Anubis

Anubis is the Greek name of a god of the Egyptian Mythologie which names Inpou or Anepou “that which with the head of a Chacal (or a wild dog)” in the hieroglyphic language. Associated with the funerary worship and the protection of late, it is represented in the form of one canidé black (jackal or wild dog) lengthened or like a man with head of canidé.

Functions

The wild jackals and dogs populated the sorry extents where were the Nécropole S. is undoubtedly to protect itself from these prowlers who did not hesitate to unearth the corpses, that at the beginning of the Pharaonic era, the Egyptians divinisèrent these animals to attract their good graces. The various functions of Anubis are found in the four epithets which are generally associated for him:

Tépy-djouf , “That which is perched on its mountain”;
Khenty-seh-netjer , “President of the divine house” (where is held the embalming);
Imy-out “that which is the strip”;
Néb-your-djéser , “Lord of the necropolis”.

As of the Ancient Empire, Anubis chairs the ceremony of the Embaumement and that of the opening of the eyes and the mouth, thus repeating the miracle that it had achieved for Osiris. From, it is supplanted in this task by Osiris and becomes the assistant about it. During the embalming, the chief of the priests embalmers (the Héry-séshéta , “Superior of the mysteries”) carried a mask to the effigy of Anubis.

On the walls of the first Mastaba S, it was with him, and not yet in Osiris, that the late one addressed its prayers for the survival of its body after death. Indeed, right from the start of the worship, he is at the same time the guard and the guide of the late one. Thus, one often finds at the entry of hypogean, two Anubis in the forms of canidés lengthened face to face, acting as barrier against the forces of the evil seeking to disturb the eternal rest of the late one. In the text of the pyramids , it is the guide which leads the late one through the kingdom of died to the room of both Maât, presents it to the divine court and day before with the good progress of the weighing of the heart (the Psychostasie). Also sovereign of deaths, it is quickly supplanted in this role by Osiris which will gradually assimilate the majority of its important prerogatives and which end up making a god of second plan of it. He becomes the guard of the doors of the kingdom of dead and sees himself sometimes represented with a handle wrench in his form Anthropomorphe or fixed at a collar in his canine form.

There remains a funerary god prevailing and assimilates the other canine divinities related to the funerary worship such as Oupouaout and Khentamentiou, as well as the gods ha, Amenti and Sokaris.

The parèdre of Anubis is the goddess Anupet ( Inpout or Anepout as an Egyptian), canine goddess of the funeral and the desert.

Myth

Its ascent is not clearly established; one makes of it sometimes the fourth wire of Re, wire of Bastet or illegitimate Hesat, wire of Osiris and Nephthys or, at one later time, that of Osiris and Isis. The most spread tradition, reported in the myth osirien, is that which makes of it the fruit of the illegitimate relations between Osiris and its sister Nephthys (wife of Seth). The latter, fearing the ire of her husband, hid his offspring in the marshes. Although she knows the inaccuracy of her husband, Isis (wife of Osiris) collected the child, raised it and did of it one of its more faithful allied. After Seth killed Osiris and scattered its remainders, Anubis helped Isis and Nephthys to reconstitute its corpse and governed the first Momification.

According to the Papyrus Jumilhac (VII, 6-7), Anubis would have received its name of his/her Isis mother. It is learned that its name “was marked relative with the wind, water and the desert”, but these three words are the notations symbolic of the three hiéroglyphes which compose the root of the name of Anubis, inp . Thus, the name of the Anubis god would carry in itself the functions which are allotted to him.

Diffusion of the worship

Anubis is the guardian god of the city which the Greeks named the city Cynopolis “of the dogs” ( Henou as an Egyptian) in the 17th names of High-Egypt, where one found the only temple known to be to him entirely devoted. On the other hand, of many vaults are devoted to him in particular in the temples of the million years. As of the Ancient Empire and until the end of ancient Egypt, its worship is present in all the important areas of the country.

The Greeks of the ptolémaïque time compared sometimes Anubis to the god Hermes who formed a new entity known under the name of Hermanubis.

Representation

There exist two representations distinct from the Anubis god: one in the form of canidé lengthened and the other in the shape of a man with head of canidé. In both cases, the canine part is black, color symbol of rebirth for the Egyptians of Antiquity (it was indeed the color of the silt deposited by the risings of the Nile and which made it possible the ground to be fertile).

Canine representation

In this representation, Anubis with the form of one canidé black (jackal or wild dog) with long pointed ears and with a falling tail. He generally sat on small a Naos, a miniature funerary vault or a shelter symbolizing the tomb on which he takes care.

Anthropomorphic representation

In this representation, Anubis with the shape of a red coloured man (color of the skin in the Egyptian art) in Toga and with a head of Black Canidé with the long ears. It has an arm along the body whose hand carries the signs of life, the cross Ânkh, and an arm ahead carrying a Sceptre.

Internal bonds

Note

Random links: