Anubis God of the Dead Facts Part 3/3

Anubis God of the Dead Part 2/3
With that, Bata went away to the Valley of the Cedars and Anubis God entered his house full of grief. He slew his wife and cast her to the dogs and mourned his brother.

Anubis Egyptian God Picture

After a long journey, Bata found a tall cedar and placed his heart on top of its flower in the highest branches. He built a fine house for himself and he lived in contentment, except that he lacked a wife.

One day he met with the Nine Gods (the Ennead) who told him that Anubis God now understood the truth and had slain his false wife. Ra-Herakhty asked Khnum to make a wife to keep Bata Company, and the god fashioned a woman on his potter’s wheel. She was the fairest woman in the land and had the essence of all the gods in her. But the Seven Hathors came like the fates and foretold that she would meet an unhappy end.

Bata loved his wife and laid before her all the game he killed. He cautioned her not to leave the house: “Go you not out for fear the sea will carry you away. As I am no longer a complete man, I cannot protect you.” In addition, he told her about his heart in the top of the cedar.

One day while he was hunting, his wife disobeyed orders and wandered out alone. When the sea saw and chased her, she ran toward the security of her home. The sea asked the cedar to catch her, but all the tree could do was snip a lock of her hair. Accepting the hair, the sea carried it on its waves to Egypt and deposited it on the shore where the women were washing the king’s clothes. The hair perfumed the wash and left a wonderfully sweet smell in the garments. The king consulted with his wisest advisors in order to discover the source of the perfume. One of their numbers told the king, “This lock of hair belongs to a daughter of Ra-Herakhty and she is made of the essence of all the gods.” The king then sent his men into all the lands searching for the woman, and not without difficulty they found her and brought her to him. He immediately fell in love with the beautiful woman, and she told him of her husband and his heart in the tree. The king gave orders, “Have the tree cut down and the flower destroyed.” And his men found the tree and cut off its flower, and in that instant Bata died.

Shortly afterward, Anubis God sat down to a meal. When his beer was placed in front of him it had fermented and produced froth and he knew this omen was a message for him. At once he set on his journey to the Valley of the Cedars; there he found his brother’s body lying dead in his house and he went in search of the heart. For three years he sought it in vain and one day said to himself that this was his last night on the quest as he longed to return to Egypt. He spent the next day in search and at dusk gave up. He had found only a berry from the cedar and as a memento took it home. Unknown to him, this was the heart he had so long sought. At home he sat down and dropped the berry in a cup of cold water. Overnight the berry soaked up the water and began to thrive. Bata’s body, which had been brought along on the quest, began to shudder and he opened his eyes while the heart was still in the cup. Anubis God  took the cup and gave it to his younger brother to drink. When he swallowed the liquid and its contents, the heart returned to its rightful place and Bata was well again. The brothers embraced and Bata knew Anubis’ devotion in search of his heart.

Bata then said to his elder brother, “I will take the form of a great bull with special markings and you will ride on my back. We will go together to my wife and the king and you will be richly rewarded for bringing so fine an ox to the king.”

At dawn Anubis God and Bata journeyed to the king. The entire land rejoiced at the sight of so marvelous an animal; they gave him his weight in gold and silver and he returned to his village to live.

One day soon after, the bull entered the kitchen at the palace and found the wife, who was now favored by the king. Suddenly he said aloud, “Look, it’s me. I am alive.”

She replied, “Who are you?”
“I am Bata. You knew when you asked that the tree be cut down, I would die. But here I am. See, I am alive and am a bull."

This did not please the woman, who went to the king and coquettishly begged for a favor using all her womanly charms.

“Let me eat the liver of this bull for he is not worth anything.” The king regretted the death of so fine a bull, but he yielded in order to keep his new consort happy. A great festival was proclaimed and the bull was slaughtered as sacrifice. At the moment of death, the bull shook himself and caused two drops of blood to fall beside the door of the king’s palace. In an instant two great persea trees grew where the blood had landed, and all the land rejoiced at so marvelous a sight.

Anubis Egyptian God

When the king and his consort came to witness the trees, Bata, who was living in the heart of the tree, secretly told his wife, “See, I m still alive. I am Bata and you have tried to kill me twice.” Again the woman worked her way with the king: “Cut down the persea trees and have they made into fine furniture for your house.” The king could not resist so beautiful a woman and did as s e requested. The finest craftsman in the nation was sent for. As he felled the trees and began to mill them, a chip from the tree flew from his ax and entered the mouth of the king’s consort, who Carne pregnant. In due time she delivered a handsome boy who as said to be the son of the king. The entire land rejoiced and e king appointed the child viceroy of Kush and later crown prince of the whole country.

The king ruled for many more years, but eventually he flew into heaven. His son, as new king, called his royal counsellors into session and told them that he and Bata were one and the same. He then accused his wife (and mother) and bore testimony of her wickedness. The counsellors agreed with Bata in his harsh sentence on the disgraced woman. The new king then summoned Anubis God to his side and appointed him crown prince. Bata ruled for thirty years and at his death his elder brother acceded to the throne.

For the modern visitor to Egypt, Anubis God is one of the most visible of the gods. There are numerous drawings of him in various papyri, especially in the vignettes of the Book of the Dead, and on the walls of tombs and temples from Abydos to Aswan. Probably his most graceful representation is the statue of a reclining, but alert, black animal in the Tutankhamun collection in the Egyptian Museum.

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Anubis God of the Dead Facts Part 2/3

The Tale of the Two Brothers - Anubis God of the Dead Facts Part 2/3
Anubis God was a central figure in one of the most elaborate Egyptian stories to have survived. “The Tale of the Two Brothers” is a complex narrative combining elements of myths and folktales into a delightful and human story. The chief characters are Anubis God and Bata, a lesser known god of considerable antiquity from Sako in Middle Egypt. In the tale the two are depicted at first more as humans than as gods, but later there are supernatural events that demonstrate the two have more than mortal powers.

The Tale of the Two Brothers - Anubis

The tale has been variously interpreted as portraying a conflict between the two gods that ended in happy reconciliation or describing the conflict between neighboring villages, though these need not be conflicting interpretations. Anubis God has the lesser role of the two gods and only in his efforts to restore his brother to life does his part here reflect his traditional characterization, but this well-known tale provides important insights into Egyptian myth and folklore.

Once, many years ago, there were two brothers; the elder was Anubis God and his younger brother was Bata. Anubis God lived in his own home with his beautiful wife and Bata farmed for him. Bata tended the crops and animals and greatly increased Anubis’ wealth, for he had the power of a god within him. Each day Bata worked in the fields, then reported to his elder brother of his labor. Each evening Bata retired to his own bed in the stable where he watched over the cattle.

In the mornings as he drove the cattle to the fields, he talked with them and asked where the best grazing would be that day.

They would reply, “The grazing will be good today in such and such a field.” With such care the cattle flourished and multiplied.

When the season for planting the fields came, Anubis God told his brother, “In the morning have ready a yoke of oxen to plow the earth and seed to plant in the new-turned land.” At dawn the two brothers set forth for the field and worked side by side with vigor and friendship. When they had planted their supply of seed, Anubis God sent his brother back to the house to fetch more.

Approaching the house, Bata saw his sister-in-law combing and plaiting her hair. “Go quickly,” he said to her, “and bring me seed that I may hurry back to the fields.” But she was no help: “Go yourself and open the bins because I am busy with my own work.”

Bata did as he was told, and soon burdened his shoulders with a heavy vessel of barley and emmer. When the wife saw his muscles strain with the heavy load, she became aroused and called out to Bata, “Come and stay with me an hour and we will take our pleasures. I will make it to your advantage and stitch fine clothes for you as a reward.”

Anubis Egyptian God Statue

Bata was furious at the proposal arid immediately rejected her.
You have been to me as a mother and what you suggest is an abomination. Say no more about it and I will keep quiet and tell no one myself.” With this rebuke he took his seed and hastened to e fields, where he kept all this to himself, nevertheless, that evening as Anubis God returned from his labors, leaving Bata to bring in the cows and equipment, the wife decided she had better be prepared to protect herself. She made it look as though she had been beaten and took a drug to make her vomit When Anubis God entered the house and saw his wife in cruel condition, he asked who had offended her. “No one has come near me but your brother,” she confessed. “When he came to get the seed, he saw me and asked me to lie with him. When I refused, he beat me.”

At this story, the elder brother became as angry as a leopard and took his spear and hid behind the door of the stable to attack Bata when he entered. When Bata approached the building, the first cow he was driving warned him, “Take care. Your brother is waiting to ambush you.” The second cow repeated the caution. When Bata looked under the crack of the stable door, he saw Anubis’ feet and quickly ran away, with his brother in close chase.

Bata called to Ra-Herakhty, “My great god, you are he who judges between the right and the wrong. Save me from this evil I do not understand.” Ra heard his prayer and caused a great body of water full of crocodiles to spring between the brothers, and Anubis God could not get at his brother. Even at the next dawn Bata was safe from all Anubis God wanted to do to him. Bata called across the water, “Why do you want to harm me? It was your wife who tried to seduce me and I am innocent. Do you take the word of a whore over mine?” With that, Bata took a reed knife and cut off his own penis and threw it into the water, where the fish ate it. Bata then told his brother that he was leaving the land and journeying to the Valley of the Cedars (perhaps Lebanon):

There I will take out my heart and place it high in the cedar on a flower. If the tree is cut down, I will appear to die, but if you spend seven years seeking the tree and find it and place my heart like a seed in water, I will live again. You will know you are needed when you find your pot of beer in a froth.

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Anubis God of the Dead Facts Part 1/3

Anubis Lord of the Mummy Wrapping - Part 1
Primarily "Lord of the Mummy Wrapping" Anubis was one of the very old gods. He was depicted in the form of a dog or jackal, either as a man with a jackal head or as the full animal. Most likely jackals were associated with death because they had been observed eating corpses, but Flinders Petrie speculated that the animals assembled in graveyards to feed off the offerings left there to honor the dead. A possible explanation for the cult of Anubis God is that rituals in honor of the jackal were an attempt to put a benevolent interpretation on his practice of digging for bones in graveyards. In other words, if these macabre habits could be enshrined in mythology and religion, perhaps Anubis God would use them for good rather than evil. Hence Anubis God was given an important role in myths, especially in the underworld where he became responsible for caring for the bodies of the recently dead.

Anubis Egyptian god pictures

The earliest myths made Anubis God the son of Ra, but the chief stories of Anubis God gave him an altogether different genealogy, one in which he had a clearly benevolent role. By the time of the Coffin Texts he was involved in the myths of Osiris.

He was Nephthys’ son, supposedly by her husband, Seth, but in fact the child of her liaison with Osiris. The mother deserted her son in fear of Seth, but Isis found the child and raised him because he was the son of her now-dead husband. Anubis God became Isis’ faithful watchdog and protector and was rewarded with the ability to understand human speech and to study medicine and the art of embalming.

Following Osiris’ death, Anubis God was asked by Ra to assist Isis in reassembling the dismembered body. He and Horus, with Thoth’s advice and magic, were able to wrap the body in mummy’s cloth and restore it to its original shape. When he had finished his work, Anubis God said to his father: “Arise and live: Behold your new appearance. Avert the crime of him who did you wrong.” This act made Anubis God valuable to human beings who hoped that he would do the same for their bodies when the time came.

Anubis Egyptian God

As a result, he was assigned major roles in the afterlife in the Book of the Dead and elsewhere. Known as “Counter of Hearts,” he greeted the dead on their entrance into the underworld and worked along with Horus to embalm the bodies and preserve the mortal remains from decay.

He presided over “God’s Booth,” which contained four jars holding the necessary ingredients to deify the dead king. Then he was shown as the weigher of hearts during the trial, and it was his hand that checked the balance beam to determine the results. Souls that failed to pass were devoured by Ammit, one of the more fantastic of mythological creatures. At the trial he stood near Anubis, eager for the tasty dish that was his should the soul fail the test. He was a composite of three ferocious animals: he had the head of a crocodile, the body of a lion, and the backside of a hippopotamus; his name meant “eater of the dead.”

Sometimes Anubis God was thought of as the god who led the dead to the presence of Osiris for final judgment, although Horus also en had that assignment. Anubis God was also shown supporting the fright mummy during the episode of the Opening of the Mouth, symbolize the importance of this myth, during the actual embalming of the body a priest wore a jackal mask to indicate that he was Anubis’ representative in this ritual By the Twenty-first Dynasty Anubis God had become a generally popular god. The papyrus of Nisti-Ta-Nebet- Taui called him “Lord of the Holy Land” and claimed that “he gives gifts and food, all good and pure things, all things beautiful and sweet which the heaven gives, which are found on earth, which are brought by the Nile from his cave for Osiris.” Later still, Anubis God remained an important god for the Greeks and Romans and ancient Egypt . Plutarch reported that he was the one who connected the visible with the invisible world.

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