ANUBIS

Real Name: Anpu (Anubis is the later Greek version of his name)

Occupation: God of funerals and mummification

Legal Status: Citizen of Heliopolis

Identity: The general populace of earth is unaware of Anubis except as a mythological character.

Other Aliases: Jackal-god, Hermes Trimegistrus, Lord of Death and Rebirth, Lord of the Mummy Wrappings, Sekhem Em Pet (name for Anubis as a son of Osiris), Sekhem Taui (name of Anubis as a form of Osiris)

Place of Birth: Unrevealed

Marital Status: Separated

Known Relatives: Geb (grandfather), Nut (grandmother), Osiris (father), Nephthys (mother), Bata (brother), Hatmehyt (former sister-in-law, deceased), Qadesh (former wife), Upuaut (son), Qebehet (daughter), Horus, Anhur, Neper, Min (half-brothers), Bast (half-sister), Seth, Harpocrates (uncles), Isis (aunt/step-mother)

Group Affiliation: The Gods of Egypt

Base of Operations: Las Vegas, Nevada, formerly Duat, former Ancient Heliopolis (now part of modern Cairo),

First Appearance: (modern) First Issue Special #9

History: Anubis is the son of Osiris and Nephthys. According to one myth, he was sired through the trickery of the treacherous Nephthys over her brother Osiris, and was abandoned by his mother at birth, being raised instead by Isis, wife of Osiris. In other stories, Nephthys preferred Osiris as a husband over than that of his brother Seth, who had taken her as his wife. Seth hated his brother for several reasons, but mostly out of jealousy because their father had passed him over to make Osiris pharaoh of Egypt. Anubis as well as the other sons of Osiris knew of the hatred Seth had for their father, and favored the rule of their beneficent father over than that of their uncle.

On the seventeenth day of the month of Hathor, during the twenty-eighth year of Osiris' reign, Seth killed Osiris in order to overthrow him as pharaoh and scattered his dismembered and flayed corpse to the winds. Isis recollected the lost pieces of her husband and reassembled them to restore him to life. With help from Amaunet, a goddess of the dead, Anubis invented the practice of mummification as a means of preserving his father's body for restoration back to life: a practice he also revealed to the Ancient Egyptians as as a means of preserving their dead. However, after having seen the afterlife, Osiris returned to it in order to rule it and left the throne to Horus. Anubis was granted the job of escorting the favored and honored dead to Duat, the Egyptian afterlife. Horus and Anubis meanwhile continued to battle the evil minions and animated undead loyal to Seth to prevent them from taking over the earth.

Anubis meanwhile had taken the goddess Qadesh, the goddess of sin, as his wife, and she gave him two children, Upuaut, god of cemeteries and tombs, and Qebehut, goddess of purification. During one of his absences battling the armies of Seth, Qadesh attempted to seduce his brother, Bata, the bull-god. Refused by him, she screamed rape, and Anubis pursued his brother out of revenge as far as the Nile where Bata insisted on his innocence and swore upon Khnemu, the god of the Nile, for protection from his brother's wrath. Finally believing him, Anubis turned around and slew his wife.

Still under the protection of Khnemu, Bata called upon Ammon-Ra for a wife of his own. Ammon-Ra instructed the god, Khnemu, to give own daughter, Hatmehyt as a wife to the bull-god. She, however, turned out to be unfaithful and showed Bata's enemies how to defeat and kill him. Anubis subsequently found his brother's body and restored him to life. In one version of this story, a pine tree had sprung up from where Bata was buried, and Anubis tricked Hatmehyt into swallowing a splinter from the tree knowing that the essence of his brother was within the tree. After Hatmehyt swallowed the splinter, Bata sprang forth from her body, killing her in the process.

Horus's mortal sons later inherited control of Egypt and often spent time protecting the kingdom from invading Greeks and Phoenicians. Anubis and much of the Ennead were worshipped by their descendants as gods despite having once lived among them as mortals on earth. Around 2030 BC, Anubis granted one of his priests named Khalis with a mystic amulet which had mystical properties, but Khalis used it to try and conquer Egypt for himself and often fought the wizard Nabu who stood as his eternal adversary to his plans. Nabu subsequently defeated and mummified Khalis and took the Amulet of Anubis for himself. Despite having been used for malicious intent, the amulet had no inherent dark energies within it and Nabu passed it on to his successors, most recently, the modern archaeologist, Kent Nelson who became known as the modern sorcerer, Doctor Fate.

At some point in the past, Ammon-Ra, Ruler of the Egyptian gods, tired of his role and made Osiris his successor over the lord of the Egyptian Gods. Seth replaced Osiris as ruler of the dead either by taking the vacated role by force or just declaring it for himself, but growing discontent with that role, he overthrew Osiris as ruler of Heliopolis. Seth then imprisoned him and all the Egyptian gods, Anubis and Bata as well, within a pyramid for millennia. When the pyramid appeared in the Twentieth Century, the Asgardian Gods clashed with Seth to free them. The ancient gods of Egypt then proclaimed Odin the reincarnation of their common ancestor Atum Ra.

In recent years, however, Anubis had been invoked by an Egyptian man who sought him out to create a zombie for him so that he could use it to coerce a woman into marrying him. The spell succeeded, but the woman eventually turned the zombie against him and murdered him. It is not known how Anubis could have taken a role in the creation of this zombie in view of his imprisonment, although it has come to light that there is an entirely another much more darker and malevolent entity also named Anubis who has come into existence. Whether this is a being who was designated by Seth to fulfill the duties of and to conceal the absence pf his absent nephew is unknown. On the other hand, whether it is just some type of demon operating beyond Seth's knowledge is also unrevealed.

Since his freedom from the pyramid, Anubis has been living both in Celestial Heliopolis and on Earth in the area of Las Vegas where Ammon Ra lives under  the mortal identity of a casino owner named Amun Ra. Without his ancient godly duties, he has entered into friendly games of rivalry with other gods such as Hermes and Hermod, typically in games of competition involving speed and ingenuity. Recently, however, Anubis appeared to members of GIJoe after confusing the Cobra terrorist organization as followers of Seth. He also materialized in a sandstorm in Egypt with the gods Ptah and Thoth to reveal to Kent Nelson why they had stripped him of the mantle of Doctor Fate and presented it to his wife, Inza Kramer. This revelation was actually part of the machination created by Circe to weaken the Lord of Order that she might usurp power from the Olympian gods. However, as the new Doctor Fate, Kramer proved to be able to hold her own against Circe and actually helped the gathered heroes of earth defeat her from slaying the gods of earth and becoming a goddess herself. As a result, Anubis and the Egyptian gods allowed her to continuing serving as their new Lord of Order.

Most recently, Anubis accompanied Bast and Bes to the plane of existence known as the Dreaming in order to barter for the keys to the underworld. In response to the Dream Lord's relinquishing of the keys, they repaid his favor by attending the funeral of his son.

Height: 6' 5"
Weight: 485 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black (sometimes Bald)

Unusual Physical Features: In ancient times, Anubis often appeared to mortals with the head of a jackal.

Strength Level: Anubis possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift (press) around 30 tons under optimal conditions.

Known Superhuman Powers: Anubis possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Egyptian gods. Like all members of the Ennead, he is extremely long-lived, but he is not immortal like the Olympian gods: he has not aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. He is immune to all Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If he were somehow wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for a god of equal power, such as Ammon-Ra or Osiris or for several members of the Ennead working together to revive her. Anubis also possesses superhuman strength and his Ennead metabolism provides him with far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Ennead flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the superhuman strength and weight of the Egyptian Gods)

Anubis also has several undefined skills, presumably magical in nature, to perceive spirits, teleport across space and even cross dimensional barriers such as from Heliopolis to Earth and even into the Dream Dimension. He can also shapeshift and disguise his appearance such as from his normal humanoid appearance to a jackal-headed god. In ancient times, he almost entirely appeared as in his form of the jackal-god and even wore a head-piece made from the head of a jackal which he pulled down into this guise. He can also conjure up windstorms and manipulate the weather to a limited extent.

Transportation/Paraphernalia: At least in the past, Anubis traveled in a funerary canoe which he could levitate and travel on through the air to carry the shades ("souls") of the dead into the afterlife. Today, despite his powers to teleport, he owns a number of small planes which he considers his toys to play with in the world of mortals.

Comments: This bio involves Anubis as he has appeared in the DC Universe and in GIJoe: The Animated Series. Although there is a being named Anubis in the Marvel Universe, contradictions with the mythological character would seem to suggest that they are not the same character.

In the myths, Anubis and Bata's enemies are never named, but they are agents of a unnamed Pharaoh. It is likely they are minions of Seth during the period they tried to oust Seth from power and place Horus on the Egyptian throne.

Also in the myths, Anubis' wife is generally never named, rather she is called a goddess of wine and sin. Qadesh is, however, named in a certain rituals as the goddess of sin and vice, so it's likely that she's the same person as Anubis' wife.

Clarifications: Anubis should not be confused with:

Last updated: 06/06/12

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