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Anubis, "Objectively" (READ IF YOU LIKE HISTORY)
6 years ago
General
Anpw 'Anpu" or Anubis also known as Nubta Djser or "Lord of the Hallowed Lands", Friend of the Dead, Opener of Ways, Weigher of the Heart, Opener of the Mouth, the Embalmer, Judge of the D'uat, the Jackal, is the longest-surviving deity with active cults known of Egyptian origin.
The Jackal's earliest manifestation might've been as Wepwawet, a white jackal-god of warfare and the hunt during the Pre-Dynastic period (3000 BCE and earlier), when gods were associated with the changing seasons and migrations of antelopes and gazelles. Eventually however the worship of Wepwawet declined and the deity fell into obscurity. From the earliest stages of Egyptian societal development there was a focus on death and, more importantly, the ability to pass on to a better world. As the Egyptians began cultivating the Nile Delta they would also build settlements, towns and eventually warlords began forming the first permanent Kingdoms such as Memphis, Thebes and Nubia (Lower, Middle and Upper Kingdoms respectively). The first Pharaohs would rule over a unified Khemet and wore the crown which symbolized the union of Lower and Upper Khemet.
During this time the worship of deities began to take shape more forcefully - deities in the past might've been more animist in nature, the mountains, the hunt, the sky, these were gods in the Predynastic period, whereas once temples and permanent settlements were erected deities were given specific roles, or specific roles gave birth to them. Which came first, who knows. In a peculiar difference to the Greek pantheon, where cities had patron deities (Athena of Athens for instance), Egyptian cities would dedicate to different gods - gods were in effect fighting for prominence with one another and great festivals were arranged to celebrate the seasons and the cults (or temples) courted the local rulers for funding. A little bit like carnevals. The Egyptian drink of choice was beer compared to the Roman and Greek preference for wine.
Another thread of gods' specialization was the specialization of crafts and trades. Unlike the Greek city-states where most of the work was done by slaves, though Egypt had slaves the work was primarily done by what we might call "lodges"; the Architects' Lodge, the Stonemasons' Lodge and so forth. Their work was so important that to this day tombs meant for kings had on their premises tombs for the people who worked in construction. It was thought for a long time that these tombs were for those who died on site - and though this isn't necessarily incorrect, at least some were buried there later on.
The idea of purchasing for yourself a plot of land to be buried on is a very Egyptian thing. Today echoes of this can be found partly in the West (with burial as opposed to cremation) and also in China, where a focus is on being buried "with all of your parts", with a tradition in the countryside being that men or women who died single are married post-mortem so they might know a happier married life together after death (Disclaimer: China is a massive country with lots of traditions, hundreds of languages and no single tradition can correctly be described as "countryside Chinese traditions" yadda yadda)
Anubis is often mistaken to be the Ruler of the Underworld, a kind of king. This is not far from the truth but it is a bit more complex, as is the case with any story which has had thousands of years to mature.
Anpw may have begun as such a ruler until what is sometimes called the "War in Heaven" took place, where Seth took revenge upon Osiris (father of Anubis) for an unworthy gift and killed him. This is a simplification, I might write about "War in Heaven" another time - gifts were exchanged at least twice and the object of the war was Isis. Or Bastet (not to be confused with Bast) depending on your source.
Anubis resurrected his father through the embalming process and so Osiris, or the Nile, inundates regularly. Life and death stuck in an eternal loop, holding the soul. This is where the Ankh comes from, a loop holding a cross or Ka, symbol of the soul.
Thus Anubis became associated with the trade of embalming. Books of the Dead were written for mortals so that they might pass his tests in a rigorous series of trials known as the D'uat.
There are two ways to think of the D'uat:
First, in symbols: The mortal waits for their turn to be jugded. During the judging their heart is ceremonially (or unceremonially) ripped out of their chest and weighed on a Libra against the Feather of Truth. If the heart weighs heavier, the mortal is cast into the abyss. If the heart is honest, the mortal may pass on to the next life.
Second, as a real trial: Fighting monsters, scaling obstacles, overcoming adversity.
The Book of the Dead acts as a kind of Gamer's Guide, giving hints and 'scripts' to use, spells and incantations to get out of sticky situations.
One of the most concretely known is the practice of Negative Admission, a long list of "I have not" coupled with a particular sin, there are two theories for why you would want to spend time telling a god what you have NOT done wrong:
1. To waste time so that the time of judging passes (gods have quotas, too)
2. To make yourself seem worthier, to make those small sins seem even smaller.
Anubis cheats the D'uat from time to time, hence he is known as "Friend of the Dead", the worthy do pass even if their hearts are weary, how often this occurs is obviously not apparent, but there is the kind of understanding that a mortal may gain his favor and thus life eternal.
It is also worthy of note that the cults of Anubis are the only ones to have survived beyond the Christening of Egypt, with the last cult surviving as late as 400AD (note: Egypt was long dead by then having become a Roman protectorate - and then a province of Rome). Anubis' combination with Hermes during the totally-Egyptian-Ptolemaic period (The Cleopatra we know was in fact Cleopatra VII and her son was Ptolemaios XV "Caesarion", he was the last Ptolemy - Ptolemies ruled from 305-30 BCE and given that a generation is typically 30 years this tells us thems were dyin'. The Ptolemaic Dynasty was in fact founded after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great) connected this ancient deity with the earliest records of modern medicine - the Hermetic societies. (Icky-poo: Anubis was invoked to protect corpses against canines and it turns out that yanking organs and replacing blood with embalming fluid makes corpses not stink which protects against doggos finding your dearly departed.)
The Jackal's earliest manifestation might've been as Wepwawet, a white jackal-god of warfare and the hunt during the Pre-Dynastic period (3000 BCE and earlier), when gods were associated with the changing seasons and migrations of antelopes and gazelles. Eventually however the worship of Wepwawet declined and the deity fell into obscurity. From the earliest stages of Egyptian societal development there was a focus on death and, more importantly, the ability to pass on to a better world. As the Egyptians began cultivating the Nile Delta they would also build settlements, towns and eventually warlords began forming the first permanent Kingdoms such as Memphis, Thebes and Nubia (Lower, Middle and Upper Kingdoms respectively). The first Pharaohs would rule over a unified Khemet and wore the crown which symbolized the union of Lower and Upper Khemet.
During this time the worship of deities began to take shape more forcefully - deities in the past might've been more animist in nature, the mountains, the hunt, the sky, these were gods in the Predynastic period, whereas once temples and permanent settlements were erected deities were given specific roles, or specific roles gave birth to them. Which came first, who knows. In a peculiar difference to the Greek pantheon, where cities had patron deities (Athena of Athens for instance), Egyptian cities would dedicate to different gods - gods were in effect fighting for prominence with one another and great festivals were arranged to celebrate the seasons and the cults (or temples) courted the local rulers for funding. A little bit like carnevals. The Egyptian drink of choice was beer compared to the Roman and Greek preference for wine.
Another thread of gods' specialization was the specialization of crafts and trades. Unlike the Greek city-states where most of the work was done by slaves, though Egypt had slaves the work was primarily done by what we might call "lodges"; the Architects' Lodge, the Stonemasons' Lodge and so forth. Their work was so important that to this day tombs meant for kings had on their premises tombs for the people who worked in construction. It was thought for a long time that these tombs were for those who died on site - and though this isn't necessarily incorrect, at least some were buried there later on.
The idea of purchasing for yourself a plot of land to be buried on is a very Egyptian thing. Today echoes of this can be found partly in the West (with burial as opposed to cremation) and also in China, where a focus is on being buried "with all of your parts", with a tradition in the countryside being that men or women who died single are married post-mortem so they might know a happier married life together after death (Disclaimer: China is a massive country with lots of traditions, hundreds of languages and no single tradition can correctly be described as "countryside Chinese traditions" yadda yadda)
Anubis is often mistaken to be the Ruler of the Underworld, a kind of king. This is not far from the truth but it is a bit more complex, as is the case with any story which has had thousands of years to mature.
Anpw may have begun as such a ruler until what is sometimes called the "War in Heaven" took place, where Seth took revenge upon Osiris (father of Anubis) for an unworthy gift and killed him. This is a simplification, I might write about "War in Heaven" another time - gifts were exchanged at least twice and the object of the war was Isis. Or Bastet (not to be confused with Bast) depending on your source.
Anubis resurrected his father through the embalming process and so Osiris, or the Nile, inundates regularly. Life and death stuck in an eternal loop, holding the soul. This is where the Ankh comes from, a loop holding a cross or Ka, symbol of the soul.
Thus Anubis became associated with the trade of embalming. Books of the Dead were written for mortals so that they might pass his tests in a rigorous series of trials known as the D'uat.
There are two ways to think of the D'uat:
First, in symbols: The mortal waits for their turn to be jugded. During the judging their heart is ceremonially (or unceremonially) ripped out of their chest and weighed on a Libra against the Feather of Truth. If the heart weighs heavier, the mortal is cast into the abyss. If the heart is honest, the mortal may pass on to the next life.
Second, as a real trial: Fighting monsters, scaling obstacles, overcoming adversity.
The Book of the Dead acts as a kind of Gamer's Guide, giving hints and 'scripts' to use, spells and incantations to get out of sticky situations.
One of the most concretely known is the practice of Negative Admission, a long list of "I have not" coupled with a particular sin, there are two theories for why you would want to spend time telling a god what you have NOT done wrong:
1. To waste time so that the time of judging passes (gods have quotas, too)
2. To make yourself seem worthier, to make those small sins seem even smaller.
Anubis cheats the D'uat from time to time, hence he is known as "Friend of the Dead", the worthy do pass even if their hearts are weary, how often this occurs is obviously not apparent, but there is the kind of understanding that a mortal may gain his favor and thus life eternal.
It is also worthy of note that the cults of Anubis are the only ones to have survived beyond the Christening of Egypt, with the last cult surviving as late as 400AD (note: Egypt was long dead by then having become a Roman protectorate - and then a province of Rome). Anubis' combination with Hermes during the totally-Egyptian-Ptolemaic period (The Cleopatra we know was in fact Cleopatra VII and her son was Ptolemaios XV "Caesarion", he was the last Ptolemy - Ptolemies ruled from 305-30 BCE and given that a generation is typically 30 years this tells us thems were dyin'. The Ptolemaic Dynasty was in fact founded after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great) connected this ancient deity with the earliest records of modern medicine - the Hermetic societies. (Icky-poo: Anubis was invoked to protect corpses against canines and it turns out that yanking organs and replacing blood with embalming fluid makes corpses not stink which protects against doggos finding your dearly departed.)
