Greek version of Egyptian Anpu
For many centuries Anubis was the main god of the dead. Later, when the role of Osiris changed from god of vegetation to that of god of the dead, he became superior to Anubis. Anubis, however, retained an important part in the funeral rights and was considered to be the son of Osiris and Nephthys. It was Anubis, aided by his mother and aunt, the goddesses Nephthys and Isis, who embalmed the murdered Osiris's body, and he who devised the method of wrapping the body in bandages and formulated the embalming oils. Anubis is shown in Egyptian art either as a jackal or as a man with a jackal's head. On edge of the desert the jackal lived, scavenging what he could from the communities and frequenting the cemeteries which lay within his natural habitat. So it was inevitable that this animal should become associated with the dead. One of the main areas for the worship of Anubis was the Seventeenth Nome of Upper Egypt, the capital of which the Greeks named Cynopolis,the 'city of the dogs’. As the embalmer of Osiris, Anubis became the patron of all embalmers. One of his titles was lord of the divine pavilion: referring to the building within each temple complex where mummification was carried out. In his early history the rites of Anubis were the domain of the king alone, but as time passed he became the god of death for all members of the community. Related to Anubis was the god Wapwawet. He was also a god of the dead, resembling Anubis in several ways. Both gods were dog-headed but where Anubis was shown with a black head, that of apwawet was white. It is probable that his head was that of a wolf, for his cult centre in the Thirteenth Nome of Upper Egypt was called by the Greeks Lykopolis - the 'wolf city'.Anubis was also worshipped under the form Upuaut ("Opener of the Ways"), sometimes with a rabbit's head, who conducted the souls of the dead to their judgment, and who monitored the Scales of Truth to protect the dead from the second death in the underworld.
