Details
Region Additional (if applicable)
Egyptian
Region
Category
God
Gender
Male
Time Period
c. 3100 BCE - 4th century CE (Predynastic through Ptolemaic periods)
Symbol
Scale
Tags
egyptian, god, death, underworld, mummification, jackal
Introduction
Anubis is one of the most ancient and visually distinctive gods of the Egyptian pantheon, depicted as a man with the head of a black jackal (or, in recent zoological understanding, the African golden wolf) or as a full jackal recumbent upon a shrine-shaped pedestal. His Egyptian name, Anpu or Inpw, may derive from a root meaning "to decay" or "to putrefy," linking him to the very process of bodily decomposition that mummification was designed to arrest. For millennia, Anubis stood as the paramount guardian at the boundary between life and death - the original psychopomp who escorted souls through the perilous transition into the afterlife. Before the rise of the Osiris cult during the late Old Kingdom (c. 2400-2200 BCE), Anubis was himself the chief god of the dead, retaining this primacy even in the earliest royal tombs of the First Dynasty.
Anubis's black coloration holds profound symbolic meaning in Egyptian thought. Rather than representing evil or malevolence, black signified the fertile black silt deposited by the Nile's annual inundation - a substance of renewal, regeneration, and transformation. It also alluded to the dark resins used in the embalming process, making Anubis a figure not of death's finality but of death as a transformative threshold. His role expanded across Egyptian history from sole lord of the dead to an essential collaborator in the Osirian drama: the divine embalmer who performed the first mummification, the impartial technician who operated the scales of judgement, and the compassionate guide who led justified souls into the presence of Osiris.
Gallery
Other Anubis depictions as weigher of the heart.
Who or What was...
Anubis
Anubis occupies a unique and liminal position within the divine family of Egypt. While traditions vary regarding his parentage - some early texts name him as a son of Ra, others as the offspring of the cow goddess Hesat or the cat goddess Bastet - the most widespread later tradition, preserved in Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride and reflected in temple inscriptions, makes Anubis the son of Nephthys and Osiris. According to this account, Nephthys, the sister-wife of Set, desired Osiris and disguised herself as her sister Isis to conceive a child. Fearing Set's wrath, Nephthys abandoned the infant; Isis discovered and raised him as her own. This liminal origin - born of a hidden union, abandoned by his birth mother, adopted by his aunt - mirrors Anubis's theological function as a being who exists between worlds, mediating transitions rather than ruling any single domain.
As the divine inventor of mummification, Anubis established the ritual pattern that every subsequent Egyptian embalming sought to replicate. After Set murdered Osiris and scattered his dismembered body across Egypt, Anubis - alongside Isis, Nephthys, and Thoth - assisted in reassembling the fragments and wrapping them in linen bandages, thereby creating the first mummy. Every human mummification thereafter was understood as a sacred re-enactment of this original act. The chief embalmer, titled the hery seshta ("overseer of mysteries"), donned a jackal-head mask during critical phases of the seventy-day process, ritually becoming Anubis and transforming a technical procedure into a theological drama of resurrection.
Anubis's most frequently depicted role is his function at the Weighing of the Heart, the central judgement of the dead that takes place in the Hall of Maat before Osiris. While Osiris presides as divine judge and Thoth records the verdict, it is Anubis who physically operates the scales. In the famous vignette from the Papyrus of Ani (c. 1250 BCE), Anubis kneels beside the great balance, one hand adjusting the plumb bob to ensure the scale is level, the other steadying the pan. He guides the deceased into the hall, places the heart upon one pan, sets the feather of Maat upon the other, and verifies the result with meticulous precision. This role as the technician of cosmic justice underscores the Egyptian understanding that judgement is not arbitrary divine whim but exact measurement against the unyielding standard of truth.
Beyond the scales, Anubis presides over the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony, a funerary ritual performed upon the mummy to restore the senses - enabling the deceased to eat, drink, speak, and see in the afterlife. A priest wearing an Anubis mask touches the mouth, eyes, ears, and nose of the mummy with ritual adzes while reciting sacred spells, reanimating the ka (life force) within its eternal vessel. Through all these functions, Anubis embodies the assurance that death is not an end but a passage - one that, if properly navigated, leads to eternal life in the Field of Reeds.
Summary
Anubis stands as one of Egypt's oldest and most enduring deities, the jackal-headed guardian who transformed humanity's fear of death into a promise of resurrection. From his origins as the primary god of the dead to his evolved role as the divine embalmer, psychopomp, and operator of the scales of judgement, Anubis represents the liminal threshold between worlds. His black jackal form - the animal most associated with desert cemeteries - was elevated into the supreme protector of burial and afterlife. Through his performance of the first mummification upon Osiris, he established the ritual foundation for all Egyptian burial practice, and through his precise operation of the Weighing of the Heart, he guaranteed that cosmic justice would be measured with unwavering accuracy.
References
Validation References: Thalira.com "Anubis: The Jackal God and Death Guide" (2026); Pyramid Texts (c. 2400-2300 BCE); Papyrus of Ani, Book of the Dead (c. 1250 BCE); Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride (1st-2nd century CE); Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (2003); Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids (1997); British Museum collection records for Anubis statuary and Book of the Dead vignettes.