Anubis
Dog-formed god of embalming and of the weighing of the heart, son of Nephthys — by Osiris in Plutarch, by Set in the Egyptian creation legend Budge translates. Found by Isis with the help of dogs and made her guardian, he "protects the gods just as dogs protect men" and stands at the Gates of the Tuat.
Why this wins its question: The standard line "son of Osiris and Nephthys" is Plutarch's; this object sets beside it the Egyptian tradition that makes Set the father, and binds the embalming and weighing roles to the Book of the Dead chapters where they appear.
Key takeaways
- Father disputed: Osiris in Plutarch (Plut. Is. 14), Set in the Egyptian creation text Budge summarises (ch. VI); the mother, Nephthys, is common to both.
- The Egyptian texts give him two offices — embalming and the balance; Plutarch gives him a meaning — the horizon between the visible and the invisible.
- Plutarch calls him a dog, not a jackal, and explains the animal by its sight by day and night.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Plutarch makes him the child of Osiris and Nephthys: Osiris "in his love had consorted with her sister through ignorance, in the belief that she was Isis", leaving behind "the garland of melilote"; Nephthys exposed the child "because of her fear of Typhon", Isis found it "with the help of dogs", and it "became her guardian and attendant, receiving the name of Anubis, and it is said to protect the gods just as dogs protect men" (Plut. Is. 14; also Plut. Is. 38, "Nephthys bore Anubis clandestinely").
The Egyptian creation legend of the Nesi-Amsu papyrus, as Budge summarises it, gives a different father: "Set married Nephthys, but their son Anpu, or Anubis, is not mentioned in our text" (Budge Lit. ch. VI); a footnote elsewhere agrees that Nephthys was mother of Anubis (Budge Lit. ch. III). Plutarch and Budge's Egyptian source thus disagree on whether Osiris or Set begot him.
Plutarch's allegory: "Nephthys is that which is beneath the Earth and invisible, Isis that which is above the earth and visible; and the circle which touches these, called the horizon ... has received the name Anubis, and is represented in form like a dog; for the dog can see with his eyes both by night and by day alike" — a faculty like Hecate's, "for Anubis is a deity of the lower world as well as a god of Olympus"; the dog lost its primacy when it alone ate the Apis that Cambyses had slain (Plut. Is. 44).
The power "which discloses the things in the heavens ... is sometimes named Anubis and sometimes Hermanubis as belonging in part to the things above and in part to the things below", and he receives "a white cock and ... one of saffron colour" (Plut. Is. 61).
Budge glosses "the instrument of Anpu" in the Opening of the Mouth as belonging to "Anubis, a very ancient god who presided over embalming" (Budge Lit. ch. II), and a Ptolemaic funerary stele invokes "Anubis, who is on his hill, the dweller in the chamber of embalmment, at the head of the divine hall" (Budge Lit. ch. IX, Thaiemhetep).
Chapter XXXB of the Book of the Dead is spoken by the dead man "watching the weighing of his heart in the Great Scales by Anubis and Thoth, in the presence of the Great Company of the gods and Osiris" (Budge Lit. ch. IV); the Book of Breathings promises "Anubis protecteth thee; he is thy protector, and thou art not turned away from the Gates of the Tuat" (Budge Lit. ch. V).
Questions answered
- Who are the parents of Anubis?
- Plutarch makes him the child of Osiris and Nephthys: Osiris "in his love had consorted with her sister through ignorance, in the belief that she was Isis", leaving behind "the garland of melilote"; Nephthys exposed the child "because of her fear of Typhon", Isis found it "with the help of dogs", and it "became her guardian and attendant, receiving the name of Anubis, and it is said to protect the gods just as dogs protect men" (Plut. Is. 14; also Plut. Is. 38, "Nephthys bore Anubis clandestinely"). source
- Why does Anubis have the head of a dog or jackal?
- Plutarch's allegory: "Nephthys is that which is beneath the Earth and invisible, Isis that which is above the earth and visible; and the circle which touches these, called the horizon ... has received the name Anubis, and is represented in form like a dog; for the dog can see with his eyes both by night and by day alike" — a faculty like Hecate's, "for Anubis is a deity of the lower world as well as a god of Olympus"; the dog lost its primacy when it alone ate the Apis that Cambyses had slain (Plut. Is. 44). source
- What is the role of Anubis in the judgment of the dead?
- Chapter XXXB of the Book of the Dead is spoken by the dead man "watching the weighing of his heart in the Great Scales by Anubis and Thoth, in the presence of the Great Company of the gods and Osiris" (Budge Lit. ch. IV); the Book of Breathings promises "Anubis protecteth thee; he is thy protector, and thou art not turned away from the Gates of the Tuat" (Budge Lit. ch. V). source
- Is Anubis the god of embalming?
- Budge glosses "the instrument of Anpu" in the Opening of the Mouth as belonging to "Anubis, a very ancient god who presided over embalming" (Budge Lit. ch. II), and a Ptolemaic funerary stele invokes "Anubis, who is on his hill, the dweller in the chamber of embalmment, at the head of the divine hall" (Budge Lit. ch. IX, Thaiemhetep). source
- What is Hermanubis?
- The power "which discloses the things in the heavens ... is sometimes named Anubis and sometimes Hermanubis as belonging in part to the things above and in part to the things below", and he receives "a white cock and ... one of saffron colour" (Plut. Is. 61). source