Few civilizations glorified the dead like the Ancient Egyptians. Kings were buried inside giant, stone pyramids. Mythical monuments were raised around their tombs, and rituals prepared their souls for a treacherous journey into the afterlife, where a powerful god of death guarded the gates to a utopian sanctuary; but who was the god of death in Ancient Egypt?
And why was this ancient civilization so invested in the preservation of the dead? The Ancient Egyptians believed in the immortality of the soul. Its life on Earth was only a pitstop on its journey to a heavenly realm called the Field of Reeds.
In the Field of Reeds, the souls of the deceased entered an everlasting paradise, free of sickness, disappointment, and death. According to paintings and engravings in Ancient Egyptian tombs, the Field of Reeds was a haven of agriculture. Through its heavenly gates, the souls of the dead walked along the banks of the Nile, slept peacefully under the branches of shady trees, and reaped the rewards of their lives on Earth.
Similar to Judeo-Christian conceptions of Heaven, the Field of Reeds was a peaceful utopia reserved for the good, the just, and the pure of heart. Before anyone could enter the Field of Reeds, souls traveled from their tombs into the afterlife. Most souls traversed the treacherous halls of the underworld on foot; but many kings and pharaohs arrived on handcrafted ships, mimicking the sun god Ra, who sailed into the underworld each time the sun set.
Each soul—workers and pharaohs alike—gathered in the Hall of Truth, where they were judged by the lord of the underworld, the god of death. One by one, the god of death placed their hearts on a golden scale and weighed the goodness of each soul against a white feather of truth. If the soul’s heart was heavier than the feather of truth, it fell to the floor, where it was devoured by a god with the head of a crocodile.
If its heart was consumed by the crocodile god, the soul ceased to exist. If its heart was lighter than the white feather of truth, the god of death conferred with his council of judges. If the lord and his council believed the soul to be honest and good, the lord of the underworld welcomed the pure of heart into the Field of Reeds.
There, the souls of the pure would live and prosper for the rest of time. As lord of the underworld and guardian of the Field of Reeds, the god of death played a critical role in the immortality of Ancient Egyptian souls. Few deities in the Egyptian pantheon rivaled the god of death in power or popularity; but who was the god of death in Ancient Egypt?
And where did he come from? From the onset of the First Dynasty to the Fall of the New Kingdom, Ancient Egyptians constructed elaborate resting places to honor and protect their dead. To the Ancient Egyptians, the desecration of one’s body was considered a fate worse than death.
If the body was destroyed, the soul was denied entry into the afterlife, never to enter the Field of Reeds. Many burial sites, however, were plundered by grave robbers, especially the tombs of the rich and powerful. Most kings and queens were buried with treasures from their lives, which would aid them in their journey to the underworld.
Unfortunately, their prized possessions attracted the wrong kind of attention. Around 2600 B. C.
E. , Ancient Egyptians began carving black jackals into the walls of their tombs to scare away grave robbers. These intimidating animals were discovered in predynastic mud-brick tombs, towering pyramids, and golden sarcophagi; but why did the Ancient Egyptians associate black jackals with death and the afterlife?
Jackals, or wild dogs, were ferocious scavengers that roamed the Nile Delta. In the early days of Ancient Egypt, starving jackals dug up the bodies of the deceased, destroying ancient burial sites. To ward off these desert gravediggers, the Ancient Egyptians made offerings to a jackal-headed god of death called Anubis, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian.
His power and influence quickly spread throughout the ancient world. For hundreds of years, Anubis served as protector of departed souls, guardian of cemeteries, and immortal judge presiding over the afterlife. At the tail-end of the Old Kingdom, however, Anubis underwent a profound metamorphosis, which began with the discovery of mummification.
In the world today, the Ancient Egyptians are most famous for two things: the Pyramids of Giza and the mummies inside them. Ancient Egyptians carefully embalmed dead bodies to protect them from damage and decay, further displaying their respect for the dead. Mummification was revered as a sacred right passed down by the gods.
According to myth, it was invented by Anubis to preserve the body of a god-pharaoh named Osiris. In one of Ancient Egypt’s most famous myths, Osiris was murdered by the jealous god Seth, lord of war, storms, and chaos. Osiris was tricked into an affair with Seth’s wife, the goddess Nephthys, and their union bore a child.
When Seth discovered the affair, the lord of war flew into a rage. He split Osiris’s body into pieces, locked him inside a box, and threw him into the Nile River. Osiris’s remains were recovered by his wife, Isis.
She was desperate to revive her husband, so she brought the god-pharaoh’s remains to Anubis, who brought Osiris back to life. Resurrected and empowered, Osiris descended into the underworld, where he became the god, ruler, and judge of the dead. Over time, Osiris replaced Anubis as the Ancient Egyptian god of death.
Anubis, once the undisputed lord of the underworld, was dethroned, but the jackal god remained a powerful member of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon. Anubis acted as the right-hand of Osiris and served as the conductor of souls. When a soul awakened in its tomb and read the hieroglyphics etched into the walls, it was Anubis who cared for them and guided them into the sunset.
It was Anubis who ushered each soul into the Hall of Truth to weigh their hearts on a golden scale. Once the god of death, now the conductor of souls, Anubis was a leader, an artist, and a caretaker. How does Anubis compare to death deities from other cultures and religions?
In Greek mythology, Hades, the banished son of Kronos, tormented the wicked in a shadowy realm full of monsters and phantoms. In Judeo-Christian scripture, the Devil and his demons ruled over a fiery wasteland, where evil souls were punished for eternity. Anubis, on the other hand, did not torment or punish the souls of the deceased.
The afterlife was not a flaming wasteland or a shadowy realm of suffering and punishment. While Ancient Egyptian folklore is rife with vengeance and ferocity, their rich mythology reveals, above all else, justice, preservation, and respect for the dead. No deity encapsulates those values better than the conductor of souls, the first lord of the underworld, the jackal-headed god: Anubis.
