Wepwawet

**Wepwawet**


 * Other Names:**

Ophios, Upwawet, Up-u’at, Ap-uat, Upuaut


 * Meaning of Name:**

“Opener of the Ways”


 * Hieroglyphics:**

or


 * Titles:**

“Messenger of the Road”

"The Racer/Runner"

“One With the Sharp Arrow Who is More Powerful Than the Gods”

"Southern Jackal"


 * Family:**

Wepwawet was considered to be the son of Wadjet or Anubis.

Like Anubis, Wepwawet was a funerary deity, and was one of the earliest of the gods worshiped. Wepwawet assisted at the Opening of the Mouth ceremony and guided the deceased through the Duat. This god also led warriors to victory and was a champion of royalty. He accompanied the king while hunting. Wepwawet could be said to “open the way” for both for the armies of the pharaoh and for the spirits of the dead. One inscription from the Sinai states that Wepwawet “opened the way” to king Sekhemkhet’s victory.

He was often an integral part of the royal unification rituals, associated with Upper Egypt. Egyptian kings were identified with Wepwawet, the “swift-roving jackal” when they defended their borders. During the Festival of Wepwawet, the pharaoh had to run a race to prove his fitness to rule. The priests of Wepwawet wore wolf-skin caps and tails, and played an important part during the Opening of the Mouth ceremony.

Wepwawet was associated with the symbol called the //shedshed//, the royal standard. Wepwawet’s standard was carried preceding the king from the palace or temple during processions, and during the New Kingdom, Wepwawet's standard even preceded that of Osiris. His standard was placed before the tomb during funeral ceremonies, and it was said that the king "traveled to join the gods on Wepwawet's standard." The standard (//h-nisw//) represents the royal placenta; one myth states that Wepwawet was also the "Opener of the Body," the king's first-born twin, who opened the way for the king out of the womb. The placenta was regarded as sacred, and as the king's celestial double or Ka, with whom he would be reunited with after death.

Other symbols of Wepwawet were the tamarisk tree and the adze. Wepwawet was the patron deity for the 13th nome of Upper Egypt, which the Greeks called Lycopolis ("Wolf City.") Wepwawet was pictured as a man dressed as a solider with the head of a wolf or jackal with grey, white, or brown fur, carrying a bow and the Ames Scepter. On rare occasions he was depicted as a man with the head of a hare.

On funerary statues it was common for the deceased to wish to “behold the beauty of Wepwawet during the procession.” People set up memorial stelas in the desert, some carved with short prayers asking Wepwawet guide their relatives safely to the Afterlife. The pharaoh is said to undergo a process known as "becoming Wepwawet," as he moves towards the acknowledgement of his divinity by the other gods, who are assembled in the Afterlife to await his arrival. Amulets of Wepwawet, made of gold and bronze, were buried with the dead.


 * Egyptian Names Honoring This Deity:**

Wepwatmose ("Born of Wepwawet")


 * Modern Influence:**

The name of "Upuaut" was given, highly appropriately, to the tiny robot used to investigate the "air shafts" in the Great Pyramid.

Egyptian Deities - W