ANUBI (EGIZ. ḤP. RV «SCACALLO»)

ANUBIS (Egyptian ḥp. rv “jackal”). — He is the jackal, often confused with the bellicose wolf of Asyut, which the Greeks believed to be a dog, whence the name Kynopolis given to the city of Kase (modern el-Qeis), sacred to his cult and metropolis of the 17th nome. He is depicted lying in an attitude of rest. The god is also worshipped at Heliopolis and at Asyut; at Rifa he bears the title “lord of the opening of the cave.” He is a god of the dead; the Greeks equated him with Hermes Psychopompos and gave him the name Hermanubis. He was placed in charge of certain necropolises, but his cult later spread throughout Egypt. When the Osirian myth took shape, he became part of it as the one who embalmed the corpse of Osiris. In the judgment of the dead he weighs the hearts on the scales. He is sometimes called the brother of Osiris, sometimes his son, and the son of Re (Ra) or of Seth. It is he who, with his keen scent, helped Isis to find the body of Osiris and gave it embalming, thus preventing its destruction; for this reason the dead pray to Anubis to take care of their bodies.