Anubis

The tale of Anubis

In Egypt the jackals came at night to the edge of the desert, where the dead were buried. People feared they would dig up the graves. So they turned the jackal into a god who guards the dead instead: Anubis, black-skinned, jackal-headed, lord of the cemetery and the embalming tent. His black is not the black of death. It is the colour of the rich Nile mud that brings the fields back to life every year, and so it is the colour of rebirth.

The first mummy

When the god Osiris was murdered by his brother Set and his body torn apart, it was Anubis who helped Isis and Nephthys put him back together. He cleaned the body, wrapped it in linen bandages, and performed the rites that let Osiris live again in the world below. That was the first mummy. Ever after, when an Egyptian died, the priests who prepared the body wore the mask of Anubis, and the god himself was believed to stand beside them.

The weighing of the heart

Anubis's most famous task comes after death. In the Book of the Dead, the soul of the dead person is led by Anubis into the Hall of the Two Truths. There stands a great pair of scales. On one side is placed the person's heart, which holds the memory of every deed in their life. On the other is a single feather: the feather of Ma'at, the goddess of truth, justice and order.

The dead speak their confession: I have not stolen. I have not lied. I have not caused anyone to weep. Anubis watches the balance, and the ibis-headed god Thoth writes down the result. If the heart is as light as the feather, the soul is welcomed by Osiris into the Field of Reeds, a paradise of endless harvests. If the heart is heavy with wrongdoing, it is thrown to Ammit, the Devourer, a monster with the head of a crocodile, the body of a lion and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, and that soul is gone forever.

Anubis does not judge. He only reads the scale, and the scale does not lie.

Anubis in Battle of Myths

Anubis is a cost 3 Egyptian assassin and mystic. His ability, Weighing of the Heart, makes him leap behind the weakest enemy and judge it with magic damage, executing it outright if its health is low enough, while the most wounded ally is healed. With every Egyptian hero he shares the Sun Cycle: by day the Egyptians strike faster and harder, and at nightfall they are shielded.

Did you know?

• Before Osiris became lord of the dead, Anubis was the most important god of the afterlife. The oldest royal tombs pray to him, not to Osiris.
• His Egyptian name was Inpu; "Anubis" is the Greek form.
• A famous wooden statue of Anubis as a lying jackal guarded the treasury of Tutankhamun's tomb.