60 Fun Facts About Anubis

Anubis is usually shown with the head of which animal?

In the earliest period he was shown entirely as a black canine, not as a man with an animal head.

Anubis was the ancient Egyptian god of what?

He was also a protector of graves and the guide who led souls into the underworld.

What colour is Anubis traditionally painted?

The colour stood for the fertile Nile silt, rebirth, and the darkening of an embalmed corpse.

By which period had Osiris replaced Anubis as lord of the underworld?

In Roman-era tomb paintings Anubis leads the dead by the hand into Osiris's presence.

In the Weighing of the Heart, the dead person's heart was weighed against what?

The feather represented ma'at, truth and order; a heart heavier than it was fed to a monster.

Which creature devoured the hearts of those who failed Anubis's weighing?

She was a composite of the three deadliest animals Egyptians knew.

The Devourer of the Dead had the head of which animal?

The forequarters were a lion's and the hindquarters a hippo's.

'Anubis' is a Greek rendering; what was the god called in Egyptian?

The root inp means 'to decay', and the name may also mean 'royal child'.

Why was a jackal-like animal chosen as protector of the dead in early Egypt?

The idea was to fight like with like: turn the scavenger into the guardian.

Which of Anubis's roles made him patron god of embalmers?

The murdered god's organs were said to have been given to Anubis as a gift after Set killed him.

Anubis's epithet 'Foremost of the Westerners' refers to what?

The west, where the sun died each day, was the land of the dead.

Per Plutarch, Anubis was the illegitimate son of Isis's husband and which goddess?

Isis found the abandoned baby with the help of dogs and raised him as her guard and ally.

In the Coffin Texts, Anubis is said to be the son of the cat-headed Bastet or which cow goddess?

His parentage varied wildly; early myth made him a son of Ra.

In the Ptolemaic period Anubis was merged with which Greek god to form Hermanubis?

Both were psychopomps who guided souls to the afterlife.

The composite god Hermanubis is shown with a jackal head and carrying which Greek object?

He represented the Egyptian priesthood and pops up in medieval alchemical texts.

Anubis's cult centre was a town the Greeks called Cynopolis, meaning what?

The Egyptians called it Saka; its nome stretched across both banks of the Nile.

What mocking nickname did the Greeks give the animal-headed Anubis?

Yet Plato has Socrates swear 'by the dog of Egypt' as a serious oath.

Plato's Socrates often swears an oath 'by the dog', which scholars link to what?

The oath 'by the dog, the god of the Egyptians' appeals to the underworld arbiter of truth.

In the Jumilhac papyrus, Anubis beats Set, who attacked the dead god's body as what?

Anubis branded and flayed him, and wore the skin as a warning to tomb-robbers.

That legend of Anubis branding Set's hide was used to explain what?

The brand marks became the animal's spots.

What did priests wear during funerary rites to commemorate Anubis's victory over Set?

The sem-priest's spotted pelt is one of the most recognisable costumes in Egyptian art.

The Greek term for Anubis's role guiding souls to the afterlife is what?

The Greeks used the same word for their own messenger god.

Anubis's female counterpart, sharing his name with a feminine ending, is called what?

She wears a headdress of a jackal lying on a feather.

Anubis's daughter Kebechet was a goddess in the form of what?

Her name means 'cooling water'; she refreshed the dead while they awaited mummification.

Anubis is associated with Wepwawet, another canine god whose name means what?

Wepwawet had grey or white fur and rode at the prow of the sun boat; historians think the two were eventually merged.

Wepwawet's cult centre Asyut was known to the Greeks as Lycopolis, meaning what?

The two canine gods each got a different Greek animal for their cities.

Anubis's imiut fetish, a stuffed animal skin on a pole, was named for which of his roles?

Imiut means 'he who is in the place of embalming'.

What did Anubis's priests wear on their heads when performing rituals?

Book of the Dead scenes show a masked priest holding the mummy upright.

Anubis is sometimes shown sitting on what, symbolising dominion over Egypt's enemies?

New Kingdom tomb seals show him seated on the bows.

Anubis appears in inscriptions as early as kings Hor-Aha and Djer, of which ruling house?

Pharaohs Hor-Aha and Djer already show a jackal god around 3000 BC.

A rare depiction of Anubis in fully human form was found in which pharaoh's chapel at Abydos?

Everywhere else he keeps the canine head.

Anubis's black colour partly represented the discolouration of a corpse treated with which salt?

Natron came from Wadi Natrun and dried the body during mummification.

The mummification process Anubis presided over is said to have taken up to how many days?

The organs went into canopic jars guarded by four protective gods.

During mummification the brain was removed through what?

It was thrown away because Egyptians believed the heart did the thinking.

Canopic jars for mummified organs had lids showing the sons of which god?

Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef and Qebhseneuf guarded the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines.

The Weighing of the Heart is famously depicted in which numbered chapter of the Book of the Dead?

It is first known from the reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III.

The finest surviving Book of the Dead, showing Anubis at the scales, is named after which scribe?

The Papyrus of Ani is in the British Museum.

The Egyptian underworld into which Anubis ushered souls was called what?

The Greeks called it Amenthes.

The famous Anubis Shrine, a jackal on a gilded box, came from whose tomb?

Howard Carter's team found it in 1922, still wrapped in linen.

Where in the boy king's tomb was the Anubis Shrine found?

The jackal was wrapped in a linen shirt dated to Akhenaten's seventh year.

Which museum housed the Anubis Shrine for most of the century after its 1922 discovery?

It carries Carter's find number 261 and was long displayed in Cairo's Egyptian Museum before the Tutankhamun collection moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Genetic studies in 2015 showed the animal behind Anubis is really which species, not a golden jackal?

Canis lupaster is closer to the grey wolf and coyote than to true jackals.

In The Mummy Returns (2001), Anubis gives the Scorpion King what in exchange for his soul?

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson played the Scorpion King in his film acting debut.

Anubis's role as 'Guardian of the Scales' took place in which chamber of the underworld?

The soul's heart was weighed there against the feather of truth.

Anubis's epithet 'He who is upon his mountain' means he did what?

'Lord of the sacred land' made him god of the desert necropolis too.

Which Nubian tradition gave Anubis an unusual family role?

Ptolemaic Greeks preferred to make him the son of Isis and Serapis.

The root of Anubis's Egyptian name, Inpu, is linked to 'inp', a word meaning what?

Another reading of the name is 'a royal child'; the Greeks only began calling him Anubis around the 7th century BC.

Which of these was NOT one of Anubis's epithets?

Others include 'Ruler of the Nine Bows', 'Foremost of the Divine Booth' and 'He Who is in the Place of Embalming'.

In the Ptolemaic era Anubis was sometimes called the son of Isis and which Hellenised god?

Serapis was a Greek-friendly form of Osiris; in earlier myth Anubis was variously a son of Ra, of Hesat or of Bastet.

In Plutarch's tale, what clue revealed to Isis that Osiris had slept with her sister?

Nephthys abandoned the baby for fear of Set; Isis found him with the help of dogs and raised him as her guard.

Book XI of which Roman novel shows Anubis still worshipped in Rome in the 2nd century AD?

Apuleius's tale is one clue that the Hermanubis cult endured; the god later appears in medieval alchemical texts.

Which cow-headed goddess sometimes shared Anubis's role of guiding the dead into the afterlife?

Late-period funerary art shows Anubis leading men and women in Greek dress into the presence of Osiris.

Anubis is often shown holding which object in the crook of his arm?

He also wears a ribbon, and New Kingdom tomb seals show him sitting on the nine bows representing Egypt's enemies.

Ammit, who devoured hearts at Anubis's scales, combined a crocodile head, hippo hindquarters and what?

The three were the largest man-eating animals Egyptians knew; unlike other gods, Ammit was feared rather than worshipped.

Hermanubis has been suggested as an inspiration for which dog-headed figure of Christian legend?

Both were seen as powerful guides or ferrymen for travellers; Hermanubis carries Hermes's caduceus above a jackal head.

In processions, Anubis's associate Wepwawet was typically carried on which standard?

As 'opener of the ways' he cleared routes for the army; a Sinai inscription credits him with opening the way to king Sekhemkhet's victory.

Anput's headdress shows a recumbent jackal upon what?

She appears as a woman in the triad statue of Hathor, Menkaure and Anput; a jackal-headed form is very rare.

Anubis's daughter Kebechet is the deification of what?

Her name means 'cooling water', and she gave water to spirits waiting for mummification to finish.

In Tutankhamun's Anubis Shrine statue, the jackal's claws are made of which metal?

Its eyes are calcite and obsidian set in gold; a similar jackal in Horemheb's tomb had copper claws instead.

The 'curse of the pharaohs' legend grew from an inscription on what, found before Tutankhamun's Anubis Shrine?

It was the fifth magic brick in the tomb, and its protective formula was garbled by the press into a curse.