Anubis Trivia
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51 free Anubis trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Anubis trivia for anyone who has stared at the jackal on a museum wall and wondered what he actually did. The quiz covers his jobs - embalmer, protector of tombs, guide of souls and guardian of the scales at the Weighing of the Heart - and how Osiris took over from him as lord of the dead. It explains why he is black, why a scavenger of graves became their guardian, what his Egyptian name Inpu meant, and where the Greeks got 'Anubis'. It also digs into his family and myths (the disputed parentage, Nephthys and Isis, flaying Set in leopard form and giving the leopard its spots), his fusion with Hermes as Hermanubis, his cult city Cynopolis, the wolf-versus-jackal debate, and the wider funerary world of natron, canopic jars, Ammit the Devourer and Spell 125 of the Book of the Dead. The last questions cover the Anubis Shrine from Tutankhamun's tomb and Anubis on screen in The Mummy Returns. Every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Egyptian Mythology and Ancient Egypt quizzes.
30 of 51 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which network aired the boarding-school mystery serial House of Anubis from 2011?
Nickelodeon
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.
Q 02What did Anubis's black colouring stand for in Egyptian belief?
Rebirth and fertile soil
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.
Q 03By which period had Osiris replaced Anubis as lord of the underworld?
The Middle Kingdom
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.
Q 04In the Weighing of the Heart, the dead person's heart was weighed against what?
An ostrich feather
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.
Q 05Which creature devoured the hearts of those who failed Anubis's weighing?
Ammit
Ammit's meal was final: a soul whose heart she ate died the dreaded second death and never reached the afterlife's paradise.
Q 06The monster that waited by Anubis's scales to eat failed hearts had the head of which animal?
A crocodile
A crocodile's head topped a body part lion, part hippopotamus: the three largest and most dangerous animals the Egyptians knew, rolled into one.
Q 07What did the ancient Egyptians themselves call the god we know as Anubis?
Inpu or Anpu
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.
Q 08Why was a jackal-like animal chosen as protector of the dead in early Egypt?
Jackals dug up shallow graves
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.
Q 09Which mythical deed made Anubis the patron god of the men who prepared mummies?
He helped Isis embalm Osiris
He helped Isis embalm Osiris after Set murdered him, creating the first mummy, and embalmers ever after worked under his protection.
Q 10Anubis's epithet 'Foremost of the Westerners' refers to what?
The dead were buried on the west bank
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.
Q 11In Plutarch's telling, Anubis was the secret son of Osiris and which goddess, the sister of Isis?
Nephthys
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.
Q 12In Egyptian judgement scenes, which god stands beside Anubis's scales writing down the result?
Thoth
Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe of the gods, wrote down each verdict while Osiris waited to hear whether the soul could pass.
Q 13In Virgil's Aeneid, Anubis and Egypt's 'monster gods' hurl weapons at Rome's gods on behalf of which queen?
Cleopatra
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.
Q 21The Greek term for Anubis's role guiding souls to the afterlife is what?
Psychopomp
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.
Q 22Anubis's daughter Kebechet was said to comfort the souls of the newly dead by bringing them what?
Cool water
Cool water was her gift, as the name, usually translated 'cooling water', suggests; Kebechet was also thought to assist her father Anubis with embalming.
Q 23Wepwawet, a canine god often confused with Anubis and carried at the head of royal processions, had a name meaning what?
Opener of the ways
Q 14The composite god Hermanubis is shown with a jackal head and carrying which Greek object?
A caduceus
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.
Q 15Anubis's cult centre was a town the Greeks called Cynopolis, meaning what?
City of dogs
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.
Q 16Roman poets such as Virgil mocked the dog-headed Anubis with which nickname?
Barker
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.
Q 17Which Greek philosopher swore oaths 'by the Dog, god of the Egyptians', often read as a nod to Anubis?
Socrates
Socrates, who was fond of the oath, swears it in Plato's Gorgias while warning Callicles that he will end up contradicting himself.
Q 18Which female pharaoh built a shrine to Anubis into her terraced temple at Deir el-Bahri?
Hatshepsut
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.
Q 19In one myth, Anubis brands the disguised Set all over with a hot iron, explaining what?
How the leopard got its spots
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.
Q 20In Egyptian funeral scenes, a jackal-headed Anubis figure steadies the mummy while priests perform which ceremony?
The Opening of the Mouth
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.
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.
Q 24Wepwawet's cult centre Asyut was known to the Greeks as Lycopolis, meaning what?
City of wolves
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.
Q 25In which 1994 sci-fi film do an alien god's guards wear animal-headed helmets and answer to a captain named Anubis?
Stargate
Stargate makes the sun god Ra an alien tyrant; its hero, played by Kurt Russell, kills the guard captain Anubis with a teleporter.
Q 26What did Anubis's priests wear on their heads when performing rituals?
Masks of the god
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.
Q 27Anubis is sometimes shown sitting on what, symbolising dominion over Egypt's enemies?
Nine bows
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.
Q 28In which Neil Gaiman novel does Anubis run a funeral parlour under the name Mr. Jacquel?
American Gods
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.
Q 29A rare depiction of Anubis in fully human form was found in which pharaoh's chapel at Abydos?
Ramesses II
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.
Q 30Embalmers working under Anubis's protection dried each body for weeks in which natural salt?
Natron
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.