Gods of Egyptian mythology: Anubis

 

         Known as the guardian of tombs and souls, the opener of paths, patron of embalmers and lord of the necropolis Anubis has the face of a jackal. In ancient Egypt they had the jackals as earthly manifestations of this god, despite the fact that the jackals used to dig up the dead in the deserts, a fact that according to the egyptians, these animals were in charge of leading the souls of the dead to the first of the judgments, that of feather and the heart led by the god Anubis. The reddish coloration of the jackals' fur symbolizes fertility and resurrection.

Anubis was born from the infidelity of Nephthys and Osiris. Nephthys, wife of Seth, envied the relationship of her brothers Osiris and Isis, with which she decided to change her form and pass herself off as Isis. When Anubis was born he was abandoned by her mother in the forest, because Nephthys feared what her husband Seth would do if she found out about the child.

By chance Isis was walking around the area and found Anubis, took him home and created him as her son. In the end, Seth found out about the betrayal and dismembered his brother. Isis, Nephthys and Anubis began to join their members to reconstruct the body and from there it is estimated that the practice of mummification arose. After the death of his father, Anubis takes a secondary role in death and Osiris rises to power in the Duat (the Egyptian underworld).

Once the spirit is in the world of the dead, Anubis receives them, mummifies their bodies (providing eternity), purifies their spirits and hearts and evaluates the souls by weighing their hearts with the counterweight of a feather called Maat that symbolizes justice and truth. Many believe that if you have been a good person and, therefore, your heart weighs less than Maat, you can reincarnate as an animal. If your results are not good, your soul would be given to Ammit, the Devourer of the Dead, a monster represented by a mixture of different beasts that tormented the citizens of Egypt.

During the embalming ceremony, the priests of Anubis wore masks in the shape of jackals or dogs and performed rituals and invocations. In this ceremony there were several assistants: the Kher-heb (representative of Anubis), the Smer (representing the deceased, he used to be a friend), the Sa-mer-ef (the son of the deceased), the Menhu, (the person who made the sacrifice) and other assistants who represented Nephthys, Isis and the guard of Horus.