Anubis was a very ancient Upper Egyptian god of the dead, usually represented as a jackal-headed man, but also sometimes as a crouching desert canine, ears pricked up and tail hanging, wearing a collar of magical force and sporting the flagellum of Osiris from the center of his body. Rarely, as in the chapel of the temple of Ramesses II at Abydos, Anubis is shown completely human in shape.

Jackals were found in ancient Egyptian times as well as modern times prowling around the edges of cemeteries, perhaps scavenging the dead if they could find bodies, especially in Predynastic times when graves were dug shallow on the desert edges. To prevent such dismemberment, Anubis in his canine manifestation was take as a protector of the dead.

None of the desert canines, whether dog, fox, or jackal, were necessarily black. But this color as used by Anubis was more symbolic than naturally occurring. Black represented the discoloration of the corpse after its treatment in natron and the smearing of the wrapping with a resinous substance during mummification. Black also suggested fertility to the ancient Egyptian, the color of the soil and silt enriched by the Nile and left behind after annual Inundations.

Anubis was the deity of the 17th Nome, el-Qeis or as the Greeks called it, Cynopolis, but his worship extended throughout all Egypt. He became identified early on with an even older deity, Imy-wt, ‘He-who-is-in-his-wrappings’. That deity’s fetish standard, a pole from which was hung a headless animal skin, containing solutions for washing or embalming the deceased’s body, became the standard of Anubis. This emblem could also be jackal-headed, as in the Litany of Re describing the sun-god’s journey through the Underworld.

Before Osiris became King and Lord of the Underworld, Anubis was the great funerary god and Judge of the Dead. In many Old Kingdom mastaba-tombs, the prayers for survival after death that were carved on the walls were addressed to Anubis in his capacity as the god who led the deceased to the Afterlife.

The Pyramid Texts, written on the walls of the Pyramid of Pharaoh Unas, in the Fifth Dynasty, called Anubis ‘foremost of the Westerners’, Khenty-Imentiu also a title appended to the mortuary god of Abydos, who had preceded Osiris there, and was later synchretized with him.

When Osiris rose to prominence as the chief mortuary god, the priests of Heliopolis gave Anubis a place in their theology as the son of Osiris and Nephthys, and faithful protector of Isis. But he was also considered the son of Nephthys and Re. On the Coffin of Henui was written the words: “Anubis…lord of the Nether World, to whom the westerners (the dead) give praise…him who was in the middle of the mid-heaven, fourth of the sons of Re, who was made to descend from the sky to embalm Osiris, because he was so very worthy in the heart of Re.” But in one section of the earlier Coffin Texts, the cow Hesat gives birth to Anubis, and elsewhere in the Coffin Texts, Bastet is given as his mother.

The four most important titles given to Anubis were: ‘He who is set upon his mountain’ or Tepy-Dju-Ef, (i.e. to guard the necropolis from the heights of the desert cliffs); Lord of the Sacred Land or Necropolis or Neb-Ta-Djeser; ‘Chief of the Divine Pavilion’ or Booth (i.e. where mummification was carried out—symbolically the pavilion could be both the tent where the ritual of embalmment was carried out, also called the ‘Per Wabet’ or House f Purification, as well as the secure burial chamber which was the Golden Hall hwere a series of gilded wooden shrines encased the sarcophagus), Khenty-She-Netjer; and ‘He-Who-Belongs- to-the-Mummy-wrappings.’

There is also a title contained in the Pyramid Texts, section 804, in which Anubis is called ‘Jackal Ruler or Governor of the Bows’. The recumbent jackal over nine bows is the forerunner of the motif on the seal used in royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Historically, these bows signify enemies of the pharaoh in the Middle East and in Nubia, which he has subdued. Perhaps here in the funerary inscriptions they indicate Anubis’ triumph over hostile Underworld forces.

Because he had prepared the mummy of Osiris, Anubis became the patron of embalmers. The priests in charge of preparing the body for burial were thought to have worn jackal-headed masks in order to represent Anubis. Many of the tomb paintings, the funerary papyri such as those inscribed for the scribe Ani, and for the priestess of Amun-Re named Anhai, both now in the British Museum, show the god, or a priest wearing the jackal-mask leaning over the body preparing it, or performing the “Opening of the Mouth” ceremony.

Anubis physically embalms the body of the king, purifying it with unguents from the eight nemset jars and the eight aabet jars. It is Anubis who brings the hekenu oil to anoint the body of Osiris. He makes the savor of corpses sweet with incense and wraps them with linen bandages made by the goddess Tayet. In the Book of Caverns found in some tombs in the Valley of Kings, Re instructs Anubis to bind the head of the monarch to prevent its loss and to mold linen strips to the face thus halting decomposition and preserving the features.

On the arrival of the deceased in the Afterlife, Anubis supervised the weighing of the heart before Osiris at the Judgment of the Dead which took place in the Hall of the Two Truths; he read the scales, and the fate of the deceased depended upon his report, which was accepted without question by the Tribunal Gods. Anubis stands by the scales, sometimes adjusting the plumb of the balance, and is described as ‘he who counts the hearts.’ Anubis guides those who have passed this test and who have thus been ‘vindicated’ as honest, towards the throne of Osiris.

On the funerary Stela of the Butler Merer of Edfu, from his private tomb, it has in part: “An offering which the king gives and Anubis, who is upon his mountain and in the place of embalming, the lord of the necropolis, in all his good and pure places: an offering for the revered one, the Sole Companion, Butler and Overseer…who says: I was the priest for slaughtering and offering in two temples on behalf of the ruler…I never lied against any person—an abomination to Anubis.”

Although Anubis is said to be a jackal god, representations of him in wholly animal form sometimes show an animal more like a dog, fox or even wolf. Perhaps the most famous figure of Anubis was that found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. At the entrance to the treasury is a life-sized recumbent Anubis-like animal, made of wood, overlaid with black resin, lay upon a gilded shrine set upon four carrying poles.