Standing Figure of the God Anubis

The jackal-headed god Anubis figure is depicted striding on a high pedestal decorated with a palace facade. The deity is wearing a kilt and a vest decorated with a feather motif. He is adorned with a broad collar and bracelets as well as armlets on his upper arms. His two hands are extended slightly forward. The appearance of the god shows the canonical mixture of a canine head with a human body.

Anubis, god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the Underworld. Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts. Depicted as a protector of graves as early as the 1st Dynasty (ca. 3100-2890 BC), Anubis was also an embalmer. One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife.

Anubis or Anpu was the god of embalming and the dead. Since jackals were often seen in cemeteries, the ancient Egyptians believed that Anubis watched over the dead. Anubis was the god who helped to embalm Osiris after he was killed by Seth. Anubis is the Greek name of a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian mythology.

Ptolemaic Period, ca. 305-30 BC. Now in the Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim.