51 Fun Facts About Anubis

Which network aired the boarding-school mystery serial House of Anubis from 2011?

Nickelodeon is an American channel, yet it had the serial shot in Liverpool, remaking a Dutch-language series about pupils in a boarding house named after the god.

What did Anubis's black colouring stand for in Egyptian belief?

Rebirth and fertile soil: black was the colour of the dark silt the Nile left behind each year, and also of a body darkened by its preservation.

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

The Middle Kingdom saw Osiris take over as ruler of the dead, and Anubis, once their chief god, was rewritten as his son and helper.

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

An ostrich feather stood for ma'at, justice and cosmic order; a heart that outweighed it was thrown to a waiting monster instead of passing on to the afterlife.

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

Ammit's meal was final: a soul whose heart she ate died the dreaded second death and never reached the afterlife's paradise.

The monster that waited by Anubis's scales to eat failed hearts had the head of which animal?

A crocodile's head topped a body part lion, part hippopotamus: the three largest and most dangerous animals the Egyptians knew, rolled into one.

What did the ancient Egyptians themselves call the god we know as Anubis?

Inpu or Anpu was his name to the Egyptians; the Greeks reshaped it into 'Anoubis', and that foreign version is the one the world kept.

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

Jackals dug up shallow graves on the desert's edge, so Egyptians fought like with like and turned the scavenger into the cemetery's protector.

Which mythical deed made Anubis the patron god of the men who prepared mummies?

He helped Isis embalm Osiris after Set murdered him, creating the first mummy, and embalmers ever after worked under his protection.

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

The dead were buried on the west bank of the Nile, towards the setting sun, so 'Westerners' simply meant the dead and the title made Anubis their chief.

In Plutarch's telling, Anubis was the secret son of Osiris and which goddess, the sister of Isis?

Nephthys abandoned the baby for fear of her husband Set, so Isis tracked him down with the help of dogs and raised him as her own guardian.

In Egyptian judgement scenes, which god stands beside Anubis's scales writing down the result?

Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe of the gods, wrote down each verdict while Osiris waited to hear whether the soul could pass.

In Virgil's Aeneid, Anubis and Egypt's 'monster gods' hurl weapons at Rome's gods on behalf of which queen?

Cleopatra's fleet at Actium is carved on the shield of Aeneas, where Virgil sets her animal-headed gods against Neptune, Venus and Minerva and has Rome's side win.

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

A caduceus is the herald's staff of Hermes, the Greek half of the hybrid: the two were fused because both gods led souls to the afterlife.

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

City of dogs: Plutarch says its people ate a neighbouring town's sacred fish, the neighbours ate a dog in revenge, and the two towns went to war.

Roman poets such as Virgil mocked the dog-headed Anubis with which nickname?

Barker translates Virgil's 'latrator': the Aeneid has 'barking Anubis' hurl weapons at Neptune, Venus and Minerva in a battle that Rome's gods win.

Which Greek philosopher swore oaths 'by the Dog, god of the Egyptians', often read as a nod to Anubis?

Socrates, who was fond of the oath, swears it in Plato's Gorgias while warning Callicles that he will end up contradicting himself.

Which female pharaoh built a shrine to Anubis into her terraced temple at Deir el-Bahri?

Hatshepsut built Anubis his own chapel there, centuries after Osiris had replaced him as lord of the dead: a sign of how much the older god still mattered.

In one myth, Anubis brands the disguised Set all over with a hot iron, explaining what?

How the leopard got its spots: Set had crept up on the body of Osiris as a leopard, and Anubis then flayed him and wore the skin as a warning to evildoers.

In Egyptian funeral scenes, a jackal-headed Anubis figure steadies the mummy while priests perform which ceremony?

The Opening of the Mouth had a priest touch the mummy's lips and eyes with a carpenter's adze, magically restoring its senses for the next life.

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

Psychopomp means 'guide of souls'; the Greeks used it of their own Hermes, which is why they ended up fusing the two gods into one.

Anubis's daughter Kebechet was said to comfort the souls of the newly dead by bringing them what?

Cool water was her gift, as the name, usually translated 'cooling water', suggests; Kebechet was also thought to assist her father Anubis with embalming.

Wepwawet, a canine god often confused with Anubis and carried at the head of royal processions, had a name meaning what?

Opener of the ways: his standard went ahead of the king in processions, and in time he was also said to open the roads of the underworld for the dead.

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

City of wolves: the Greeks saw its god as a wolf, and Plutarch claims its people were the only Egyptians who ate sheep, just as wolves do.

In which 1994 sci-fi film do an alien god's guards wear animal-headed helmets and answer to a captain named Anubis?

Stargate makes the sun god Ra an alien tyrant; its hero, played by Kurt Russell, kills the guard captain Anubis with a teleporter.

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

Masks of the god are thought to have let a priest stand in for Anubis: funeral scenes show a jackal-headed figure holding the mummy upright before the tomb.

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

Nine bows stood for every enemy of Egypt at once, which is why royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings were sealed with Anubis crouched above them.

In which Neil Gaiman novel does Anubis run a funeral parlour under the name Mr. Jacquel?

American Gods strands the old gods in modern America: Mr. Jacquel prepares bodies in the town of Cairo, Illinois, and later judges the hero in the land of the dead.

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

Ramesses II's chapel reverses the god's beginnings: the earliest images thought to show Anubis, from Egypt's first dynasty, are wholly jackal, with no human body at all.

Embalmers working under Anubis's protection dried each body for weeks in which natural salt?

Natron, a salt dug from dry lake beds, soaks up water: packed in and around the body for about 40 days, it dried the flesh before it could rot.

The mummification that Anubis presided over is traditionally said to have lasted how many days?

70 days in all, though the drying itself took about 40; Herodotus wrote that no longer was allowed before the body was washed and wrapped.

The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Egyptian embalmers removed the brain through what?

The nostrils with a hook is how Herodotus tells it; the brain was simply thrown away, because Egyptians believed the heart did the thinking.

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

Horus had four sons, one per jar, guarding the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines; the heart got no jar because it was left in the body.

The scarab laid over a mummy's heart bore a spell urging the heart to do what at Anubis's scales?

Stay silent, the spell begged, so the heart could not speak against its owner at the weighing; the scarab could even stand in for the heart if the real one was damaged.

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

The Duat was no resting place: the newly dead had to get past its gates, demons and lake of fire to reach a safe afterlife.

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

Tutankhamun's jackal sits on a sledge with carrying poles, so it was probably borne in his funeral procession before being left on guard in the tomb.

Where in its owner's tomb was the Anubis Shrine found standing guard?

At the entrance to the Treasury, nose pointed at the burial chamber: behind the jackal stood the chest holding the king's embalmed organs.

Which museum displayed the Anubis Shrine for decades after its discovery in the 1920s?

The Egyptian Museum, Cairo, was its home; when found, the jackal was still draped in a linen cloth, with a garland of flowers tied round its neck.

The Egyptian 'jackal' long linked to Anubis was reclassified in 2015 as which separate species?

The African wolf: DNA showed Africa's 'golden jackals' are closer kin to grey wolves and coyotes than to true jackals, so the jackal god may be a wolf after all.

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

A supernatural army of jackal-like warriors is what his soul buys; the Scorpion King, played by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, returns at the end as a giant scorpion monster.

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

Guarded tombs from above: the 'mountain' is the desert high ground over a cemetery, exactly where real jackals prowled at the edge of the graves.

Which title marked Anubis out as god of the desert cemeteries?

Lord of the Sacred Land: the 'sacred land' was the stretch of desert set apart for burials, and it was Anubis's realm long before Osiris ruled the dead.

Carvings of Anubis embalming a body while dressed in Roman style survive in the catacombs of which Egyptian city?

Alexandria's Kom el-Shoqafa catacombs were dug when Rome had ruled Egypt for generations, so its sculptors gave the old embalmer god a soldier's kit.

Which 2nd-century Roman novel has, in its final book, an Isis procession in which Anubis marches among the gods?

The Golden Ass has its hero, still trapped in a donkey's body, watch the parade pass: dog-headed Anubis walks in it carrying a palm branch.

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

Hathor became so tied to the afterlife that dead women were eventually given her name, just as dead men had long been called 'Osiris'.

Anubis is often shown with which object resting in the bend of his arm?

A flail was a badge of kingship, carried by pharaohs with a crook; Anubis himself had ruled the dead until Osiris overshadowed him.

Anubis was god of mummy-making, yet the word 'mummy' itself comes from an Arabic and Persian term for which substance?

Bitumen: medieval doctors prized the tarry stuff as medicine, believed Egyptian bodies were full of it, and sold preparations of the bodies themselves as a drug called 'mummy'.

Anubis has been suggested as an inspiration for which saint, painted with a dog's head in Orthodox icons?

Christopher's legend made him a giant who carried travellers across a river, which may be why he has been linked to the god who guided souls to the afterlife.

In The Mummy Returns (2001), which relic of Anubis clamps itself onto young Alex O'Connell and will not come off?

A bracelet: once it locks onto the boy's wrist it shows him the way to the Scorpion King's oasis, and he must get there before a deadly sunrise.

Catacombs packed with mummified dogs lie beside a temple of Anubis at which great Egyptian burial ground?

Saqqara's temple of Anubis drew pilgrims who paid for a mummified dog to be laid in the tunnels, a gift meant to carry their prayers to the god.

On the famous Anubis Shrine statue, gold picks out the ears, eyebrows and collar, but which metal are the claws?

Silver claws finish a jackal otherwise trimmed in gold; ancient thieves had rummaged through the jewellery stored in the shrine beneath it.