ensure a good burial and many offerings. His figure was carved on tomb entrances to warn off grave robbers at a time when no other deity could be shown in nonroyal tombs. Among his many duties, Anubis, along with his army of Anubite, punished those who violated tombs or offended the gods.

It seems that at first Anubis was a god of death for the pharaoh alone. It is thought that in early times the pharaoh may have been ritually put to death by viper poisoning at the end of twenty-eight years’ reign, dying in health and vigor and never being allowed to grow old. When the end came Anubis (or a priest in an Anubis mask representing him) would appear to the pharaoh with a viper, an interesting parallel to the death of Cleopatra. Although this practice ended, Anubis remained the announcer of death. It is interesting in this connection that the god Osiris was murdered after twenty-eight years on the throne. Twenty-eight years were also symbolic of the lunar month, which has twenty-eight days.

No public procession would be conducted without an Anubis to march at the head, the “go-between” of gods and men. The Roman author Apuleius describes the appearance of Anubis during the Procession of Isis: "Immediately after these came the Deities consenting to walk upon human feet, the foremost among them rearing terrifically on high his dog's head and neck - this messenger between heaven and hell displaying alternately a face black as night, and as golden as the day . . ." Anubis bore the title of the "Black and Gold God," and the jackal masks worn by priests often had one side of the face painted black and the other gold, the emphasize the god's mastery of the dark and light.

Anubis was portrayed as a jackal-headed man, or as a jackal wearing red ribbons, the Sa Sign, and the Double Crown, holding a flail or the Sekhem Specter. In very rare instances, he was shown as a falcon, a snake, or fully human.

Anubis was always shown as a black jackal, even though real jackals are typically tan in color. To the Egyptians black was the color of regeneration, death, and the night. It was also the color that the body turned during mummification. The reason for Anubis’s animal being canine is based on what the ancient Egyptians themselves observed of the creature - jackals often haunted the edges of the desert, especially near the cemeteries where the dead were buried. In fact, it is thought that the Egyptians first began the practice of making elaborate graves and tombs to protect the dead from desecration by jackals.

A magnificent statue of Anubis, jackal-form, was found in Tutankhamen’s tomb, wrapped in a linen shawl and with ribbons tied around the neck. The statue is carved of wood, varnished with black resin with gilded details, including the inside of the ears. The piercing eyes are made of calcite and obsidian, set into gold surrounds and pricked out in gold. The claws are of solid silver.

Anubis also protected dogs, and when pet dogs died, they were mummified and buried in temples dedicated to Anubis (although Anubis was a jackal-god, the ancient Egyptians did not generally differentiate between dogs and jackals, sometimes even using the same word for both canines.) To the east of Saqqara there was a place known as Anubeion, where a shrine and a cemetery of mummified dogs and jackals has been discovered. The Egyptians swore “by the Dog” when making oaths they would not break.

Sometimes the deceased king was thought to change into a jackal form in order to journey through the Duat - the pharaoh was said to enter his pyramid "like Anubis on his belly" and use the jackal's senses and speed in order to safely navigate the way to Sehet Aaru. An important symbol of Anubis was the //imiut//, sometimes called the "Anubis Fetish." The //Was// scepter sometimes featured a jackal head. On rare occasions Anubis was associated with the moon.

Anubis was said to have mythical servants called Anubite, who took his form to protect the dwellings of pharaohs. They were fabled to be creatures composed of half-man and half-jackal, impervious to fire and normal weapons. The legendary leader of the Anubites was called Theris Nordo Ichka - he was the first person on record to have a middle name. He was said to be so strong he could break a solid brick of limestone with his own hand, with no tools.

Eventually banished from Egypt, the Anubites made their own country about 400 miles away from the Egyptians and called it “Anubekur.” There is unfortunately nothing left of this country or its culture after an invasion by unknown peoples and a sandstorm.


 * Feast and Holy Days:**

September 4th (Ceremony of Transformation through Anubis) January 1st (Day of Keeping the Things of Osiris in the Hands of Anubis)

January 20th (Going Forth of Anubis)

June 20th (Anubis Travels to Every Necropolis)

June 23rd (Ceremony of Anubis)

July 5th (Feast of Anubis)

May 5th (Holy Day of Anubis)


 * Quotes from the Book of the Dead and other sources:**

“Anubis, who is upon his hill, hath set thee in order, and he hath fastened for thee thy swathings, thy throat is the throat of Anubis and thy face is like that of Anubis.”

Hymns of Anubis


 * Egyptian Names Honoring This Deity:**

Setinepu ("He Whom Anubis Begot")


 * Outside of Egypt:**

Although the Greeks and Romans typically scorned Egypt’s animal-headed gods as bizarre and primitive (they mockingly called Anubis the “Barker”), Anubis was sometimes associated with the dog-star Sirius in heaven, and Cerberus in hell. Evidence has been found that the worship of Anubis was maintained in Rome at least up to the 2nd century C.E. The Romans claimed that Anubis acted as an enforcer of curses, a role he plays to this day in horror films. In Memphis, the embalmer's quarters of the Late Period and the Ptolemaic era were specifically under the guardianship of Anubis, so much so that modern Egyptologists, who have been excavating the areas since the 1960's, have named it the Anubieion.

He was worshiped as Hermanubis, a combination of the Greek god Hermes, and Anubis, by the Greeks. As their functions were vaguely similar, they were combined by the Greeks into a single form. Hermanubis appears in alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as a jackal-headed man dressed in the garb of a Roman general. Among miracles recorded for the edification of believers by the freedman of the Emperor Hadrian, Phlegon, is the birth of a baby with an “Anubis head” in the first century.

Early Christians were repulsed by Anubis and outlawed mummification. The writer Tertillian claimed that the Egyptians practiced a “despicable religion” in which the worshiper is “led like a slave by the greedy throat and filthy habits of a dog.” It seems odd that Anubis should be scorned this way. It is true that his two emblematic creatures, the jackal and the dog, were in the ancient world notorious scavengers.

But one of the main functions of Anubis was to release the human body at death from the uncleanness that possessed it. He washed the body, embalmed it, and perfumed it with myrrh. He wrapped it with clean linen and received it at the door of the tomb – to the Egyptians Anubis was “Lord of the Cleansing Room.” As the ancient Greeks and Christians did not embalm the bodies of their dead (and to them death itself was considered to be a mysterious and terrifying thing), they unfairly associated the holy Anubis with disease and decay.

Egyptian Deities - A