Inaccurate Egyptology: "Evil" god Anubis?!?!?

Rating: 5/10 (14 December 2006)

As an amateur Egyptian mythologist and Isiac reconstructionist, I have a couple of problems with this movie and it's predecessor, "The Mummy." Both were recently played back-to-back on the SciFi channel, so I got a chance to refresh my vague memory of them from several years ago. I watched "The Mummy," and basically enjoyed it as an utter yarn, with one or two nit-picks (Seti I murdered by his high priest? Huh?). The thing that stuck in my craw the most was the bit about the vicious, flesh-eating scarabs. Scarabs are DUNG BEETLES! They eat dung, never live prey. Ever! They may occasionally feast on decayed vegetation and possibly even the rotted flesh of corpses, but they generally prefer the dung of livestock and are, themselves, a favorite snack of Egyptian bats. It was a minor issue and the FX were cool, so I let it slide ... sort of.
I was far less forgiving with "The Mummy Returns," which I turned off in disgust after about the first five minutes. The reason? Its portrayal of Anubis as a snarling, "evil" and "dark god" (I'm quoting words from the movie itself) was offensive and inaccurate, if not outright sacrilege. According to Egyptian mythology, the jackal- or dog-headed god, Anubis, was not and IS not evil, even though his alleged father, Set, might be characterized as such.
For those who don't know: Anubis is the Egyptian god of the dead and dying, who protects and ushers the recently deceased into the afterlife, most commonly referred to as the Underworld (not to be confused with Hell, mind you). He is at once ruler, guard and judge of who is fit and deserving to enter the utopian Underworld by a test known as the Weighing of the Heart. (Sort of the Egyptian equivalent of St. Peter.) He was spared from death as an infant by the goddess Isis and remains Her loyal companion and protector (much like the faithful family dog). He is said to have taught the art of mummification and funerary rites to the Egyptians priests. He is also viewed by some as the patron god of lost souls and orphans. Dark? Perhaps, inasmuch as death may be considered dark. But, evil? Absolutely not. And I have come across no tales of Anubis ever having had an "evil army" as the "The Mummy Returns" portrays being led by the Scorpion King. This notion is so ridiculous it's almost funny. Almost.
Either the consultants on this movie did not do their research, or they've watched the original "The Omen," with the skeletons of demonic Damien's jackal-headed parents being unearthed in the Egyptian desert (and the obvious allusion to Anubis), far too many times.
In any case, I was turned off by either the sloppy ignorance or the intentional maligning of Egyptian divinity. As others have stated here, there are even errors in the continuity in the timeline and "historical" references between the two films themselves, which might shed some light on the reasons for the mistakes in Egyptian mythology.
I really wish Hollywood would get its act together when making action, horror or drama movies featuring pagan gods. I tend to get a little testy about how easily the label "evil" is applied in such cases. And for every "DaVinci Code" and "Last Temptation of Christ," there are about a dozen other films that have served to spread fallacious and pernicious ideas about paganism. And yet, the last I checked, no Christians have had to go into hiding because of a vapid movie twisting the Catholic rite of Communion into a carnal act of cannibalism. And I can't help but be critical when mainstream movies such as this one, mold deities from other cultures into sinister action figures for an audience that may not realize that what they're seeing is a complete lie.
Blessings of Isis,
Lady P