Anubis was the god of mumification as well as the god of the dead before Osiris took the title. Said to be the founder of embalming and known to have the head of a jackal, Anubis was one of the more famous gods in the Egyptian Pantheon.
Stories
Worship
In early Egyptian history, burial sites often featured statues of jackals beside them, as actual jackals frequently ransacked these sites. Jackals ended up being associated with death, leading to Anubis being depicted with the head of one. Originally, Anubis was worshiped as the god of the dead, but he was later replaced by Osiris. Afterwards, his role became more focused on guiding souls to the afterlife and embalming.
Anubis as he appears in the show “Gargoyles“.
Anubis became known for embalming when he performed the practice on Osiris’s body after his parts were retrieved. Afterwards, embalming and mumification became common practice in Egyptian society.
Anubis and Bata
When Bata, Anubis’s brother, was working on his brother’s farm, Anubis’s wife approached him and asked him to sleep with her. When Bata refused, she went to Anubis and claimed that Bata had beaten her after he tried to seduce her. Enraged, Anubis attempted to kill his brother, but was unsuccessful due to divine intervention.
Bata then explained to his brother what really happened. To prove it, he cut off his penis and threw it into a river to be eaten by crocodiles. He then told Anubis he would go to the Valley of Cedars and plant his heart on a flower to live as an incomplete man. If the flower were cut, he’d die. However, if Anubis finds the heart in seven years, places it in a glass of water, and makes Bata drink it, he’ll come back to life.
When the time came, Anubis traveled to the valley to retrieve Bata’s heart, only to find that the Cedar, now a tree, had been cut down. It had been cut down by the king of Egypt, who wanted Bata’s wife for himself. Anubis searched everywhere for his brother’s heart for three years, only finding a berry from the tree. When he put the seed in water, it turned into a new heart for Bata, bringing him back to life once he drank it!
A painting of Anubis and Bata.
When the brothers returned to Egypt, they found Bata’s wife now married to the king who had Bata’s tree cut down. To get revenge, Bata shapeshifted into a bull, which Anubis presented as a gift to the king. One day, Bata’s voice echoed in his wife’s mind, saying that he was alive, so the queen had the bull killed by her husband. The blood of the bull helped Bata shapeshift again, now into two trees. When the queen ordered the trees to be cut down to make furniture, a splinter entered her mouth and grew into a baby, bringing Bata back to life again in a way. When the king eventually died, the prince/Bata took the throne and exposed the queen and crowned Anubis as the new king of Egypt.
Powers and Abilities
Judgment of Souls: As a god of the underworld, it was a part of Anubis’s job to judge the souls that entered the underworld. To do this, he would take the heart and weigh it against a feather of truth. If the heart were heavier than the feather, the person would be sent to a god with the head of a crocodile. If the crocodile ate the heart, the soul would cease to exist. However, if the heart were lighter than the feather, Anubis and his council would judge the soul in question. If approved, the person would be sent to the Field of Reeds, an eternal paradise.
Fun Facts
His Name: In the Egyptian Language, Anubis’s name was actually “Anpu” or “Inpu” in some translations. “Anubis” is actually the Greek translation of the name.
Family: In earlier stories, Anubis was the son of Ra, the god of the sun. However, as Osiris became more associated with the dead, Anubis was rewritten as the illegitimate son of Osiris and Nephthys.
Sources
“Anubis – Mythopedia.” Mythopedia, 2022, mythopedia.com/topics/anubis/#overview. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. “Anubis – Explore Deities of Ancient Egypt.” Egyptianmuseum.org, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, 2019, egyptianmuseum.org/deities-Anubis.
Koranos. “Anubis: The Egyptian God of Death.” Www.youtube.com, 25 Sept. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VeQZ3XBMHk.
egyptopia.com. “The Tale of the Two Brothers – Egypt History, Where the Whole Story Begins : Pharaonic History of Egypt : Ancient Egyptian Literature : -.” Egyptopia.com, egyptopia.com/en/articles/Egypt/history-of-egypt/The-Tale-of-The-Two-Brothers.s.29.13378/.