Editing Anubis (section)

==History==
In Egypt's [[Early Dynastic Period of Egypt|Early Dynastic period]] ({{Circa|3100|2686 BC}}), Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a "[[African golden wolf|jackal]]" head and body.{{sfn|Wilkinson|1999|p=262}} A jackal god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of [[Hor-Aha]], [[Djer]], and other pharaohs of the [[First Dynasty of Egypt|First Dynasty]].{{sfn|Wilkinson|1999|pp=280–81}} Since [[Predynastic Egypt]], when the dead were buried in shallow graves, jackals had been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers which uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh.{{sfnm|Wilkinson|1999|1p=262 (burials in shallow graves in Predynastic Egypt)|Freeman|1997|2p=91 (rest of the information)}} In the spirit of "fighting like with like," a jackal was chosen to protect the dead, because "a common problem (and cause of concern) must have been the digging up of bodies, shortly after burial, by jackals and other wild dogs which lived on the margins of the cultivation."{{sfn|Wilkinson|1999|p=262 ("fighting like with like" and "by jackals and other wild dogs")}}

In the [[Old Kingdom]], Anubis was the most important god of the dead. He was replaced in that role by Osiris during the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] (2000–1700 BC).{{sfn|Freeman|1997|p=91}} In the [[History of Roman Egypt|Roman era]], which started in 30 BC, tomb paintings depict him holding the hand of deceased persons to guide them to Osiris.{{sfn|Riggs|2005|pp=166–67}}

The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources. In early mythology, he was portrayed as a son of [[Ra]].{{sfn|Hart|1986|p=25}} In the [[Coffin Texts]], which were written in the [[First Intermediate Period]] (c. 2181–2055 BC), Anubis is the son of either the cow goddess [[Hesat]] or the cat-headed [[Bastet]].{{sfn|Hart|1986|p=26}} Another tradition depicted him as the son of Ra and [[Nephthys]].{{Sfn|Hart|1986|p=25}} More commonly, however, he is recognized as the offspring of Osiris and Isis.In later periods, particularly during the Ptolemaic era, Anubis was sometimes described as the son of Isis and Serapis, a Hellenized form of Osiris designed to appeal to Egypt's growing Greek population.<ref>Wilfong,Terry G.(2015), ''Death Dogs: The Jackal Gods of Ancient Egypt''. Kelsey Museum Publication 11. Ann Arbor: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. pp.50-51.</ref> The Greek [[Plutarch]] (c. 40–120 AD) reported a tradition that Anubis was the illegitimate son of Nephthys and Osiris, but that he was adopted by Osiris's wife [[Isis]]:{{sfn|Gryglewski|2002|p=146}}

{{blockquote|source=|For when Isis found out that Osiris loved her sister and had relations with her in mistaking her sister for herself, and when she saw a proof of it in the form of a garland of clover that he had left to Nephthys – she was looking for a baby, because Nephthys abandoned it at once after it had been born for fear of [[Set (deity)|Set]]; and when Isis found the baby helped by the dogs which with great difficulties lead her there, she raised him and he became her guard and ally by the name of Anubis.|author=}}
[[George Hart (Egyptologist)|George Hart]] sees this story as an "attempt to incorporate the independent deity Anubis into the [[Osiris myth|Osirian pantheon]]."{{sfn|Hart|1986|p=26}} An Egyptian papyrus from the [[Egypt (Roman province)|Roman period]] (30–380 AD) simply called Anubis the "son of Isis."{{sfn|Hart|1986|p=26}} In [[Nubia]], Anubis was seen as the husband of his mother Nephthys.<ref name="Lévai 2007"/>

[[File:Sousse_mosaic_calendar_November.JPG|thumb|[[Hermanubis]] in the November panel of a Roman mosaic calendar from Sousse, Tunisia.]]
In the [[Ptolemaic Egypt|Ptolemaic]] period (350–30 BC), when Egypt became a [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] kingdom ruled by Greek pharaohs, Anubis was merged with the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] god [[Hermes]], becoming [[Hermanubis]].{{sfn|Peacock|2000|pp=437–38 (Hellenistic kingdom)}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.babylon.com/definition/Hermanubis/English |title=Hermanubis {{pipe}} English {{pipe}} Dictionary & Translation by Babylon |publisher=Babylon.com |access-date=15 June 2012 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304194619/http://www.babylon.com/definition/Hermanubis/English |url-status=dead }}</ref> The two gods were considered similar because they both [[psychopomp|guided souls]] to the afterlife.{{sfn|Riggs|2005|p=166}} The center of this [[Cult (religious practice)|cult]] was in ''uten-ha''/''Sa-ka''/ [[Cynopolis]], a place whose Greek name means "city of dogs." In Book XI of ''[[The Golden Ass]]'' by [[Apuleius]], there is evidence that the worship of this god was continued in [[Ancient Rome|Rome]] through at least the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in the [[alchemy|alchemical]] and [[Hermeticism|hermetical]] literature of the [[Middle Ages]] and the [[Renaissance]].

Although the Greeks and [[Ancient Romans|Romans]] typically scorned Egyptian animal-headed gods as bizarre and primitive (Anubis was mockingly called "Barker" by the Greeks), Anubis was sometimes associated with [[Sirius]] in the heavens and [[Cerberus]] and Hades in the underworld.{{sfn|Hoerber|1963|p=269 (for Cerberus and Hades)}} In his dialogues, [[Plato]] often has [[Socrates]] utter oaths "by the dog" ([[Greek language|Greek]]: ''kai me ton kuna''), "by the dog of Egypt", and "by the dog, the god of the Egyptians", both for emphasis and to appeal to Anubis as an arbiter of truth in the underworld.<ref>E.g., ''[[Gorgias (dialogue)|Gorgias]]'', 482b ({{harvnb|Blackwood|Crossett|Long|1962|p=318}}), or ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'', 399e, 567e, 592a ({{harvnb|Hoerber|1963|p=268}}).</ref>