Anubis

Anubis is a Great One, a god of old Earth from the Mythic Age and Ancient Age. He is also one of the oldest and most powerful Elder Gods. He has left the home of the Great Ones in Kadath and taken up residence in Dylath-Leen during the saga of Kid Celephais. Anubis has had a long history of activity, worship and achievements from the earliest now forgotten Ages through the Mythic and Ancient Ages up to the Antique Age.

### DEATH

Anubis is known as the god of death and is the oldest and most
popular of ancient Egyptian deities. The ancient Egyptians revered
Anubis highly because they believed he had tremendous power over both
their physical and spiritual selves when they died.

### LONG HISTORY

 References to Anubis are found in texts dating back to the Old
Kingdom. His fame lasted until the Middle Kingdom, when his role as **God of death** was taken over by Osiris and Anubis became Osiris' assistant.

### INPU or ANOP

Anubis is the Greek translation of what the ancient Egyptians called him originally: ***Inpu* or *Anpu***.
 Although the ancient Egyptian word for royal child is inpu, it is more
likely that this god’s name stems from the word “imp” which means “to
decay.”

### DIFFERENT ROLES, DIFFERENT TIMES

Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts. Depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3100 – c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055 – 1650 BC) he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld. One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the "Weighing of the Heart," in which it was determined whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead. Despite being one of the most ancient and "one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods" in the Egyptian pantheon, Anubis played almost no role in Egyptian myths.

Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized regeneration, life, the soil of the River Nile, and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis is associated with his brother Wepwawet,
 another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog's head or in canine form, but
 with grey or white fur. Wepwawet eventually evolved into the Elder God Ghu.

### FAMILY TREE

Anubis' female counterpart is Anput. His daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet.

### UNTIL TODAY

Anubis is the Egyptian
 god of mummification and the afterlife as well as the patron god of
lost souls and the helpless. He is one of the oldest gods of Egypt,
 who most likely developed from the earlier (and much older) jackal god
Wepwawet with whom he is often confused. Anubis' image is seen on royal
tombs from the First Dynasty of Egypt
 (c. 3150-2890 BCE) but it is certain he had already developed a cult
following prior to this period in order to be invoked on the tomb's
 walls for protection. He is thought to have developed in response to
wild dogs and jackals digging up newly buried corpses at some point in
the Predynastic Period in Egypt (c. 6000-3150 BCE) as the Egyptians believed a powerful canine god was the best protection against wild canines.

### ANCIENT OF DAYS

Anubis is one of the tiny handful of Great Ones who is of similar great age to the most powerful of the Outer Gods and Elder Gods. He has remained, unchanged in essential attributes and appearance, for aeons. He is deeply connected to the Gates of Horn and Ivory, the Box of Horn and Ivory and the Underworld. In some respects he is the nemesis and arch-enemy of Nyarlathotep since where Nyarlathotep seeks to usher in misery, madness, pain and suffering and chaos, Anubis serves the balance of the cosmos.

### THE JACKAL THAT IS A WOLF

n ancient Egypt, scavengers like jackals ruled the cemeteries. They dug
up the freshly buried and tore at their flesh and ate it. **Historians
 believe that this is what prompted the ancients to portray the god of
the afterlife as a jackal, to fight fire with fire**. New genetic research indicates that the ancient Egyptian jackal is not a jackal at all, but an ancient wolf.