Hermanubis
Parian marble, 1st–2nd century B.C.
Gregorian Egyptian Museum; Room IV. Vatican Museums
Carved from luminous Parian marble, this statue embodies the elegant fusion of Egyptian and Roman divinity: Hermanubis, the jackal-headed Anubis recast in the guise of Mercury. Fashioned in the 1st–2nd centuries A.D., the figure rises a modest 1.55 metres, yet commands attention. A slender solar disc poised on a crescent moon nestles between alert ears, while Roman tastes dress the god in a short tunic, flowing cloak, and sensible shoes. In his left hand he bears the caduceus, sign of the fleet-footed messenger and fitting emblem for his role as psychopomp; the guide who ushers souls from the mortal realm to the shadowed halls beyond.
Unearthed in 1749 on Pamphilj lands at Anzio, the marble traveller began a second journey of his own: presented to Pope Benedict XIV, and ultimately installed, in 1839, within the Gregorian Egyptian Museum of the Vatican. There he stands today, a silent herald of the cosmopolitan piety of the early Empire, where Rome’s pantheon eagerly adopted foreign gods, grafting their attributes onto its own and carving new myths in stone as smooth as moonlight.
Hermanubis
Parian marble, 1st–2nd century B.C.
Gregorian Egyptian Museum; Room IV. Vatican Museums
Hermanubis, that most curious of divine hybrids, emerged from the rich alchemy of Greco-Egyptian religion in the twilight of the Pharaonic world, blossoming fully in the early centuries of Roman rule. He is the syncretic offspring of Anubis, the Ancient Egyptian guardian of embalming and the dead, and Hermes, the Greek god of transitions, travellers, and the swift-footed escort of souls, and whose Roman counterpart is Mercury. Both Hermes and Anubis served as psychopomps, leading the departed safely to the afterlife; and it was in this shared function that their essences intertwined.
The name “Hermanubis” reflects his Hellenistic origins, when Greek and Egyptian religious ideas began to merge, particularly in Ptolemaic Egypt. However, during the Roman period, Hermanubis was more commonly identified with Mercury, and Roman-era depictions often show him wearing Roman clothing and holding the caduceus, Mercury’s staff. Thus, references to both Hermes and Mercury are correct; Hermes reflects the Greek roots of the fusion, while Mercury represents the Roman reinterpretation of the same composite god.
Hermanubis began to appear during the Ptolemaic Period (circa 3rd–2nd century B.C.), though his cult flourished more broadly under Roman imperial patronage, particularly in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., when Alexandria was a shimmering crucible of gods and philosophies. Unlike his more austere Egyptian forebear, Hermanubis was often depicted in Roman garb, holding the caduceus and sometimes a palm branch or sistrum, his canine head noble and serene above a toga’d form. He could be found not only in temple iconography but also engraved on magical gemstones and funerary stelae, invoked in spells and charms to protect both the living and the dead.
His cult was especially popular among mystery religions and magical practitioners, those who delighted in secret rites and the promise of personal salvation. In these circles, Hermanubis became a figure of esoteric knowledge and liminal power; one who bridged not only life and death, but Egyptian and Hellenic worlds, past and present.
Yet, like many of the gods of late antiquity, his following dwindled with the ascendancy of Christianity. By the 4th century A.D., with the closing of temples and the fading of traditional rites, Hermanubis retreated into the shadows; his memory preserved in art, papyri, and the occasional inscription, whispering of a time when gods wore many names and walked freely between the lands of the living and the dead.
