User:Paleface Jack/Anubis
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Anubis (/əˈnjuːbɪs/ ⓘ;[1] Ancient Greek: Ἄνουβις), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian (Coptic: ⲁⲛⲟⲩⲡ, romanized: Anoup), is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head.
Inpu
Anpu
Yinepu
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| Anubis | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||
| Other names | Inpu Inpu Anpu Yinepu | |||||
| Name in hieroglyphs | Egyptian:
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| Major cult center | Lycopolis Cynopolis | |||||
| Symbol | Mummy gauze, fetish, jackal, flail | |||||
| Genealogy | ||||||
| Parents | Nepthys and Set Osiris (Middle and New kingdom), or Ra (Old kingdom). | |||||
| Siblings | Wepwawet | |||||
| Consort | Anput Nephthys | |||||
| Offspring | Kebechet | |||||
| Equivalents | ||||||
| Greek | Hades Hermes | |||||
Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts. Depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3100 – c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC) he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld. One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the "Weighing of the Heart", in which it was determined whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead. Anubis is one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods in the Egyptian pantheon; however, few major myths involved him.
Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized regeneration, life, the soil of the Nile River, and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis is associated with Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog's head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined.[2] Anubis's female counterpart is Anput. His daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet.
Name
Etymology
"Anubis" is a Greek rendering of this god's Egyptian name.[3] The theonym Anubis comes from the ancient Egyptian inpu (Inpu, Anpu, Anup, Anupu),[a] through its Hellenized form Ancient Greek: Ἄνουβις.[4][5][3][6] Before the Greeks arrived in Egypt, around the 7th century BC, he was known as Anpu or Inpu. The root of the name in ancient Egyptian language means "a royal child." Inpu has a root to "inp", which means "to decay".[7]
The meaning of the Inpu name (Anubis) remains the subject of numerous debates between specialists and no consensus has yet emerged. The same situation applies to other important deities. Despite many hypotheses, the theonyms Ra, Min, Ptah, Osiris, Set and Anubis do not have scientifically satisfactory etymologies.[8]
Chart
The oldest explanation of the name Anubis dates back to the late Ptolemaic dynasty and appears in the Jumilhac Papyrus (VI, 6–7). This religious monograph, translated in 1961 by Jacques Vandier, exposes the main myths and rituals of the Cynopolitan nome in Middle Egypt. It is stated that Anubis received his name from his mother Isis and that it "was pronounced concerning wind, water, and the desert". These three words are the symbolic representations of the three phonetic hieroglyphs that make up the root inp of the name Anubis. The root i represents the wind, the wavelet n evokes the water of the Nile and, the root p is interpreted as the symbol of the desert.[9][10] According to Georges Posener, this sacred etymology would aim to cement an association between the gods Shu (wind), Osiris (water), and Anubis (desert).[11]: 76
Many modern scholars have broken the rules of etymology to find meaning in the name Anubis. Before the decipherment of the hieroglyphs in 1752, the theologian and orientalist Paul Ernest Jablonski linked the name of Anubis to the Coptic word nub (gold) claiming that jackals were associated with this metal.[12] In 1872, the English Egyptologist Charles Wycliffe Goodwin put forward suggested that the Egyptian word inpu was a corruption of the Semitic root alp, the numerous variants of which would be used to designate animals.[11]: 76 Find original source
German Egyptologists Kurt Sethe and Hermann Kees considered the meaning of inpu as "dog", after noting that in ancient Egyptian the word was also applied to designate a "young prince". In 1929, the Italian Giulio Farina argued that the Egyptian word inpu was similar to the Semitic word ṷlp or ṷulūp which designates the jackal. In an article published posthumously in 1972, Pierre Lacau writes that several theriomorph deities take their name from their sacred animal. Regarding Anubis, inp is an archaic term used to designate a canine, and Inpou, the name of the canine deity. The term inp having been deified, the word sab would have taken over to designate wild canids.[11]: 76–77 Find original article In 1976, Dimitri Meeks translated the name inp as "one who lies on his stomach", this attitude is the traditional pose of the animal form of the god. He also notes that a passage from the Coffin Texts compares the name of Anubis to the word inp meaning "putrefaction", a hapax legomenon from a pun made from the words irpu ("wine") and repu ("fermentation").[11]
More recently, in 2005, British Egyptologist Terence DuQuesne who authored a monograph on the Egyptian jackal gods, proposed that the term inpu (vocalized under *yanup), as an onomatopoeia aimed at to imitate the howl of the jackal, under the Egyptian practice of forming the names of animals from their cry: miu for the cat, reret for the pig, aâ for the donkey.[13]
Hieroglyphics
Anubis, or a canid god of the type of Anubis, is among the oldest deities of ancient Egypt. The hieroglyph of a canid lying down[b] has been known since the predynastic period. Archaeological excavations at Umm El Qa'ab, the royal necropolis of the city of Abydos, led to the discovery of potsherds and ivory plaques bearing the ideogram of the lying canine, dated to Scorpion I of the Protodynastic Period and the Pharaoh Den of the 1st Dynasty c. 3200 BC – c. 3000 BC.[14] During the Old Kingdom, the hieroglyph is frequently encountered in the texts of funeral offerings. He is generally interpreted by Egyptologists as Anubis. It is, however, difficult to attribute it to this deity alone, as the name "Anubis" was not written with phonetic hieroglyphs until the 6th Dynasty, around 2200 BCE. On monuments of the period, the ideogram is the only mode of writing during the 4th and 5th dynasties. Phonetic writing, with or without the determinative of canid, appears occasionally at the end of the 6th dynasty, under the reign of Pepi II Neferkare, and only becomes frequent from the First Intermediate Period c. 2180BCE – c. 2040 BCE.[15] For the most ancient times, the reading of the hieroglyph of the canid lying in Inpu (Anubis) is not definitive. The other possibilities are relatively numerous: Khenty Imentyu ("He who is at the head of the Westerners"), Inpu Khenty Imentyu ("Anubis, the Foremost of the Westerners"),[16] Sedi ("Foremost of the Westerners"), the tail"), Oupiu ("the one who opens (the eldest)"), Meniu ("the Guardian of the Herd"), Sheta ("the Mysterious One") and Sab, a generic term used to designate Egyptian jackals and dogs of deserts.[17][18]
History
Epithets
The main epithets applied to Anubis highlight his role as funerary divinity; readily describe him as being the head of the entire funerary domain or as the head of one of the subdivisions of this domain. From the beginning of Egyptian civilization, Anubis was given his five main epithets; Khenty imentyu ("Foremost of the Westerners — the Dead"), khenty ta djeser ("Lord of the Sacred Land"), tepy djouef ("He Who Is upon His Mountain"), Khenty seh netjer ("He who presides over the divine pavilion"), and imy-ut ("He Who Is in the Place of Embalming"); the last four persisting until the Greco-Roman era.[19][20]
Foremost of the Westerners
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The epithet khenty imentyu "Foremost of the Westerners" (variants: khenty imentet "He Who is at the Head of the West", and neb imentet "Lord of the West") is mainly attributed to Osiris until the very end of the Old Kingdom, when he became the major divinity of the funerary domain, but Anubis was never be completely deprived of it.[19] This epithet poses many problems because Khenti-Amentiu is also the name of the canid god of the city of Abydos attested from the 1st dynasty by archaeological documents. It is therefore a question of distinguishing the name of an independent divinity and the homonym function attributed to Anubis from the 5th dynasty and to Osiris from the 6th dynasty.[21]
Lord of the Sacred Land
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Aspects of Anubis, as a deity of the underworld, are reflected in the epithets Khenty ta djeser—"He who is the head of the sacred land", and Neb ta djeser—"Lord of the Sacred Land". The first expression is the oldest, the second only appearing under the 4th dynasty (around 2500 BCE), alone or in association with the epithet khenty seh netjer. The "sacred land" is a designation for the necropolis and, by extension, for the entire realm beyond. According to a New Kingdom stele kept at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, the ta djeser is also a toponym used to designate the necropolis of the Thinite nome (the region of the city of Abydos) whose links with canine deities have been attested since the most ancient historical times. Neb ta djeser is mainly attributed to Anubis, but very commonly also to the god Osiris, mainly during the Middle Kingdom, in Abydos, and the rest of the country.[22][23]
He Who Is upon His Mountain
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Tepy djuef or "He Who Is upon His Mountain" is one of the most frequent epithets associated with Anubis since the beginning of Egyptian history and until the Roman period. It is very often found on the walls of mastabas ((mud-brick tombs) from the Old Kingdom and on steles erected at Abydos during the Middle Kingdom. The expression provides geographical precision as to the places where the Egyptians installed their necropolises. The epithet depicts the power of Anubis exercised on the rocky hills (gebel in Arabic) located between the end of the cultivable lands bordering the Nile and the beginning of the Libyan and Arabian deserts. In this mountainous area, the terrain is very rugged but very rich in cut stones as well as precious ores and metals, used in the most sumptuous funerals.[24] Egyptologist Georg Möller proposed a geographical explanation by linking the epithet to the toponym djuefet — "the Mountain of the Viper" — the name of the 12th nome of Upper Egypt, a region located opposite the dedicated Lycopolitan nome to the canid deity Upuaut (Wepwawet).[25][26] The Egyptian word dju survives in the Coptic language under the term tou, which is used to create toponyms linked to desert mountains and remote monasteries.[27]
He who Presides over the Divine Pavilion
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The epithet khenty seh netjer, "He who presides over the divine pavilion", appears regularly in the oldest offering papyrus' inscribed, during the Old Kingdom, on the walls of private mastabas as well as on those of the text pyramids of the 6th dynasty. The seh netjer is a temporary structure (tent) or a durable structure (building), a liminal place located between the world of the living and the realm of the dead, an airlock entrance to the necropolis. It is a place where Anubis exercises his guardianship over the dead, transforming from mummification. The chest which represents a temple or a naos and on which Anubis is often depicted lying down is possibly a representation of the seh netjer.[28]
He Who Is in the Place of Embalming
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The best-known function of the god Anubis was expressed in the epithet jmy-wt (Imiut or the Imiut fetish), meaning "He who is in the place of embalming", and "He of the bandage".[29] He was also called ḫnty zḥ-nṯr "He who presides over the god's booth", in which "booth" could refer either to the place where embalming was carried out or the pharaoh's burial chamber.[30][31] The precise meaning of this expression is not known. The word ut is related to mummification and more particularly to the wrappings, while the priests who participate in the wrapping of bodies are designated under the generic term utyu. As a noun, the word ut also refers to the place where the mummification ritual takes place. It is also possible that this word is related to the term uhat, meaning "oasis", a place where many products originate, such as the resins necessary for the preservation of bodies. Under the Ptolemaic dynasty, the toponym Out designates the 17th-century necropolis of Upper Egypt, a sacred place strongly linked to Anubis.[29]
Iconography
Ancient Egypt was a civilization that placed great importance on images. With its approximately 700 hieroglyphics, its writing easily demonstrates this. This art of iconography is also noted in the depiction of the divine world. The appearance of the god Anubis, symbolized by a canine, is surely dictated by his funerary functions; jackals and dogs haunting and guarding cemeteries located on the edge of deserts.
The Divine canine
Iconic animal
Similar to other Egyptian funerary deities, such as Wepwawet, Khenti-Amentiu, and Sed(y), Anubis belongs to the group of canine deities. The general morphology of Anubis in his fully animal form, with its pointed snout, two erect ears, thin torso, four long legs, and elongated tail, clearly indicates that it is a member of the family of the Canidae which includes in East Africa wolves, jackals, foxes, wild dogs, and domestic dogs. However, the combination of morphological elements of Anubis does not correspond to any known extant species of canid. The animal emblem of the god seems much more to be a mixture of several types. If the head and muzzle correspond to a wide range of canids, the pointed ears are especially similar to those of the fox, while the slender body is reminiscent of that of the greyhound. Anubis' tail resembles that of the jackal, but is much longer and narrower; the fox's tail, if it falls to the ground like that of Anubis, is much bushier and thicker. Additionally, Anubis is in most cases depicted with black fur, a color that is quite uncommon among various canid species.[32]
Throughout the 20th century, many specialists have estimated that Anubis' animal is a hybrid being, dog-wolf, wolf-jackal, jackal-dog, etc.[33] According to George Hart, writer and lecturer at the British Museum:[34]
"[T]he dog Anubis is probably a jackal [...] But other dogs, for example, the rust-colored pariah, may have served as a prototype. Anubis represents perhaps the quintessence of the dogs of the desert."
The assimilation of Anubis to the jackal, specifically the Golden Jackal, is based on a behavioral criterion: this nocturnal canid is known to haunt cemeteries at night, and more particularly around freshly dug graves, to dig up and devour corpses. This behavior would have been associated by the Ancient Egyptians with death and by extension with mummification and funeral ceremonies. The black color of Anubis is a symbol mainly explained in two ways: first by the black coloring of the body of the deceased under the effect of the resins used during embalming, then by the association of the color black with the concept of regeneration, the flood of the Nile bringing, each year, black and fertile silt to agricultural lands.[35]
Burrowing canids
The jackal is not the only canid to roam cemeteries, however, as foxes and hyenas do the same. Since Predynastic Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, jackals have been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers who uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh.[36][37] Some Egyptologists theorize that Anubis was represented in canine form because of this burrowing behavior, the main role of a funerary divinity being to hide mortal remains from the sight of the living.[38]
Representations
Animal form
Anubis is depicted in the form of hieroglyphs, murals, bas-reliefs, amulets, and statues throughout the history of ancient Egypt, from the predynastic period until the Roman occupation. The oldest and most common representation is the animal form, such as a skinny black canine on alert, lying on its stomach on the ground, or a reliquary chest.[39] From the most ancient times, a rare hieroglyphic sign depicts the canine lying down, with a large feather coming out of its back. This is theorized as an association of Anubis with the god Shu (vital breath) or with Maat (truth-justice), the canine exercising the function of judge in the court of souls. The feather also appears on the hairstyle of Anput, the goddess of Cynopolis, it is possible that we are in the presence of a way of differentiating the male Anubis (without feather) from the female Anput (with feather) or else of a scriptural process allowing Anubis to be linked to the Cynopolitan nome.[40] Representations depicting a canine lying down holding the flagellum and the Sekhem scepter in its front legs, or with the flagellum protruding from his back are also found.[41]
It is generally accepted that the representations of the canine standing and walking on all four legs are also related to the god Wepwawet. This assertion is verified in a general way, but any systematization should be avoided, in rare occurrences–from the 4th dynasty–this sign can designate Anubis, the opposite being also true. The hieroglyph of the standing canine also serves as a determinative in the name of the divinity Wepwawet, the adze, nua, and the word sab.[42]
- Anubis lying down
On the stele of the dwarf Ser-Inpou, 1st Dynasty, recorded by W. Petrie.
On a chapel, canopic chest, Third Intermediate Period, Walters Art Museum.
On a chapel, earthenware plaque, Late Period, Walters Art Museum.
Hybrid form
Towards the end of the 2nd dynasty, the first representations of hybrid deities appeared, combining animal and human elements into Egyptian iconography.[43] The oldest attestation of a god with the head of a jackal dates back to this period and appears in the form of graffiti on a fragment of a porphyry bowl, of unknown provenance and kept, since 1977, at the British Museum in London. The god, whose name is unknown, is shown standing, holding the Was-sceptre in his right hand and an ankh symbol in his left hand. The appearance of the head with its characteristic snout is suggested as Anubis by Egyptologists, but it has also been proposed that it depicts Seth or Ash.[44] The oldest attestation of the image of Anubis, as an anthropomorphic dates back to the 5th dynasty, and appears on a fragment of a relief from the high temple of the pyramid of Niuserrê. This block of stone discovered at the beginning of the 20th century has since been exhibited at the Neues Museum in Berlin. The fragmented piece depicts a king seated on his throne holding three ankh signs in his left hand and receiving three others in his right hand, from Anubis. The god, standing in the attitude of walking, vivifies the sovereign by touching his lips and nose with a seventh ankh. The goddess Wadjet, a symbol of Lower Egypt, stands motionless behind the king and touches his shoulder. It is likely that, in this context, Anubis symbolizes Upper Egypt. The lower register of this scene shows thirteen bent men performing the Khebes-Ta ritual or "Hacking up of the Earth", a ritual gesture linked to spring renewal, but also known to be performed during the inauguration of the temples.[45]
Exceptional forms
In addition to the representations of Anubis as a canine or as a man with the head of a canine, there are less common modes of representation. The only known image of Anubis as a fully anthropomorphic divinity is found at Abydos, on a painted relief from the funerary temple of Ramesses II, built during the first years of this pharaoh's reign, around -1280. Another uncommon image of Anubis is that of a bird with the head of a canine. The occurrences of the soul- Ba of Anubis were found in the necropolis of El-Deir (Kharga Oasis) on a fragment of a painted cartonnage, in Dendera, in a relief of the hathoric kiosk on the roof of the temple, on a shroud of a man buried in Deir el-Medina, in the tomb of Aeacus (Dakhla Oasis) and a tomb from the Roman era.[46] The snake-bodied Anubis is another rare type of representation. Two examples were found in Qasr Dush and Ain El Labakha, respectively on an element of a funerary bed and a cardboard box of a mummy (Roman period). The oldest representation of the serpentiform Anubis is attested at Deir el-Medina, in the tomb of Sennedjem, on a painting representing a funerary bed (19th dynasty).[47] During the Greco-Roman era, the theme of Anubis "with the key" developed where the god is, in magical papyrus, "the one who holds the keys to Hades" (Hell) or "the bearer of keys". In iconography, Anubis holds the key in his hand (man with the head of a canine) or on his neck (canine) and is found on sarcophagi, shrouds, and mummy wrappings. The German Egyptologist Siegfried Morenz saw a connection with the Greek divinity Aeacus, one of the three judges of the Underworld. Jean-Claude Grenier refutes this idea and favors the hypothesis of an adaptation of religious iconography caused by the diffusion of the key in the daily lives of individuals.[48]
Mythological elements
Osirian myth
Condense
Anubis is one of the eldest deities of ancient Egypt, predating Osiris. The integration of Anubis into the Osirian family (Osiris, Isis , Horus , Nephthys) has proven complex and difficult.[citation needed] The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources. In early mythology, he was portrayed as a son of Ra.[49] In the Coffin Texts, which were written in the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), Anubis is the son of either the cow goddess Hesat or the cat-headed Bastet.[50] Another tradition depicted him as the son of Ra and Nephthys.[49]
Origins
Anubis, a key elements stand out in funerary practices. For the sovereign, the afterlife was a realm located in the sky, and the royal person was considered as of Ra, the sun god—a concept that gradually took shape from the Second Dynasty onward. The concept would reach its peak in popularity under the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. The rest of the Egyptian population does not have the celestial realms as their post-mortem destination: for them, the afterlife was located in the West, and considered an extension of the earthly necropolises. From 3000 to 2600 BC, Anubis was the only funerary deity who served both the king and private individuals. From the end of the Fourth Dynasty, the West was primarily known as the realm of Osiris; previously it was dominated by Anubis.[51]
Once the pharaonic monarchy was firmly established, royal attendants and officials had tombs and mastabas built around the royal funerary domain, which consisted of more or less monumental pyramids. For the group of royal servants, funerary religion consisted of a post-mortem life that takes place inside these tombs. The deceased received funerary offerings distributed by royal favor and under the watchful eye of a funerary deity. The West was initially the physical cemetery, but this concept expanded, becoming a distant land governed by a deity. Between the First and Fourth Dynasties, the funerary religion of Anubis attracted many non-royal worshipers. But this predominance of Anubis in the West did not occur without competition from other funerary deities. During the First Dynasty, Anubis's main rival in this role was the goddess Neith, from the city of Sais.[52]
During the first half of the Fourth Dynasty, almost all the leading figures of the pharaonic state placed themselves under the protection of Anubis. The recourse to this god appears in formulas engraved on the walls of the chapels that surmount the tombs. During the Fifth Dynasty, Osiris supplanted Anubis as the supreme ruler of the underworld. However, Anubis retained a significant place in funerary beliefs as a protective deity.[53][54]
An offering given by the king and by Anubis, attendant of the divine pavilion, who stands on his mountain, imi-out, lord of the consecrated land, so that he may receive a perfect burial in his tomb which is in the western necropolis, after having become very old as possessor of the status of Imakhou with the great god, lord of the West.
An offering given by the king and by Osiris, appointed to Busiris, so that he may be accompanied by his ka in the pure places, and that his hand may be received by the great god, and that he may be led on the sacred paths of the West, on which the possessors of the condition of Imakhou walk.
An offering given by the king and by Anubis, in charge of the city of Sepa, so that he may join the earth (be buried) and cross the firmament, and that the (goddess of the) Necropolis may offer him her arms in peace, in peace with the great god, (to) the possessor of the condition of Imakhou with his lord, who has made offerings and who has attained the condition of Imakhou.
An offering given by the king and Khenti-Amentiu, lord of Abydos, so that the offering may be given to him in his tomb which is in the necropolis (...), in every beautiful feast, every day, by day for the duration of eternity, for I was one who is loved by his father, praised by his mother.
— Lintel from an anonymous tomb at Saqqara. Sixth Dynasty.[55]
Anubis in the Osirian myth
The relationship between Anubis and Osiris is relatively recent. Terence DuQuesne puts forward the idea that Osiris may have resulted from the anthropomorphization of a jackal deity. Before the introduction of the Osiris myth, monarchs could claim to possess the characteristics of the jackals Anubis and Wepwawet, but the legitimization of a powerful politico-religious authority of divine origin could only be easily accepted through the assimilation of the king to a fully anthropomorphic god,[56] namely Osiris, whose name would later mean "the Powerful One", "He of the throne" or "He who became a god through rites".[57]
At the end of the Old Kingdom, in the Pyramid Texts, Anubis is much more linked to the deceased pharaoh than to Osiris, and it does not appear that Anubis was already linked to the deities of the Osirian myth. During the Middle Kingdom, Anubis became an intermediary between the dead and the god Osiris, established as the paragon of post-mortem survival. The first mention of Anubis acting upon the mortal remains of Osiris appears in the Coffin Texts, a funerary corpus intended for the nomarchs of Middle Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. Ra, grieved by the death of Osiris, sends his son Anubis to care for Ra's body in order to restore his appearance, status, and the eternal possession of a tomb with funerary offerings:[58]
May the king be gracious and give, and Anubis who presides over the divine pavilion, master of the Duat, to whom the Westerners pay homage, master of Sepa, who presides over the sacred Earth, he who (?) resides in the middle sky, the fourth of the children of Ra, who was brought down from the sky to perfect Osiris, so great is his excellence in the heart of Ra and the gods!
— Chapter 908 of the Coffin Texts, translated by Paul Barguet.[59]
The filial links between Osiris and Anubis were established from the New Kingdom onwards, as when Anubis is described as the son of Osiris on a Memphite stele from the 19th Dynasty (Hor-Min tomb at Saqqara). This assertion, however, only became common from the Late Period onwards. This relationship likely originates from the fact that the organization of the father's funeral fell to his eldest son.[60]
Mothers, multiple traditions
While Anubis plays a key role in the Osiris myth from the First Intermediate Period onward, Egyptian theologians struggled to integrate him into the Osirian family. This difficulty is evident in his maternal lineage, with several goddesses coexisting in the role of Anubis's mother.[61] In the New Kingdom, the Tale of Two Brothers, recorded on the Obiney Papyrus and dated to the reign of Seti II.[62] The story centers around brothers Anpu (Anubis) and the younger Bata, their rivalry and ascent to power,[63][64][65] and identifies Anubis as the elder brother of Bata.[c]
According to a relief carved on a wall of the mortuary temple of Seti I at Abydos, Bastet is the mother of Anubis. Papyrus N3776 (S), dating from the Ptolemaic period follows this same lineage.[67] Links between Bastet and Anubis are obscure. The two deities may have been linked due to their cultic proximity in Memphis, the Bubasteum temple was adjacent to the Anubis in the Ankh-Tawy necropolis, "The Life of the Two Lands." According to the German scholar Hermann Kees, the name Bastet includes the notion of ointment and evokes the activity of the mummifier.[68]
Other goddesses, such as Hesat, Isis, or Nephthys, appear as the mother of Anubis. The mention of Hesat, although implicit, is the oldest and dates back to the reign of Pepi II when it is said that the king ascends to heaven on a ladder reinforced by the hide of the imy-ut born of Hesat, this fetish being one of the forms of the god Anubis (T.P., § 2080e). Hesat was later assimilated to Hathor, very often depicted suckling the crown prince, inpou in the Egyptian language.[69]
Adulterous son of Osiris
The filial relationship of Anubis with Ra is attested as early as the Middle Kingdom (chapter 908 of the Coffin Texts). In the context of a magical conjuration involving water, the Harris Magic Papyrus, dated to the end of the Ramesside period, continues this narrative while first affirming the motherhood of the goddess Nephthys, sister of Osiris, Isis, and Seth:
Another formula: O soul! O soul! I am Anubis, god of the East, son of Nephthys!
4x
Another formula: Right side! Left side! I am Anubis, god of the East, son of Ra!
4x
— Excerpt from the Harris Magic Papyrus (7/7-7/8). Based on the translation by François Lexa[70]
This quote is the only Egyptian assertion of Nephthys's motherhood of Anubis before the writing of the treatise Isis and Osiris, the first continuous account of the Osirian myth, by the Greek philosopher and historian Plutarch (c. 110-120 CE), which makes Anubis the son of the adulterous relationship between Nephthys and Osiris, this relationship (discreetly presented as a misunderstanding) causing Seth's fury and his murder of his brother Osiris:[71]
Isis then learned that Osiris, in love, had mistakenly had relations with her sister Nephthys, believing her to be Isis herself. Having found in the sweet clover wreath that Osiris had left with Nephthys clear evidence of their union, Isis began searching for the child whom the mother, fearing Typhon[d], had abandoned immediately after giving birth. Guided by dogs, Isis found him with great difficulty. She took it upon herself to nurse him, and this child, named Anubis, became her companion and guardian. He is said to be appointed to guard the gods, just as dogs are to guard men.
— Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (excerpt from §14), translated by Mario Meunier[72]
Anubis, the unifier of the members of Osiris
The myth of Osiris gave rise to many local, sometimes contradictory, variations, with priests in the habit of placing the central episodes of this national myth within their regional perimeter. The Papyrus Jumilhac, written in the Greco-Roman period, while it focuses on the Anubian legends in the 17th and 18th nomes of Upper Egypt, is not free from contradictions, the author of this religious compilation successively placing the discovery of the head of Osiris by Anubis in the mountains near Abydos in the 8th nome of Upper Egypt, then in the marshes of Nedjit in the 9th nome of Lower Egypt.[73] The god Seth, after murdering his brother Osiris, covered up his crime by dismembering the victim's body and scattering the limbs. Anubis went in search of the remains and found the head at Nedjit, a sandbank located near the city of Andjety (Bousiris). The head was then transported to the necropolis of Cynopolis (Hardai), either by Anubis himself transformed into Horus in the form of a falcon, or by Horus's four sons. Anubis and Thoth began to ponder how to find the other members of Osiris's body.[74]
Once the gods have found all the pieces of Osiris, Anubis creates an imy-ut container, probably in the form of a papyrus basket. Upon returning to Hardai, Anubis mummifies Osiris's body and places the remains in a burial vault to protect them from Seth's wrath.[75] Osiris' body is later restored with the help of Thoth and Anubis.[76]
Pastoral and butcher divinity
While Anubis is primarily known for his funerary functions, from his earliest days he was also associated with the protection of cattle herds. Since livestock farming was the primary source of wealth for the Ancient Egyptians, the sacrifice of a horned animal was the culmination of funerary rituals. Anubis's protection was naturally exercised during the slaughter and distribution of offerings. The pastoral and funerary functions of the canine god are inextricably linked in the mythological tale of the Tale of Two Brothers.
Cattle Master
One secondary tradition makes Anubis the master of horned beasts. This trait, known since the Old Kingdom, is primarily documented by inscriptions from later temples. At Kom Ombo, Dendera, and Edfu, three important sanctuaries rebuilt during the Greco-Roman period, Anubis appears as the "master of dairy cows" (inpu neb upout) and as the "ruler of fighting bulls" (inpu ity en usheb), an agrarian trait summarized by the epithet "the good herdsman" (pa-mer-âh nefer) in the Demotic Magical Papyrus.[77] In the Ramesside period, the Tale of Two Brothers recalls this mastery by making Anubis the owner of an agricultural estate where, thanks to the good care of Bata, "the cows in his charge became extremely beautiful, they calved twice as often and excellently".[78]
These mythological links between canines and cattle are still relevant in the stories of the Shilluk and Anuak peoples. According to these two groups, canine spirits inhabit pastures that do not experience summer drought and watch over the herd of Juok, the creator god.[79] In ancient Egypt, owning large herds of cattle was a divine blessing and a marker of social importance, with economic power enabling large animal sacrifices for funerary offerings. In this context, Anubis assumed the role of the sacrificer under the title of "chief butcher" (hery-tep menhuy).[80]
Provider of offerings
From the earliest times, Anubis's role has been to provide for the deceased as part of his activities as a funerary deity. The god is the neb qereset, the "master of the tomb" or the "master of burial." The formulas for funerary offerings, the epithets, and the actions of Anubis that appear in funerary texts clearly attest to this role. During the Old Kingdom, the deceased very frequently asked him to ensure proper burials in the Western Desert (semyt imentet) so that they could become imakhu (glorified spirits, blessed dead), ancestors eligible to benefit from a regular and perpetual funerary cult, financed by royal or private endowments.[81] In all the corpora of funerary texts, from the Pyramid Texts to the Book of the Dead, including the Coffin Texts, there appear wishes in which Anubis is asked to guarantee abundant food offerings:
Let Anubis give an offering to the Leader of the Westerners! Your thousands of loaves of bread! Your thousands of beers! Your thousands of oil! Your thousands of alabaster! Your thousands of garments! Your thousands of cattle!
— Antechamber of the Pyramid of Merenre, Sixth Dynasty, § 745 a.d.[82]
(Osiris N[e] is) a pure one in the retinue of Osiris, chief of the Westerners, during each day; his fields are in the Field of Felicity among the initiates, among those who prepare food for Osiris; N. is with Thoth among those who prepare the food offerings. Anubis has commanded those who are among the offerings that N.'s offerings be in his possession, without being able to be taken from him by those who deal with the spoils.
— Book of the Dead, New Kingdom, chapter 144.[83]
Necropolises and sanctuaries
The numerous archaeological discoveries made throughout Egypt during the 19th and 20th centuries have demonstrated that Anubis was a popular funerary deity among the entire ancient population. His presence is evident in the necropolises through the texts, reliefs, and statuettes that each deceased person left in their tomb. His cult is well attested in the major religious centers of Memphis and Thebes.
Master of the necropolis
Most Egyptian funerary gods were worshipped only locally. The sphere of influence of these minor deities did not extend beyond the borders of their city or province of origin. Only a few rare gods and goddesses, highly venerated locally, were elevated to national status, such as Wepwawet of Asyut and Anubis of the Cynopolitan nome, the latter acquiring widespread national influence very early on.[84]
From the beginning of the Old Kingdom, Anubis was invoked in the funerary offering formulas of the necropolises located between Memphis and Elephantine. Some of his epithets link him to the major necropolises of the country. He is titled Lord of Ro-Setau, a cemetery located near Giza, and the Lord of Ro-Qereret, the necropolis of the city of Asyut. Anubis is also associated with Sepa, a city whose exact location is uncertain, but which was situated in the vicinity of Memphis. Anubis also exerted his power over the Tura quarry , from which the limestone blocks used to build the pyramids of Giza and Saqqara.[85]
Before the Middle Kingdom, evidence of the existence of temples dedicated to Anubis is indirect. An inscription from the tomb of Tefibi reveals the presence of a place of worship in Asyut, and several stelae demonstrate the existence of a flourishing cult in El Lahun, in the Faiyum.[86] Near the beginning of the Sixth Dynasty, the nomarch Henqu I of the twelfth nome of Upper Egypt declared his veneration of Anubis, according to an inscription from his tomb at Deir el-Gabrawi: "I gave bread to the hungry in the nome of the Viper Mountain. I gave clothes to the naked. (…) I satisfied the jackals of the mountain and the birds of prey of the sky with the meat of mutton and goat."[87]
Pharaoh as Anubis
In the Pyramid Texts, the deceased king is transfigured into an eternal being and is granted the scepters, crowns, thrones, and also the judicial and regal functions of a considerable number of deities, the most prestigious being Ra and Osiris. Some 130 chapters, out of the thousand that comprise this corpus, refer to jackal deities, primarily Anubis and Wepwawet.[88] When the king identifies with Anubis, the text often described Anubis as a reclining jackal.[89]
"Arise as Osiris, like a Blessed One, the son of Geb, his firstborn! May you stand like Anubis upon the chest, so that the Ennead may tremble because of you…"
— Excerpt from chapter 437 of the Pyramid Texts of Pepi II Neferkare, translated by Claude Carrier.[90]
Mastabas of the Old Kingdom
At Giza, around 2530 BCE, reliefs dating from the Fourth Dynasty depict hieroglyphs of reclining jackals, considerably enlarged compared to the text in which they appear. It seems that all these representations originated within the family circle of Khufu. For each offering formula, the image of the jackal is both an immense hieroglyph integrated into the text and a representation of the god. The oldest relief is found in the mastaba of Prince Kawab, son of Khufu, and depicts a jackal much larger than the hieroglyphs that accompany it.[citation needed] In the other reliefs, the jackal's size is slightly reduced, but the details of the engraving are more pronounced. In the mastaba of Khufukhaf I, another son of Khufu, two jackals are engraved in low relief on the jambs of the southern chapel door. The canines' heads are fitted with a human eye and adorned with a braided wig. One of these wigs has a menata as a counterweight (southern relief).[91]
"An offering given by Anubis, khenty ta djeser, namely a happy old age before arriving before the great god, for the royal son Khufukhaef (northern relief)."
"An offering given by Anubis, imyut, namely power and nobility before arriving before the great god, for the royal son Khufukhaef (southern relief)."
— Mastaba of Khufukhaef[92]
Similar depictions appear on the threshold of the funerary chapel of the mastaba of Meresankh III. The same motif is also found on sarcophagi, including that of Meresankh II.[93] The sarcophagus of the dignitary Hotep, is the most spectacular, with a jackal depicted ten times larger than in other hieroglyphs. Also at Saqqara, in the mastaba of Ti, the jackal is presented in great detail, its long tail being particularly emphasized. The importance given to the jackal's tail is symbolic. The name of the jackal god Sed, meaning tail, and the bull's tail (sed) was one of the accessories in the ceremonial attire of male gods and pharaohs.[94] The enormous size of Anubis may be a way of manifesting the god's importance in his role as protector of the royal family's tombs and of highlighting the vital importance of the royal funerary cult, the jackal god being one of the divine appearances assumed by Egyptian rulers and courtiers in the afterlife.[95]
Chapel of Anubis in Deir el-Bahari
Anubis only had a large, independent temple in the city of Cynopolis. However, he could have a chapel within the great royal funerary temples, the "Castles of Millions of Years," dedicated to the Ka of Egyptian rulers. The most famous of these is the lower chapel of Anubis at Deir el-Bahari, consecrated by the pharaoh Hatshepsut during the 18th Dynasty.[96][97]
Anoubieion of Saqqara
From the 26th Dynasty onward, an aspect of Egyptian religion developed concerning canines, which involved sacrificing and then ritually mummifying them to consecrate them to the deity they represented, in this case Anubis and Wepwawet. The mummies were sold by priests to pilgrims, served as votive offerings, and were then deposited en masse in specially dedicated necropolises. This rite persisted and flourished until the Roman period, then disappeared with the closure of pagan temples in 391 AD on the orders of Emperor Theodosius I. Archaeological research has uncovered a dozen important canine necropolises located between Memphis and Thebes (in addition to these two cities, Lycopolis, Cynopolis, Coptos, Dendera, Abydos, etc).[98]
The Anubiyion (Greek: Άνουβιείον) at Saqqara, a Ptolemaic sanctuary dedicated to Anubis, is part of this cultic practice. This sacred area in the Memphite region was established east of the Pyramid of Teti and north of the Bubasteion. The Anubiyion remains poorly understood due to a lack of detailed archaeological excavations. However, it is known that a necropolis was attached to it, where mummified canids were piled en masse in shafts and vast underground chambers. The Egyptian Museum houses several canid sarcophagi from this necropolis, although very few animal mummies were placed in this type of funerary container. These rectangular coffins have a flat lid and bear funerary decorations. One example features several painted depictions of Anubis reclining on a reed boat with a lid bearing a statuette of a reclining black canid. Other sycamore wood coffins, 55 cm high, reproduce the god Anubis seated on a throne in statuette form, in his hybrid form of a man with a canid's head, the throne or the god's torso serving as a receptacle for the mummy. In Roman times, some mummies were kept in crude red terracotta vases, decorated with one or more standing canids.[99]
Regional god of Cynopolitan
While Anubis was venerated throughout Egypt, it is clear that he only had a large, independent temple dedicated to him in the city of Cynopolis, located in Middle Egypt. To date, this sanctuary has not been definitively located, and the very site of the city remains uncertain due to a lack of convincing archaeological evidence. However, it is established that the region of Cynopolis (Cynopolitania) was, from its earliest days, placed under the protection of the canine god and his consort Anupet.
Hardai (Cynopolis)
Anubis is closely linked to the 17th and 18th nomes of Upper Egypt, the former's shield depicting a recumbent jackal. During the Sixth Dynasty, Anubis was associated with the city of Hout-Benu, located in the 18th nome. An inscription on the White Chapel, built by Senusret I during the 12th Dynasty, reveals that Anubis was the major god of Henu.[100][101]
After traveling through Egypt around 25 BC, the Greek geographer Strabo set out to describe the country. He named the city of Hardai Cynopolis, the "city of dogs":
"Next, we find the nome Cynopolite and Cynopolis where Anubis is worshipped; dogs are honored there and receive food prescribed by ritual." — Strabo, Geographica, Book 17, 1, 40
It is likely that the cult of Horus was supplanted in this city by that of Anubis, who originated on the opposite bank, even though the toponym Hardai means "Horus is here." The change in cult likely occurred during the 19th Dynasty, shortly before the writing of the Orbiney Papyrus, a mythological tale reflecting the region's religious rivalry. However, the first mention dates only to the 20th Dynasty, when an estate was granted to Anubis—the lord of Hardai—on the occasion of Ramses IV's accession to the throne. Little archaeological data exists concerning this locality. Nevertheless, a canid necropolis dating from the Greco-Roman period has been discovered there. These animals were killed and then mummified to be transformed into votive offerings in honor of Anubis. The necropolis is located southeast of present-day Sheikh Fadl, in a landscape of desert hills: a series of disused human tombs, dating from the New Kingdom, were used to bury canids.[102][103]
17th century sign
Throughout the history of ancient Egypt, the standard of the 17th nome depicted a canid lying on a shield, in every respect similar to the animal appearance of the god Anubis. This fact initially led Egyptologists Heinrich Karl Brugsch, Henri Gauthier, and Pierre Montet to interpret this emblem as masculine, "nome of Anubis." However, in 1958, based on inscriptions found on the Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus and the Kamose Stele, in which the hieroglyph of the reclining canid is followed by the glyphs for feminine gender and the city, Hermann Kees proposed the reading "nome of Anupet," a proposal adopted by Jacques Vandier in 1961.
This interpretation theorizes the existence of a cult originally dedicated to a dog-goddess or a pair of dogs (Anubis and Anupet). In Egyptian religion, there are female counterparts of little substance associated with important and well-defined gods, such as Amun and Amonet. However, other specialists, Alan Gardiner and Labib Habachi, prefer the translation "nome of the city of Anubis," the latter expression being very common in the geographical texts of late Greco-Roman temples. Nevertheless, the 17th nome, or its principal city, is represented as a woman as early as the Fourth Dynasty, in a group of statues known as the Triad of Menkaure. The goddess personifying the nome, adorned on her head with an ostrich feather crossed by a reclining jackal, stands to the left of King Menkaure, with the goddess Hathor depicted to his right.[104][105]
Funeral functions
From the Pyramid Textsand onward, the god Anubis participates in sacred rites designed to prevent the decomposition of corpses. Techniques for preserving the dead underwent slow improvements over the centuries, culminating in a high degree of perfection during the New Kingdom. Those responsible for this task were naturally placed under the protection of Anubis. The mummification process is symbolized by the Imy-ut fetish, while the purification process is symbolized by the goddess Kebechet, the daughter of Anubis.
Mummification
Patronage
Chief embalmers
Funerary literature abounds with mentions and allusions to Anubis, and certain passages readily describe his activities as an embalmer or chief embalmer in the ta-djeser, the "Sacred Land", and the seh-netjer, the embalming workshop: it is he who replaces the viscera in the abdomen, places his hands on the body, wraps, perfumes, embalms, and sets the deceased upright, returns the heart, or replaces the head on the rest of the body.[106][107]
"[…] the hearts of the inhabitants of the horizon rejoice when they see you in this dignity that your father Geb reserved for you; he delivered your enemies, who revolted against you, to the embalming workshop. Anubis made your heart pleasing before your place in the divine pavilion; he gives you incense at all times, without any decrease at the new moon; [Anubis and Geb] save you from the Crouching Ones, the agents of death in the secret slaughterhouse. You appeared at the prow of the barque and you command on the starboard side, without anyone having power over your soul, without your heart being taken from you, […] for you are the king, the son of the crown prince; as long as your soul exists, your heart will be with you. Anubis remembers you in Busiris, your soul rejoices in Abydos, and your body, which is in the desert plateau, rejoices; he who has been embalmed rejoices in all his places.” Ah yes, be counted, be preserved in this mummy before me! Anubis rejoices in the work of his hands; the head of the divine pavilion is happy when he sees this perfect god, master of those who exist, sovereign of those who are no more."
— Excerpts from chapter 45 of the Coffin Texts. Translation by Paul Barguet.[107]
Funeral mysteries
As chief of the embalmers, all of the god Anubis's funerary activities are summarized in his title hery seshta, translated into English as "Master of Secrets," "Superior of Mysteries," or "He Who Presides Over (Funerary) Secrets." The cryptographic writing of this expression is the hieroglyph of the canid lying on a coffin resembling a shrine.[108] This storage unit was used to store the tools and materials necessary for the rituals of embalming, a practice that had to remain a secret from the ears and eyes of the demons in the service of Seth, the murderer of the god Osiris, but also from any Egyptian in secular circles. In the tomb of Tutankhamun, the chamber containing the canopic jars was guarded by a representation of Anubis, master of secrets, in the form of a magnificent gilded wooden chest surmounted by a statue of a reclining black jackal; the interior of the chest contained amulets, cult objects, simulacra of offerings, scarabs.[109]
Far more than mere embalmers, the embalmers are funerary priests tasked with integrating the deceased into the divine world of the afterlife by assimilating them to Osiris. The head of the funerary priests and director of the rites in the embalming workshop is the priest "Anubis, Superior of the Mysteries" (hery-seshta); he wears a mask reproducing the figure of Anubis and his role is to ensure the smooth running of the ceremony. His supervision is particularly active during the wrapping of the deceased's head.[110]
Imy-ut fetish
The term imy-ut is known to be one of Anubis's principal epithets. However, it also refers to a sacred object, the skin of an animal, canid or bovid, without head or hind legs, probably a kind of funerary wine skin attached to a post stuck in a pot or in the ground.[111] This fetish is closely associated with the god Anubis throughout all periods of ancient Egyptian history. As a designation for the fetish, the term imy-out is sometimes translated into French as nébride, in reference to the deer skin worn by worshippers of Dionysus.[f] The earliest evidence of the imy-ut dates back to the Predynastic Period, with depictions on pottery fragments, seals, and ivory labels, including a vase discovered at Hierakonpolis and dated to the Naqada II period (3500–3200 BCE). The imy-ut is rarely represented during the Old Kingdom. However, it appears on boundary stele dating from the reign of Djoser, accompanied by texts referring to "Anubis at the head of the sacred land," the earliest mentions of the specific link between the god and the fetish. Later, the imy-ut appears on reliefs sculpted for the Sed festivals of Nyuserre Ini and Pepi II, of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties.[112]
Qebehout, the lustral water
During the Old Kingdom, the goddess Kebechet is the only deity explicitly linked to Anubis:
"May Neferkare go to the Field of Life, to the abode of Ra in the Firmament! May Neferkare find [Kebechet], the daughter of Anubis, who goes to meet him with her four nemesis jars, with which she refreshes the heart of the great god on the day of his awakening, and with which she will refresh Neferkare's heart for life!"
— From the Pyramid Texts (§ 1180a-1181a), translated by Claude Carrier.[113]
Ouâbet
Ouâbet means "the pure place," the place where mummification is practiced; it is the embalmers' workshop. Anubis is its master, he watches over the mysterious operations that take place there:[114]
"The secrets of the pure place belong to me."
— Excerpt from the Coffin Texts (Part III, 310e)
Embalming
The theology surrounding mummification in its origins is little known, but it seems that in the most remote times, Anubis's main function was primarily to provide the deceased with food offerings.[115]