Anubis

| Greek_equivalent = Hades or Hermes}}Anubis (/əˈnjuːbɪs/; Ancient Greek: Ἄνουβις, Egyptian: jnpw, Coptic: .mw-parser-output .script-coptic{font-family:'New Athena Unicode','MPH 2B Damase','FreeSerif','Arial Coptic',Quivira,Analecta,Antinoou,'Sophia Nubian','Noto Sans Coptic','Segoe UI Historic','Segoe UI Symbol'}ⲁⲛⲟⲩⲡ Anoup) is the Greek name of the god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the Underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. Archeologists have identified Anubis's sacred animal as an Egyptian canid, the African golden wolf. Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts. Depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3100 – c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055 – 1650 BC) he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld. One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the 'Weighing of the Heart,' in which it was determined whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead. Despite being one of the most ancient and 'one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods' in the Egyptian pantheon, Anubis played almost no role in Egyptian myths. Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized regeneration, life, the soil of the Nile River, and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis is associated with his brother Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog's head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined. Anubis' female counterpart is Anput. His daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet. Anubis' name jnpw was possibly pronounced , based on Coptic Anoup and the Akkadian transcription ???<a-na-pa> in the name <ri-a-na-pa> 'Reanapa' that appears in Amarna letter EA 315. However, this transcription may also be interpreted as rˁ-nfr, a name similar to that of Prince Ranefer of the Fourth Dynasty. In Egypt's Early Dynastic period (c. 3100 – c. 2686 BC), Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a 'jackal' head and body. A 'jackal' god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, and other pharaohs of the First Dynasty. Since Predynastic Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, 'jackals' had been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers which uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh. In the spirit of 'fighting like with like,' a 'jackal' was chosen to protect the dead, because 'a common problem (and cause of concern) must have been the digging up of bodies, shortly after burial, by jackals and other wild dogs which lived on the margins of the cultivation.' The oldest known textual mention of Anubis is in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 – c. 2181 BC), where he is associated with the burial of the pharaoh. In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the most important god of the dead. He was replaced in that role by Osiris during the Middle Kingdom (2000–1700 BC). In the Roman era, which started in 30 BC, tomb paintings depict him holding the hand of deceased persons to guide them to Osiris. The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources. In early mythology, he was portrayed as a son of Ra. In the Coffin Texts, which were written in the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), Anubis is the son of either the cow goddess Hesat or the cat-headed Bastet. Another tradition depicted him as the son of Ra and Nephthys. The Greek Plutarch (c. 40–120 AD) stated that Anubis was the illegitimate son of Nephthys and Osiris, but that he was adopted by Osiris's wife Isis: