Ancient Egyptian Gods Anubis

Anubis is known as the god of death and is the oldest and most popular of ancient egyptian deities.

Ancient egyptian gods anubis. References to anubis are found in texts dating back to the old kingdom. Before the greeks arrived in egypt around the 7th century bc the god was known as anpu or inpu. Anubis is a greek rendering of this god s egyptian name. As an embalmer he is associated with mummification and viewed as a protector of graves.

The most common symbol attributed to anubis is the canine. In egyptian hieroglyphs he is usually depicted as a canine jackal or dog or as a man with the head of a canine. The ancient egyptians revered anubis highly because they believed he had tremendous power over both their physical and spiritual selves when they died. He is also often pictured in black a symbol of death and the color of a corpse after it is embalmed.

He is one of the oldest gods of the egyptian pantheon appearing already in the nagada pre dynasty palettes. In the early dynastic period and the old kingdom he enjoyed a preeminent though not exclusive position as lord of the dead but he was later overshadowed by osiris. The ancient name of anubis inpu means that of the jackal. The root of the name in ancient egyptian language means a royal child inpu has a root to inp which means to decay.

Anubis also called anpu ancient egyptian god of the dead represented by a jackal or the figure of a man with the head of a jackal. In ancient egyptian religion anubis is the god predominantly associated with death. He also guides souls into the afterlife. He was first god of the dead and was relegated to the background when the cult of osiris gave him the leading role in the hereafter.