Who is Anubis? Guide to the Egyptian God of the Dead

Anubis is the jackal-headed god who oversaw the making of every Egyptian mummy. He is one of the oldest deities in the Egyptian pantheon, older than Osiris in the archaeological record, and for most of Egyptian history he was the god who managed the transition from life to what came after. He embalmed the dead. He guided their souls. He conducted the weighing of the heart. His face - a black jackal’s, watching from cemetery ridges at dusk - is one of the most recognisable images in world mythology.

Key Takeaways

Anubis is the Egyptian god of mummification, funerary rites, and the guide of souls into the afterlife.
He is depicted as a jackal-headed man or as a full jackal, always black - a colour associated with the fertile Nile silt and with the promise of rebirth rather than with death or evil.
His parentage varies by tradition. The oldest sources make him the son of Ra. In later tradition he becomes the son of Osiris and Nephthys, raised by Isis.
He is the god who first performed embalming, on the body of the murdered Osiris, and his role established the funerary rites all Egyptians would follow.
In the Weighing of the Heart, Anubis operates the scale on which the deceased’s heart is weighed against the feather of Maat.
His cult centre was the city of Cynopolis (“City of Dogs”) in Middle Egypt, and jackal figurines and images appear in Egyptian tombs from the earliest dynastic periods.
Before Osiris rose to prominence in the Middle Kingdom, Anubis was the principal god of the dead in Egyptian religion.

Who is Anubis?

Anubis is the Egyptian god of mummification, embalming, and the dead. He is the guide who leads souls from life into the underworld, the operator of the scale that judges them, and the guardian of tombs and cemeteries. His Egyptian name is Anpu or Inpu, meaning something like “royal child” or possibly “he who is on the mountain,” referring to jackals seen watching over Egyptian cemeteries from desert ridges.

Definition - Anubis

The Egyptian jackal-headed god of mummification, funerary rites, and the guide of souls to the afterlife. Anubis conducts the Weighing of the Heart in the Hall of Two Truths, protects tombs, and originated the practice of embalming when he mummified the body of the murdered Osiris. His Egyptian name is Anpu or Inpu.

He is always depicted as a jackal or a man with a jackal’s head, and always black. The colour is deliberate. Black in Egyptian symbolism was the colour of the fertile Nile silt from which crops grew, and by extension the colour of resurrection and new life. Anubis’s blackness is not the darkness of death but the darkness of the soil in which the seed is buried before it sprouts.

His characteristic implements include the was sceptre (a symbol of power), the ankh (a symbol of life), and often the flail. His most distinctive attribute, though, is the jackal head itself, watching, alert, unmistakable.

The origin of Anubis

The tradition preserves two different origins for Anubis.

The older tradition, from the Old Kingdom, makes him a son of the sun-god Ra. In this version, Anubis is one of the most ancient members of the Egyptian pantheon, present from the first ordering of the world, and the principal god of the dead in the earliest Egyptian religion.

The later Osirian tradition, which became dominant from the Middle Kingdom onward, integrates him into the family drama of Osiris. In this telling, Anubis is the son of Nephthys (Isis’s sister) and Osiris. Nephthys, whose own husband was Set, desired Osiris and either disguised herself as Isis or seduced him in his sleep to conceive a child. Fearing Set’s wrath if he discovered the child, Nephthys abandoned the infant Anubis. Isis found him, took him in, and raised him. Read the story of the birth of Anubis.

In some versions of this later tradition, Anubis’s loyalty to Isis is so complete that he becomes her constant helper - and especially, when the time comes, the one who assists her in embalming Osiris.

Anubis and the mummification of Osiris

The single most important act attributed to Anubis is the mummification of Osiris. Anubis is, in Egyptian tradition, the first embalmer.

When Set murdered Osiris and scattered his body into fourteen pieces, Isis and Nephthys searched for the parts. Anubis assisted them. When they had gathered thirteen of the fourteen pieces (all but the phallus), Anubis performed the embalming. He cleaned the body, wrapped it in linen, and used the spells and unguents that would preserve Osiris and allow him to become the god of the underworld. Read the myth of Anubis and the chest of Osiris.

Every subsequent Egyptian mummification was, in ritual terms, a re-enactment of what Anubis did for Osiris. The chief embalmer in a mummification would often wear a jackal mask, taking on Anubis’s role. The seventy-day mummification process was structured on the model of the original.

Anubis at the Weighing of the Heart

Anubis’s other central role is his participation in the Weighing of the Heart, the judgment scene at the entry to the Egyptian afterlife.

When a soul reached the Hall of Two Truths, Anubis was the god who led it in. He took the deceased by the hand and brought them before the scale. On one pan he placed the heart of the deceased. On the other, the feather of Maat, goddess of truth and cosmic order. He then adjusted the scale.

The god Thoth stood by with a scribe’s palette to record the result. Osiris sat enthroned as presiding judge. The monster Ammit crouched nearby, ready to devour the heart of any soul that failed. Anubis was the one operating the scale.

A heart lighter than the feather passed the test. Anubis then led the successful soul into the presence of Osiris, and from there to the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian paradise. A heart heavier than the feather was seized by Ammit and destroyed, and the soul ceased to exist. Read the weighing of the heart ceremony and the book of the dead.

Anubis as guardian of tombs

Beyond his roles in mummification and judgment, Anubis was the protector of tombs and cemeteries. Egyptian tomb inscriptions frequently invoke him. Curses on tombs often cite him as the enforcer of protection. Jackal figurines and Anubis images were placed in tombs and near cemetery entrances.

The choice of the jackal for this role reflects observation. Jackals were common at the edges of Egyptian settlements, particularly near burial grounds where they scavenged. The Egyptians turned this feature into a religious asset: rather than seeing the jackals as threats to the dead, they identified the animals with the god who protected the dead. What might have been a source of anxiety - dogs and jackals near graves - became a sign of divine watchfulness.

The role of Anubis as guide of souls also emerges from this. Jackals watch the routes between the living land and the desert. Anubis, as their divine counterpart, watches and guides the routes between the living world and the world of the dead.

Anubis compared to other psychopomp gods

The role of the psychopomp - the guide of souls to the afterlife - appears in most world traditions. Anubis is one of the earliest and most fully developed.

Tradition	Psychopomp	Form	Notes
Egyptian	Anubis	Jackal-headed man	Also embalmer and judge; presides at the Weighing of the Heart
Greek	Hermes	Winged messenger god	Guides souls to the boundary of the underworld
Roman	Mercury	Herald god	Directly cognate to Hermes
Norse	The Valkyries	Warrior maidens	Choose battle-slain for Valhalla
Aztec	Xolotl	Dog-headed god	Guides the sun through the underworld each night

The parallel with Xolotl is especially striking. Both are dog-form deities who guide something (souls, the sun) through the underworld. The dog-guide pattern is one of the widely-attested religious ideas of the ancient world, likely rooted in the observation of dogs as companions to humans in life and, therefore, plausibly as guides in death.

Read the stories

Anubis appears throughout Egyptian funerary tradition. Some entry points:

Anubis is the god the Egyptians trusted with what they cared about most - the passage of the dead into a life beyond death, done properly, with the right spells and the right hands. He was there when they were embalmed and there when their heart was weighed. He is a god without ambiguity in the tradition. He simply does his work, correctly, forever.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Anubis depicted as a jackal?

The Egyptians observed jackals frequently at the edges of settlements, especially near cemeteries where they scavenged. Rather than treating this as a threat to the dead, the Egyptians identified the jackals with the god who protected the dead. Anubis’s jackal form transforms a source of potential anxiety - dogs near graves - into a sign of divine watchfulness. His characteristic black colour is not the black of death but of the fertile Nile silt, associated with rebirth.

Is Anubis the god of death?

Not exactly. Anubis is the god of mummification, funerary rites, the guide of souls, and the protector of the dead. He is not the god who causes death, nor the god who receives the dead as king (that is Osiris in later tradition). Anubis is the god who manages the transition from life to the afterlife, ensuring the body is preserved and the soul is guided and judged correctly.

Who are Anubis’s parents?

The tradition offers two accounts. In the older, Old Kingdom tradition, Anubis is the son of the sun-god Ra. In the later Osirian tradition, he is the son of Nephthys (Isis’s sister) and Osiris, conceived when Nephthys either disguised herself as Isis or approached Osiris in his sleep. Fearing Set’s wrath, Nephthys abandoned the child, and Isis found and raised him. Both traditions coexist in Egyptian religion.

What is the role of Anubis in mummification?

Anubis is the mythological originator of embalming. He was the first to mummify a body - that of Osiris, after Isis and Nephthys had gathered the scattered pieces. Every subsequent Egyptian mummification was ritually a re-enactment of what Anubis did for Osiris. The chief embalmer often wore a jackal mask, taking on Anubis’s role during the seventy-day mummification process.

What is the Weighing of the Heart?

The Weighing of the Heart is the central judgment scene of the Egyptian afterlife. Anubis leads the deceased into the Hall of Two Truths, places the heart on a scale opposite the feather of Maat (truth), and adjusts the balance. Thoth records the result; Osiris presides as judge. A heart lighter than or equal to the feather passes; a heart heavier than the feather is devoured by the monster Ammit and the soul ceases to exist.

Was Anubis older than Osiris in Egyptian religion?

Yes. Archaeological evidence suggests Anubis was the principal god of the dead in the earliest periods of Egyptian religion, well before Osiris rose to prominence. Anubis figures appear in tombs from the earliest dynastic periods. When Osiris became dominant during the Middle Kingdom, Anubis was integrated into the Osirian story rather than displaced by it - he became Osiris’s embalmer and Isis’s helper, retaining his central role in funerary rites while ceding the throne of the dead to Osiris.