Anpu (Inpw, Anubis) called Ienpw (phonetically "Yinepu" is the Son of Nephthys and Osiris, raised by Isis..
He is known as the god of travelers, orphans, and the lost.
and considered the inventor of embalming, and the God of embalming, also guardian of tombs, and a judge of the dead.
Anubis is also the God of dreams along with his father Osiris.
Also God of the astral plane for it is here that he guides the departed souls from this world to the next.
Anubis is a luner diety and in this respect is linked to Thoth and the Goddess Bast.
He is an extremely ancient deity. The oldest mastabas of the Old Kingdom have prayers to him carved into their walls,
mentioned in the Pyramid Texts in his most celebrated role as a guardian and protector of the dead.
Often depicted as that of the desert dog crouching or siting ear up and alert.
Anubis is always portrayed as black even though the jackel and desert dogs are more of golden brown.
Black is his color because in Egypt the color black represented regeneration and rebirth. (The dark fertile nile silt came at spring).
The reason for Anubis's animal being canid is based on what the ancient Egyptians themselves observed of the creature,
dogs and jackals often haunted the edges of the desert, especially the cemeteries where the dead were buried.
Guide to the next world. Anubis was also worshipped under the form "Wepuat" ("Opener of the Ways"),
sometimes with a rabbit's head, who conducted the souls of the dead to their judgement,
and who monitored the Scales of Truth to protect the dead from deception and eternal death.
Anubis plays and importent role in the Hall of Judgement as the one who leeds the departed to the hall and the one who weighs the heart of the dead against the feather of Ma'at.{feather of truth.}
Anubis is also the God of Magick, for it was Isis Goddess of Magick, Queen of Egypt that taught him all she knew of the secret arts.
A standard offering formula for the dead in the Old Kingdom began thusly:
"An offering which the king gives and Anubis, who is upon his mountain and in the place of embalming, the lord of the necropolis....
" Anubis began in the position that Osiris would later command.
In the earliest period of Egyptian religion Anubis was clearly the lord of the dead and Osiris the embalmed god
while Anubis performed the act of embalming.
Titles that were invested unto Osiris, such as Khenty-Imentiu or "Foremost of Westerners", were originally Anubis's.
As the drama of Osiris's death and vindication unfolded over the centuries,
Anubis assumed the role of the guide who holds steady the scales on which their hearts are measured against the feather of ma'at as "He Who Counts the Hearts".
Should the heart be light as the feather, the soul would then be lead by Anubis (or, in some cases, Harseisis) to be presented to Osiris.
Should the heart be heavy, it is fed to Ammit and the soul destroyed.
As Imy-ut, or "He Who is In the Place of Embalming",
Anubis is the embalmer who washes the entrails of the dead and guards over their physical bodies as well as the places that house them (the tomb and the necropolis).
Priests wearing a mask of Anubis were responsible for the Opening of the Mouth ceremony that reawakened a dead person's senses.
In a reflection of the royal seal used on the tombs of the Valley of the Kings depicting pharaoh's victory over the "nine bows" (enemies of Egypt),
Anubis is shown recumbent over nine bows meant to be hostile forces of the Underworld who he, as "Jackal Ruler of the Bows", has triumphed over.
The Pyramid Texts even supply Anubis with a daughter in the form of the goddess Qeb-hwt ("Cooling Water"),
a celestial serpent or ostrich Who purifies and quenches the monarch.
Very rarely is he ever shown fully human, though there are some cases (such as in the temple of Ramesses II of Abydos) of this.
Anubis was worshipped throughout Egypt, but the center of his cult was in Cynopolis (Upper Egypt).
