The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses , Devil and Demons
Egyptian god of the dead, in the shape of a dog or a jackal; occasionally in human shape with a dog’s head. It is not certain what the name means; the meaning ‘little dog’ has been suggested. At Assiut, Anubis was known by the epithet ‘Lord of the cave mouth’, i.e.
the entrance into the city of the dead. As god of the dead he is ‘Lord of the divine hall’ and hence in charge of mummification, in which capacity he undertakes the ritual preparation of the corpse and its transfiguration. With the rise of → Osiris, Anubis was demoted vis-à-vis the new Lord of the Dead and put in charge of weighing the hearts at the last judgment. The Greeks gave the name Kynopolis to important centres of worship. In the interpretatio graeca Anubis was identified with → Hérmes.
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