Anubis
An ancient Egyptian god associated with mummification, funerary rites, and guiding the dead. He is commonly depicted with a jackal’s head.
Mummification: The preservation of a dead body through treatment designed to slow decomposition. Anubis was closely associated with embalming and the protection of the body.
Ancient Egyptian religion: The religious traditions, practices, and beliefs of ancient Egyptian society. Anubis’s roles make sense within this changing system of gods and funerary beliefs.
Osiris: An ancient Egyptian god of the dead, resurrection, and kingship. As Osiris became the central ruler of the dead, Anubis’s funerary role increasingly served his realm.
Anubis shrine: A sanctuary or ritual setting devoted to Anubis, including installations associated with embalming and burial. Dedicated spaces made the god’s protective presence tangible in funerary practice.
Ancient Egyptian funerary art: Art made for Egyptian burials, tombs, and the continued existence of the dead. Anubis’s familiar images belong to a visual tradition that made funerary beliefs visible.
Opening of the Mouth ceremony: An ancient Egyptian funerary ritual intended to restore a deceased person’s senses and powers. Anubis appears in funerary scenes connected with rites that prepared the dead for the afterlife.
Duat: The realm of the dead in ancient Egyptian religion, traversed by the deceased after death. Anubis guides and protects the dead on their passage through this realm.
Nephthys: An ancient Egyptian goddess associated with mourning, protection, and the dead. Some traditions name Nephthys as Anubis’s mother.
Anubis on the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun: A guardian figure of Anubis depicted on the funerary equipment of the pharaoh Tutankhamun. This royal burial presents Anubis as a protector stationed over the tomb.
Egyptian mythology: The body of myths about gods, cosmic origins, and the human condition in ancient Egypt. Stories about Anubis link his protective duties to wider Egyptian ideas about divine kinship and death.