Anubis or Andrismono (Ancient Greek: Ἄνουβις) is the name of the jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion.
Like other ancient Egyptian deities,Anubis, Egyptian Mythology and Gods. he took on and held different roles in various contexts. Depicted as protector of tombs in the First Dynasty (c. 3100-c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also the embalmer. In the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BC), Anubis was replaced by Osiris in his role as Lord of the Underworld. One of his main functions was as the god who accompanied souls in the afterlife. He tended the scales during the "Weighing of the Heart", in which it was determined whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead. Despite being the oldest gods and "one of the most frequently represented and mentioned gods" in the Egyptian pantheon, he did not play a major role in Egyptian myths.
Anubis was shown in black, a color that symbolized rebirth and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis was associated with Upuaut, another Egyptian god depicted as having a dog's head or canine form, but with white or gray hair. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined. The female equivalent of Anubis is Anput. His daughter is the serpent goddess Qebehut.
History[]
In the early Egyptian dynastic period (c. 3100 – c. 2686 BC), Anubis was depicted in his animal form, with the body and head of a jackal. A jackal god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the kingdoms of Aha, Dyer, and other First Dynasty pharaohs. Since predynastic Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, jackals have been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers that dug up human bodies and ate their flesh. In the spirit of "fighting fire with fire", they chose a jackal as protector of the dead.
The earliest known textual mention of Anubis is in the Old Kingdom pyramid texts (c. 2686 – c. 2181 BC), where he is associated with the pharaoh's burial. In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the most important god of the dead. He was replaced in that role by Osiris during the Middle Kingdom (2000–1700 BC). In Roman times, beginning in 30 BC, tomb paintings show him holding the hand of the deceased to guide him to Osiris.
Anubis's family varied according to myths, times and sources. In early mythology, he was represented as the son of Ra. In the sarcophagus texts, which were written in the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), Anubis was the son of either the cow goddess Hesat or the cat goddess Bastet. Another tradition showed him as the son of his father Ra and his mother Nephthys. The Greek Plutarch (c. 40–120 AD) claimed that he was the illegitimate son of Nephthys and Osiris, but that he was adopted by the latter's wife, Isis.
By the time Isis found out that Osiris loved her sister and had intercourse with her mistaking her for her, and when he saw the proof of it in the form of a garland of shamrocks that he had given to Nephthys. She wanted a baby, so she abandoned him when she was born out of fear of Set; and when Isis found the baby helped by the dogs that had brought him there with great difficulty, she raised him and became her protector and ally.
George Hart sees this story as an "attempt to incorporate the independent deity Anubis into the Osiriac pantheon". An Egyptian papyrus from the Roman period (30-380 BC) simply called Anubis the "son of Isis".
In the Ptolemaic period (350-30 BC), when Egypt became a Hellenistic kingdom ruled by Greek pharaohs, Anubis combined with the Greek god Hermes, becoming Hermanubis. The two gods were considered similar because they both guided the souls of the dead to the afterlife. The center of his cult was in Cinópolis, a place whose Greek name means "city of dogs". In Book XI of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, there is evidence that the cult of this god was continued in Rome until at least the second century. In fact, Hermanubis also appears in the alchemical and hermetic literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Although the Greeks and Romans generally despised the animal-headed gods as odd and primitive (Anubis was mocked by the Greeks as "Barker"), Anubis was sometimes associated with Sirius in the heavens and Cerberus and Hades in the underworld. In his dialogues, Plato has Socrates swearing such oaths as "by the dog" (kai me ton kuna), "by the dog of Egypt," and "by the dog, the god of the Egyptians," both with emphasis and to appeal to Anubis as moderator of truth in the underworld.
Anubis Functions[]
Guard of Graves[]
In contrast to the jackals, Anubis was the protector of tombs and cemeteries. Many epithets were added to his name in Egyptian texts referring to that role. Khenty-imentu means "foremost of the westerners", which later became the name of another jackal god, alluding to his protective role as the dead were buried on the west bank of the Nile. He took other names in connection with his funerary function, such as "He who is on the mountain" (tepy-dju-ef), watching over the tombs from above, or "Lord of the sacred land" (neb-ta-djeser) which designates him as god of the desert necropolis.
Most of the tombs have inscriptions to Anubis.
Embalmer[]
As "He who is in the place of embalming" (imy-ut), Anubis was associated with mummification. He was also called "He who presides over the pavilion of the gods" (khanty-she-netjer), where "pavilion" could refer to the place where he was embalmed or to the pharaoh's burial chamber.
In Osiriac myth, Anubis helped Isis embalm Osiris. In fact, when the myth of Osiris emerged, it was said that after his death, his organs were offered as a gift to Anubis. With this relationship, Anubis became the patron god of embalmers; during mummification rites, illustrations in the Book of the Dead sometimes show the priest in a jackal mask holding the mummy upright.
Heart weight[]
One of Anubis' functions was "Keeper of the Scales". The critical scene showing the weight of the heart, in the Book of the Dead, shows Anubis performing the measure that would determine if a person was worthy to enter the realm of the dead (the underworld, known as Duat). . By weighing the heart of the deceased against the ostrich feather of Maat (truth), Anubis dictated the fate of souls. Souls heavier than feather would be devoured by Ammyt, a lighter soul would ascend to heavenly existence.
Soul Guide[]
During the late pharaonic era (664-332 BC), Anubis was depicted guiding individuals across the borders of the world of the living into the afterlife. Although Hathor sometimes performed similar duties, it was a more common role for Anubis. Greek writers of the Roman period of Egyptian history designated this function as "psychopampa", a Greek term meaning "guide of souls" which they used to refer to their own god Hermes, who had that function in Greek religion. Funerary art from that period depicts Anubis leading men and women dressed in Greek clothing in the presence of Osiris, who had long since replaced Anubis as ruler of the underworld.
Representation in art[]
Anubis was one of the most widely represented gods in ancient Egyptian art. In the early dynastic period, he was depicted in his animal form, as a black jackal. The distinctive black color did not represent the skin of real jackals or wolves, but had a symbolic color. It first represented the loss of color of the corpse after natron treatment and soaking of the wrappings with a resinous substance during mummification". Being the color of the fertile silt of the Nile River, black symbolized fertility and the possibility of rebirth in the other life.
Anubis used to be depicted as a jackal-headed human. In the tomb of Ramses II at Abydos he is shown as a complete human.
He is sometimes depicted wearing a lasso and holding the nekhakha scourge on his arm. Another of Anubis' attributes was the Imiut.
In the funerary context, he is shown attending to the mummy of the deceased or sitting on the grave, protecting her from it. New Kingdom tomb seals also show Anubis atop the nine bows symbolizing domination over Egypt's enemies.