Anubis : The God of the Dead

Introduction

Anubis is the god of the afterlife and is often confused with the older Wepwawet. It is believed that before the First Dynasty of Egypt, he developed a cult following in order to be invoked on the walls of royal tombs in order to protect them from wild dogs and jackals who frequently dug up freshly buried bodies. The Egyptians believed a powerful canine god was the best protection against these wild canines.

Like other ancient Egyptian deities, he had various roles and was often depicted as a protector of graves during the First Dynasty. By the Middle Kingdom, he was replaced by the god of the underworld, who would be named Osiris. As a god, he was known to bring souls into the afterlife. He was also known to attend the weighing scale, which was used to determine if a soul could enter the realm of the dead.

Physical Traits

Anubis was often depicted as a black canine, a jackal-dog hybrid, or a muscular man with pointed ears. The color black was chosen because it represented the decay of the body and the life-giving soil of the Nile River Valley. The powerful black canine, then, was the protector of the dead who made sure they received their due rights in burial and stood by them in the life after death to assist their resurrection.

An exceedingly rare depiction of him in full human form was found in a tomb of Ramesses II. He was also known for wearing a ribbon and holding a flail in his arm. In funerary contexts, he would also be depicted sitting on a deceased person's tomb or guarding it.

Family

He was initially considered the son of Hesat and Ra, but after he was assimilated into the myth of Osiris, he was later held to be the child of Osiris and Nephthys. 

A story from the First Dynasty states that Nephthys was attracted to the beauty of Osiris, and she transformed herself to look like his wife, Isis. She became pregnant and gave birth to Anubis but she abandoned him when he was only a few months old. Isis found out about the affair and went searching for the infant and, when she found him, adopted him as her own. Set also found out about the affair, and this is given as part of the reason for his murder of Osiris.

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