Mummy's Wrap

 

Imagine walking through Egypt five thousand years ago.  It was not so different then from how it appears now.  The Nile River still crept along its banks, flooding every year to bring new nutrients to the soil and the desert’s chaos still threatened the borders of the Nile Valley.  Already, the funerary practices were beginning to take shape.  The dead were buried in the desert, away from the living.  Imagine someone walking towards the graves and accidentally scaring away a jackal or some other wild dog.  Going to investigate, it is discovered that the dead bodies have been partially uncovered and have not decayed.  Having seen a jackal in the vicinity of the preserved bodies, it would only be natural to connect the two; the ancients saw the jackal as being responsible for the preservation of the dead (http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/anubis.html).

Originally, Anubis was the lord of the dead, a title that was usurped by the more mystical Osiris.  As Osiris gained in popularity, Anubis’ role was lessened to the guide and protector of the dead.  His original mythology may have been lost to the sands of time; what is left of his mythology is confusing.  The most popular myth holds that Anubis aided Isis in the recovery and the bringing back to life of Osiris.  Anubis wrapped Osiris’ body in linen and coated it in resin to prevent the decay that comes naturally to most dead bodies.  It is this myth that illustrates Anubis’ role as the god of mummification (http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/anubis.html).  What is less clear about Anubis is his parentage.  One myth, recorded on the coffin texts, dating from the First Intermediate Period or around 2200 BC, suggests that he is the son either of the cow goddess Hesat or the cat goddess, Bastet.  The more popular myths surrounding Anubis’ parentage agree that Nephthys was Anubis’ mother, but disagree on the father.  Anubis’ father could have been Seth, Ra or even Osiris, whom Nephthys is supposed to have tricked and seduced (Richard Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt).

Anubis’ epithets, or monikers, are numerous and include some of the oldest in the ancient Egyptian pantheon.  One of the oldest epithets of Anubis, Khenty-imentiu (the Foremost of the Westerners), alludes to his position as the leader of the dead.  The dead were buried on the Western bank of the Nile, as that was the area to which the sun set (http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/anubis.html).  Also in regards to the Western bank of the Nile, is the epithet Neb-ta-djeser (Lord of the Sacred Land).  The cliffs overlooking much of the Western bank of the Nile were held sacred to Anubis as the guardian of the dead, thus the epithet Tepy-dju-ef, (He Who is Upon His Sacred Mountain).  This epithet refers to the cliffs in general and not a specific mountain.  In the pyramid texts, he is identified as the Ruler of the Bows.  The bows, nine in total, were represented either as actual bows or as nine ethnically different bound captives, both iconographies representing the enemies of Egypt.  Anubis was the ruler of these enemies, controlling whatever evil they may or may not do to the land of Egypt.  The epithet was depicted on the seal of the tombs of the Valley of the Kings.  Imy-ut (He Who is in the Place of Embalming) shows that Anubis was the master of the per-wabet or the ritual tent where the embalming of the body took place.  Anubis’ final epithet was Khenty-sekh-netjer (Foremost of the Devine Booth).  This could mean that Anubis was again master of the embalming tent or that he was foremost in the burial chamber, protecting the dead (Richard Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt). 

Anubis remained relatively unchanged from the demotion as the god of the dead until the Graeco-Roman period.  It was in the Graeco-Roman period that he changed quite drastically.  While, to some extent, he remained the mortuary god associated with Hakate and Hermes, he also took on other personas including a cosmic deity of arcane wisdom, and the bringer of light to humanity.  His form also changed in this period.  Originally he was represented zoomorphically as a black jackal, the black symbolizing either his association with death or with the darkened color the body adopted after mummification.  Anthropomorphically, Anubis was represented as a jackal-headed man.  Only rarely is he depicted as a human with his name written in front of him.  In the Graeco-Roman period, however, his zoomorphic form was forgotten and his anthropomorphic form was mutated to fit the Graeco-Roman culture.  His head remained in jackal form, his torso, while human, was covered in armor and his lower body was changed into a writhing, coiling serpent (Richard Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt).

Anubis was the original god of the dead, but his own lackluster, or forgotten mythology doomed him to relinquish his title to Osiris.  Despite this, he remained a central part of Egyptian funerary practices through the Graeco-Roman period, making him one of the longest-standing gods in the pantheon.

© 2009, Page Strong. All rights reserved.

Tags: Anubis, dead, Mummification, Mummy

This entry was posted by Page Strong on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 17:11 and is filed under Ancient Egypt, Anubis, Deity, Mummification, Mummy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.