Anpu

Anubis

The god of embalming and mummification. The guardian of the necropolis.

Before the rise of Osiris, Anubis was the most important Egyptian funerary god. Primarily he was concerned with the death and afterlife of the king, but was eventually incorporated into the cults of the dead in general. The Ancient Egyptians believed that what could harm them could also protect them and so, the jackal and other carrion-eating canines who scavenged around the cemeteries, were magically and symbolically called upon to protect the deceased, and the necropolis in general.

During the Old Kingdom, kings and nobles appealed to Anubis on funerary stelae. The Pyramid Texts mention him in connection with the king's burial.(Wilkinson, 187) The Pyramid Texts reveal that the deceased king is said to have the body of Atum and the face of Anubis. (Redford, 22)

Hr.k m jnpw

Your face is as Anubis (PT 213-135c Sethe)

When, by the end of the third millennium BCE, the cult of Anubis was absorbed by that of Osiris, the former adopted the role of son of Osiris in that he was the one who was said to have invented mummification, wrapped the god's body and performed the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony - a task reserved for the son of the deceased king.

Assuming some of the aspects of another canid god, Wepwawet, Anubis took on some of that god's aspects. As 'Opener of the Ways' Anubis protected the paths of the king into the underworld.

xww jnpw hna Dhwtj

Anubis and Djehuty protect.

(CT II 120 b and l, Van der Plas and Borghuots)

The god also escorted the deceased to the Hall of Osiris

jnpw nTr Hr wAb wn.n.j sbAw jmHt

jnpw god over the wab priests, Open for me the doors of the Underworld. (CT IV 344 b-c, Van der Plas and Borghuots)

The Theban Recension Book of the Dead states-

rmnwtj jnpw rx wAwt imenti nfrt

...the two shoulders of Anubis know the roads to the beautiful west.

Anubis also assists in the Weighing of the Heart Ceremony. He performs the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony upon the mummy of the deceased to restore the senses to the dead.

Priests who practiced embalming and rituals associated with the dead wore masks of the Anubis animal.

The famous statue of the recumbent Anubis found in Tutankhamun's tomb faced west. Bob Briar tells us that 'between the paws was a magical torch with a brick stand which had a small hole in the middle in which the reed could be placed. Scratched on the brick was the ominous spell: "It is I who hinder the sand from choking the secret chamber, and who repel he who would repel him with the desert-flame. I have set aflame the desert [?], I have caused the path to be mistaken, I am for the protection of the Osiris."' (Brier, 195)

The origins of the god's name are uncertain, but many Egyptologists suggest that it derives from the terms inp, to decay (Textes religieux egyptianes. P. Lacau), or inpw, royal child. (Helck)

The determinatives for his name vary -

Anubis is frequently mentioned in the hotep-dj-nsw, formula, which literally means 'an offering that the king gives, with nswt in honorific transposition. This formula 'identifies the object on which it is inscribed as a funerary item theoretically authorized by the king himself- in effect a royal funerary gift.' (Allen, 358)

The god involved is ususally Osiris or Anubis, indicating their roles in the funerary cult-

CT V 165a

Htp di nsw jnpw tpj Dw.f jmj-wt nb-tA-Dsr, m swt.f nbt wabt nfrt

An offering the king gives and Anubis, atop his mountain, who is in the place of emblaming, lord of the sacred land, in all his places pure and good.

It is from many of these offerings, as well as the Coffin and Pyramid Texts, and numerous tomb, coffin and sarcophagus inscriptions, that we learn of Anubis' epithets and functions. The Coffin Texts are noted from the first intermediate period, dynasties IX-XI onwards and the Pyramid Texts are from dynasties III through VIII.

Epithets

Khenty-imentiu - Foremost of Westerners.

Most ancient Egyptian cemeteries were located on the Nile's west bank. The West was also the direction of the Netherworld and the place where the sun set. Anubis inherited that appellation from earlier canine deities at Abydos. (Wilkinson, 187)

wp.f st.f Axw, inpw xnty imentiu.

He opens his place to the Akhw, Anubis Foremost of the Westerners CT V11 138.

Neb-ta-djeser - Lord of the Sacred Land.

This title identified Anubis as sovereign of the desert areas in which the cemeteries were located.

jn jnpw nb xAst.

....by Anubis, Lord of the desert cliffs. CT VI p

Tepj-dju-ef - He Who is Upon His Mountain.

The image of Anubis overlooking the necropolis and its activities from the high cliffs above was probably the determinative factor for this name.

Jm.n.i m pr tpj Dw.f mAA.n.j xntj sH-nTr.

While I was in the house of 'He Who is Upon His Mountain.' I have seen the One Prominent of the Embalming Tent. BoD Chapter 125A- Chapter for entering into the Hall of the Two Truths (Faulkner)

Bob Brier notes that in an Eighteenth Dynasty tomb, within a niche in the east, was placed a small clay statue of Anubis. The magical spell says 'Thou watchful one, watchful also is he-who-is-upon-his-mountain. Thy moment is repelled. I have repelled thy moment of rage. I am thy protector.' (Brier, 174)

Anubis is also mentioned in the Coffin Texts as a protector:

jw jnpw Hr.k m sA.k

Anubis for you and your protection. CT 174

Ruler of the bows - Pyramid Text 805 refers to 'the Jackal, the Governor of the bows,...Anubis.'

m sAb n mr psDt

as the Jackal, (not pleased?) with the nine bows.

The Nine Bows signified all the enemies of Egypt and were represented by either nine assorted racial figures or by actual bows. Entrances to the royal tombs in the King's Valley during the New Kingdom often had a seal depicting Anubis recumbent upon the Nine Bows.

Imy-wt - He Who is in the Place of Embalming. This designation denoted Anubis as the embalmer. According to myth, Anubis was the personage who embalmed Osiris and, thereafter, the deceased king. The deity was also the one who protected the mummy and organs of the dead.

Htp dj nswt jnpw tpj-Dw-f jmj-wt.....

An offering the king gives, and Anubis Who is atop His Mountain, Who is in the Place of Embalming.....

This epithet, according to Barbara Watterson, means not He Who is in the Place of Embalming, but rather He who is in his Wrappings and is the appellation of an older deity. "The fetish of Imy-wt, consisting of a pole from which hangs a headless animal skin containing solutions for washing or embalming a dead body, became the fetish of Anubis." (Watterson, 174)

Khenty-sekh-netjer - Foremost of the Divine Booth.

Anubis was the protective netjer presiding over the embalming booth and the burial chambers well as the shrine in which the coffin and sarcophagus were placed. The sarcophagus of Thutmose III, as well as CT 252- c-d enumerate this appellation.

jnpw xntj zH-nTr

Anubis, Foremost of the Divine Booth

The Dog who Swallows Millions - (Pinch, 104) This name clearly defines Anubis in his role of vicious protector.

Master of Secrets - Was a title given to Anubis that bespoke of the deity's knowledge of the secrets of the embalming tent.

jnk snw n jnpw m Xnw sStAw n wryt ZH

I am the companion of jnpw within the secret great booth. CT III 323e

In the papyrus Jumilhac( 300 BCE), Anubis appears as the leader of the armed followers of Horus. In texts from the same time period, Anubis is referred to as 'Lord of the Bau' who leads battalions of messenger demons. In Roman times he was enforcer of curses.

iry mxAt - Keeper of the Balance.

This epithet identifies Anubis as the one who weighs the heart and helps to balance the scales. He is iry mxAt, the Master of the Balance, and is in control of the pointer. (Morenz, 127)

Appearance

Anubis was primarily depicted as an unspecified canine animal that we have come to refer to as a jackal. The creature closely resembles species of the dog family with its 'long muzzle, round-pupiled eyes, five-toed forefeet and four-toed hind feet, while on the other hand, its tail is wide and club shaped and characteristically carried down more like that of the jackal, fox or wolf.' (Wilkinson 189)

Most probably, the animal was a hybrid of the feral desert-dwelling canids and the domesticated dogs. A line from the Pyramid Texts demonstrates the uncertainty even to the ancient Egyptians.

hA nswt pn sStA jrw.f jnpw js

O King, whose form is as mysterious as that of anubis. PT 468-896.

The creature's black color symbolized both that of the corpse after embalming and mummification, and the fertile soil left after the receding waters of the annual Inundation.

Anubis, in his zoomorphic form was portrayed either sitting or recumbent upon a shrine, or merely laying with forelegs outstretch and tail hanging down behind him. He wore both a collar and a ceremonial tie around his neck. Oftimes either a sekhem scepter or flail rose from his back.

When depicted anthropomorphically, Anubis had the form of a man with the black head of the jackal-like animal sporting a tri-partite wig. He wore a kilt and shirt, carried a was scepter and ankh, was adorned with arm, wrist and ankle bands and a broad collar around his neck. He generally had a tail attached to his kilt.

Rarely, Anubis has been portrayed in fully human form, as in the Temple of Seti I in Abydos.

Myths

According to Maspero, the custom of burying the dead in the sand of the desert was due to the discovery that the body dessicated naturally. When artificial means were subsequently exploited, these means were said to have been given to men by a god - Anubis, the Jackal. "He cleansed the body of the viscera...saturated it with salts and aromatic substances, protected it first of all with the hide of a beast, and over this laid a thick layer of stuffs. (Maspero, 112)

This may be referenced by Coffin Text 195 g:

snDm jnpw Hs xnt st.k

Anubis makes sweet the excrement (odors) before your place.

Anubis became the patron of embalmers:

jnpw nTr Hr wab

Anubis, god over the wab priests CT IV 344 b-c

Hbs.Tw inpw wt...m Hbswtiwt wt

one is clothed by wrappings of jnpw....with cloth of mummy wrappings CT 375 a and d

inpu nb qrst

Anubis, lord of burial CT VI 351 e

BoD 170 The Theban Recension for assembling a bier:

Oh N, Anubis who is on his mountain will raise you up and will make your bandages strong.

Tradition speaks of Anubis as the embalmer of Osiris. He is shown repeatedly in connection with embalming, receiving the dead at the door of the tomb, and leading the deceased to the underworld.

The parentage of the god is quite in question, but as Anubis took on the functions of the Living Horus to the deceased Osiris, as the king's son, or heir, did for the king, stories were invented to give him legitimacy in this capacity.

In the Coffin Texts Anubis is the son of the cow goddess Hesat.

Hs mwt jnpw wnt.T m Hww.j

Hsat, mother of Anubis, you feed on (what I proclaim?) (CT 136a)

Wilkinson also says the CT's show him as son of Bastet.

Plutarch records the tradition that he was the son of Nephthys by Osiris and was adopted by Isis as her own. (Wilkinson, 187)

"...and thus, they say, may the legitimacy of Orus the son of Isis be accounted for, as likewise the spuriousness of Anubis, who was born of Nephthys. So again, when they tell us, that it appears from the tables of the successions of their ancient kings, that Nephthys was married to Typho {Set}....." (Budge quoting Plutarch, 257)

At any rate, Anubis became assimilated into the cult of Osiris, and was said to have protected Isis at the time of her giving birth to Horus.

Among his many duties, Anubis, along with an army of messengers, punished those who violated tombs or offended the gods. (Pinch, 104)

'A story recorded in the first millennium BCE tells how the wicked god Seth disguised himself as a leopard to approach the body of Osiris. He was seized by Anubis and branded all over with a hot iron. This, according to Egyptian Myth, is how the lwopard got its spots. Anubis then flayed Seth and wore his bloody skin as a warning to evildoers. It was Anubis who then decreed that the priests should wear leopard skins to honor his triumph over Seth. By this era, Anubis was said to command an army of demon messengers who inflicted suffering and death. (Pinch, 105)

Due to his association with magic, Anubis was ofttimes entreated in spells. In the London-Leiden Papyrus, a magician fill s bronze bowl, with a figure of Anubis engraved upon it, with water. He then covers the water with oil. A child lies on four bricks with a lamp on one side and a cense on the other. His head is covered with a cloth while the magician burns incense and chants an invocation to Anubis several times. The child then reads the images in the oil upon the water. (Pinch, 88)

Tale of the Two Brothers:

The papyrus no. 10183 which is in the British Museum was written in hieratic by a scribe called Inena in the thirteenth century, BCE. In this fictional story the older brother Anubis is charged with reanimating the deceased, phallus-lacking brother Bata. Anubis role is reminiscent of his function as Osiris' (who also lost his phallus to fish) embalmer and aid in resurrection.

In one of the many adventures of Horus' two eyes, after the orbs were cut out and buried by his nemesis, Seth, Anubis discovered the carefully hidden boxes in which they were placed. In the dark of night, Anubis cut out the bottoms of the boxes and removed them in two papyrus baskets.

According to the story, the eyes, once removed, took on a life of their own and gave rise to created a vineyard, which Isis prompted Horus to attain. Isis then demanded that Re restore the eyes to Horus. Re complied and as Isis maintained the flourishing vineyard, Horus recuperated the 'seeing' eyes. (Meeks and Meeks, 75)

Worship

Anubis was the chief deity of the 17th Upper Egyptian nome in Middle Egypt. Personified as Anubis-Horus, the god had a sanctuary at Hut-nesut, which Redford assumes in Sharuna, in the eighteenth nome. (Doxy, {Redford}, 22) Because Anubis embalmed and wrapped Osiris, he became the patron deity of embalmers. In Memphis, the 'embalmers quarters of at least the Late Period and the Ptolemaic era were specifically under the guardianship of Anubis, so much so that modern Egyptologists who have been excavating the areas since the 1960's have named it the Anubieion.' (Watterson, 175)

During the Graeco-Roman Period Anubis was transformed and became a cosmic deity reigning over the earth and sky and being related to arcane wisdom as the bringer of light to humanity. In his original mortuary role he was also associated with the Greek Hekate and with Hermes Psychopompos who, in Greek mythology, conducted the souls of the deceased to the shores of the River Styx. (Wilkinson, 188) In Graeco-Roman Period he appears in the mammisi to protect the new-born king (Wilkinson, 189)

In Alexandria, Anubis could be shown dressed in the armour of a soldier in his protective role and with the lower hald of his body in serpent form to reflect some of his later aspects.' (Wiklinson, 190)

During the roman Period, demotic spells explain how to summon, Anubis, the Keeper of the Keys to the Underworld, by methods such as drawing his image in the blood of a black dog. When he appeared, Anubis was used as a go-between to fetch gods and spirits from the underworld to answer the magician's questions. Anubis also acted as an enforcer of curses, a role he plays to this day in horror films. (Pinch 104)

Socrates even knew of Anubis for in the Gorgias he sears 'by the dog, the god of the Egyptians.' (Hornung, 21) From the first century BCE, Anubis had taken over the functions and attributes of hermes-Thoth and was called, 'Hermanubis.' The god was 'well established in the sanctuaries of Isis, with the god in third place, ranking behind Isis and Serais. As guide of the souls of the deceased, he connected this world with the next, where he also functioned as gatekeeper and ferryman, (Hornung, 65)

FESTIVALS:

Akhet Month 2 Day 18 Ceremony of Trnasformation through Anubis Shemu Month 4 Day 22 - Feast of Anubis wit the Children of Nut and Geb

Bibliography

Brier, Bob, Ancient Egyptian Magic, Quill, 1980

Budge, E.A. Wallis, The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II,, Dover, 1969

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