Anubis
Anubis in the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut,
Luxor (New Kingdom)
Anubis was the way ancient Greek historians like Herodotus wrote the Egyptian word Inpu. Inpu, or Anubis, was the son of Ra, and he was the god of the dead and the underworld in Old Kingdom Egypt. Because jackals went to cemeteries, attracted by the smell of dead people's bodies, Anubis is often shown with the head of a jackal, or entirely in the form of a jackal. His head is black because black was the color of death and of the black dirt in the Nile valley, the symbol of rebirth.
Anubis was important throughout the process of getting a dead person ready to be buried. When the embalmers were making the dead body into a mummy, the head embalmer wore an Anubis costume. Then people also thought of Anubis as the god who weighed your heart to see if you were good or bad after you died.
Why did people want to punch Socrates?
Where did Egyptians bury your liver?
How old are the Rocky Mountains?
What does a half-timbered house look like?
How do you spin wool?
(a project)
By the time of the Middle Kingdom, people had stopped thinking of Anubis as the main god of the dead. Instead, they put Osiris in that position. People gradually began to think of Anubis as the son of Osiris, and Osiris' assistant in dealing with the dead.
To find out more about Anubis, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, by Leonard Fisher (1999). For younger kids.
The Egypt Game (Yearling Newbery), by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (reprinted 1985). A great kids' story about kids who pretend to be Egyptian gods and goddesses.
Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice, by John Baines, David Silverman, and Leonard Lesko (1991). Pretty hard going, but it will tell you everything you need to know about Egyptian religion.
Egyptian religion page
Main Egypt page
Main religion page
