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Anubis, God of Embalming and Guide and Friend of the Dead

by Caroline Seawright October 8, 2001Updated: December 19, 2012

Anubis (Inpew, Yinepu, Anpu) was an ancient Egyptian god of the underworld whoguided and protected the spirits of the dead. He was known as the 'Lord of theHallowed Land' - the necropolis - and Khentamentiu, 'Foremost of theWesterners' - the Land of the Dead was thought to be to the west, where the Egyptians buried theirdead. (Khentamentiu was the name of a previous canine deity who was superseded by Anubis.) Theworship of Anubis was an ancient one - it was probably even older than the worship of Osiris. In thepyramid texts of Unas, his role was already very clear - he was associated with the Eye of Horusand he was already thought to be the guide of the dead in the af terlif e, showing them the way toOsiris. In these text, according to E. A. Wallis Budge, it says that "Unas standeth with the Spirits, getthee onwards, Anubis, into Amenti, onwards, onwards to Osiris."

He was generally depicted as a black jackal-headed man, or as a black jackal. The Egyptians wouldhave noticed the jackals prowling around the graveyards, and so the link between the animal and thedead was f ormed in their minds. (It has been noticed by Flinders Petrie that the best guides toEgyptian tombs are the jackal- trails.) Anubis was painted black to f urther link him with the deceased -a body that has been embalmed became a pitch black colour. Black was also thecolour of f ertility, and thus linked to death and rebirth in the af terlif e. Anubis wasalso seen as the deity of embalming, as well as a god of the dead. To theEgyptians, Anubis was the protector of embalming and guardian of both themummy and the necropolis.

Anubis was of ten identif ied by the word sab, 'jackal' rather than 'dog' (iwiw).Though to the Egyptians there was not a great deal of dif f erence between thetwo canines, so there is some conf usion over which animal Anubis actually was.The animal is sometimes ref erred to as the 'Anubis animal' as it is unknown whichexact species of canine that Anubis actually was based on.

When the Osiris worship came to power, Osiris took over many of Anubis' jobsas caretaker and protector of the dead. As this happened, Anubis became 'HeWho is Bef ore the Divine Booth', the god of embalming who presided over thef unerary rituals. The f unerary stm priests would wear a mask of the jackal godduring the mummif ication process, symbolically becoming the god f or the rituals.

The preliminary stages of mummif ication involved the opening - the violation - ofthe body, an action that only Anubis himself would have been allowed to perf orm.The priest who took on this role was called the 'Overseer of the Mysteries' (heryseshta). It was thought that he would be magically become the f unerary godhimself and so be able to legitimately cut open the corpse f or the mummif icationprocess.

He is sometimes called the son of Nephthys and Set or of Nephthys and Osiris. In the second version ofhis origins, it was believed that his aunt Isis raised him, rather than his mother Nephthys, as Set mightmurder his wif e's illegitimate son. Thus he grew up as a f riend and f ollower of Osiris.

He was thought to have a daughter known as ( ) Qebehet (Qebehout, Kebehut, Kebhut, Kebechet, Kabechet, Kebecht), who was depicted as a snake or ostrich carrying water. She was the goddess of f reshness and purif ication through water who washed the entrails of the deceased and brought the sacred water toAnubis f or his tasks. She was thought to give water to the spirits of the deadwhile they waited f or the mummif ication process to be complete. She wasprobably related to mummif ication where she would f ortif y the body againstcorruption, so it would stay f resh f or reanimation by the deceased's ka.

The goddess Qebehet f irst appears in the Fif th Dynasty and is mentioned in thePyramid Texts of Pepi I: "Qebehet, the daughter of Anubis, goes f orth to meetPepi, with f our nemset vases. She ref reshes the breast of the Great God on theday of his watch, and she ref reshes the breast of Pepi with lif e. She washes Pepi, she censes Pepi."

-- Pat Remler (2010), Egyptian Mythology, A to Z , p. 103

At temples throughout Egypt, some of the priests had a special job as part of the daily ritual - thatof purif ying the temple deity. Using incense to purif y the air, the deity was lif ted out of his or hershrine, was washed, anointed with oils, dressed in white, green, red and blue cloths and f ed.Qebehet washing of Pepi seems to relate to the priestly ritual of serving the gods. Because of herconnection with water and purif ication, she is sometimes linked with the goddess Iabet.

The goddess Anput (Anupet, Input, Inpewt, Yineput) - inpwt - was the goddess of the 17th Nome of Upper Egypt, who was depicted as a woman wearing the jackal standard of her nome or a woman with the head of a jackal. She was believed to have been the wif e of Anubis, and possibly the mother of Qebehet. Anubis was originally the god of the 17th Nome of Upper Egypt. The symbol f or this nome was, as per Anput's headdress, a jackal on top of a standard.

In the Ptolemaic temples, Anput takes the f orm of a jackal or similar canid and isshown carrying sharp knives. It would appear that she has a role in the protectionof the dead Osiris, and theref ore of deceased humans too.

-- Terence DuQuesne (2007), Anubis, Upwawet, and Other Deities: PersonalWorship and Official Religion in Ancient Egypt, p. 20

It was believed that Anubis was the one who invented the process ofmummif ication. Anubis helped Isis bring her husband back to lif e again af ter Sethad killed him. He embalmed the body of the god, swathed it in the linen clothsthat had been woven by the twin goddesses, Isis and Nephthys, making sure thatthe body would never decay or rot.

The wakening of the dead was also thought to be a f unction of Anubis. He wouldappear by the mummy, and awaken the soul. The mummy was removed f rom the sarcophagus when it arrived at the door of the tomb and was placed upright against the wall by a priest wearing the mask of Anubis, thought to have become the god himself . The 'Opening of the Mouth' ceremony was then perf ormed. It consisted of a number of rituals that would turn the mummy (or a statue of the dead) into an inhabitable vessel f or the deceased's ka. The ceremonies involved purif ication, censing and anointing of the mummy along with incantations. The mummy was touched by ritual objects on various body parts to restore the senses - the spirit would then be able to see, hear, speak and eat as a living being. Some of the tools f or this ritual have been f ound in predynastic Amratian graves, so it is probable that at least some of the rituals involved in the 'Opening of the Mouth' had evolved f rom this early time.

After the the deceased had been placed into the tomb and sealed up, it was thought that Anubis would lead the deceased to the afterlife, along with another god, Wepwawet (Upuaut). The two are very similar, though Wepwawet was also another ancient jackal or wolf god, appearing on the Narmer palette. He was not just a god of the dead, but he was a warrior god who opened the way to victoryf or the pharaoh. The 'Opener of the Ways' helped Anubis to guide the dead tothe Halls of Ma'ati. It was here that Anubis, as 'He Who Counts the Hearts',watched over of the weighing of the heart and the judging of the deceased. Hereit was his duty to see that the beam of the scales was in its proper place, andthat the weighing was done correctly. He would then pass judgement on the deceased and Thoth would record the pronouncement. Anubis would protect the innocent f rom the jaws of Ammut, but would give the guilty to her to meet the f inal death.

He also guided the souls of the dead through the underworld, being assisted in this duty by Wapwawet,another jackal-headed eity, whose name signif ies 'Opener of the Ways.' These gods have sometimes beenconf ounded with one another, but in certain texts they are separately alluded to. The name of the latterdeity is signif icant of his probably early f unction. Anubis, thinks Dr. Budge, was the opener of the roads ofthe north, and Wapwawet of those of the south. "In f act," he says, "Anubis was the personif ication of thesummer solstice, and Wapwawet of the winter solstice."

-- Lewis Spence (2008), Myths & Legends of Ancient Egypt, p. 105

A strange f etish, known as the imiut f etish, was linked to Anubis. It was aheadless stuf f ed skin (usually of a great f eline), t ied by its tail to a pole whichwas planted in a pot. Known as the 'Son of the hesat-Cow' (the cow thatproduced the Mnevis bull was linked to the cow goddess Hesat), another tit le ofAnubis, they is evidence of this f etish as early as the 1st Dynasty. They werelinked to the f unerary cult, depicted in the Chapel of Anubis at Hatshepsut'smortuary temple and actual golden f etishes being lef t in the tomb ofTutankhamen. These emblems of Anubis were placed at the western ends of thecorridors, one on each side of the outermost shrine at Tutankhamen's tomb. Thepots were made of calcite and the poles represented the water lily (lotus) stem and bud whilethe tip of the skin's tail had a papyrus f lower attached and the pole and f etish itself weregilded. Other f etishes have been f ound made of real animal skin that have been wrapped inbandages. In early times there was a god, Imiut, who was known as 'He Who is in HisWrappings' who became a f orm of Anubis. The f etish was probably linked with mummywrappings though it also appears to have been related to the royal jubilee f estival.

Anubis the Dweller in the Mummy Chamber, Governor of the Divine House ... saith:- Homageto thee, thou happy one, lord! Thou seest the Wedjat (Eye of Horus or Ra). Ptah-Sokar hathbound thee up. Anubis hath exalted thee. Shu hath raised thee up, O Beautif ul Face, thougovernor of eternity. Thou hast thine eye, O scribe Nebseni, lord of f ealty, and it is beautif ul.Thy right eye is like the Sektet Boat, thy lef t eye is like the Atet Boat. Thine eyebrows are f airto see in the presence of the Company of the Gods. Thy brow is under the protection ofAnubis, and thy head and f ace, O beautif ul one, are bef ore the holy Hawk. Thy f ingers havebeen stablished by thy scribe's craf t in the presence of the Lord of Khemenu (El Ashmunein),Thoth, who hath bestowed upon thee the knowledge of the speech of the holy books. Thybeard is beautif ul in the sight of Ptah-Sokar, and thou, O scribe Nebseni, thou lord of f ealty,art beautif ul bef ore the Great Company of the Gods. The Great God looketh upon thee, andhe leadeth thee along the path of happiness. Sepulchral meals are bestowed upon thee, andhe overthroweth f or thee thine enemies, setting them under thy f eet in the presence of theGreat Company of the Gods who dwell in the House of the Great Aged One which is in Anu.

-- E. A. Wallis Budge (1913), The papyrus of Ani: a reproduction in facsimile, Volume 2 , pp. 629-631

To the east of Saqqara there was a place known as Anubeion, one of Anubis' cult centres. The burials of mummified dogs and jackals took place there. Although he was worshiped all over Egypt, he had other cult centres at Abt, the 12th Nome Upper Egypt, Zawty (Asyut) and the city of Hardai (Cynopolis) in the 17th Nomeof Upper Egypt where a vast number of dog mummies were buried at dogcemeteries.

As protector of the necropolis, Anubis was known as 'He Who is Upon theMountain'. The Egyptians believed that the god would keep watch over the tombsand graves f rom a high vantage point in the desert, ready to rush down toprotect the deceased f rom desecration. Images of Anubis as a seated jackalabove nine prisoners were stamped on many of the seals to tombs in the Valleyof the Kings. They symbolise Anubis' protection against thieves and evil doerswho entered the necropolis. He protected not only the souls of the dead, buttheir eternal resting place, too.

© Caroline 'Kunoichi' Seawright 2001 - present