Anubis was worshipped all over Egypt and images of the god were seen in temples, chapels and tombs throughout the pharaonic period. He is usually represented as a seated jackal or in human form with a jackal's head, sometimes wearing a tail.
Some people mistakenly associate Anubis with the cat or believe that Anubis was a cat, but this is incorrect. Instead, Anubis is associated with the jackal.
Anubis is depicted as a human figure with a dog/jackal head or as a canine, and was one of the principal gods of the dead. Anubis guided the souls of the deceased to Osiris and the afterlife (if they passed “the judgment”, over which Anubis also presided).
In the Middle Kingdom, Anubis was often portrayed as a man with the head of a jackal. The African jackal was the species depicted and the template of numerous Ancient Egyptian deities, including Anubis.
He is depicted as a black canine, a jackal-dog hybrid with pointed ears, or as a muscular man with the head of a jackal. The color black was chosen for its symbolism, not because Egyptian dogs or jackals were black.
Using the technology of the Ancient's healing device, he also engineered an army of nearly unstoppable Kull warriors. When he attacked Earth with his fleet, Anubis was apparently destroyed by the Ancient super-weapon that SG-1 found in the Atlantus outpost buried under the ice of Antarctica.
Bastet is probably the best-known feline goddess from Egypt. Initially depicted as a lioness, Bastet assumed the image of a cat or a feline-headed woman in the 2nd millennium BCE. Although she combined both nurturing and violent qualities, her shielding and motherly aspects typically were emphasized.
Anubis was an ancient Egyptian god of the dead, represented as a jackal or a man with the head of a jackal.
Egyptian civilization - Gods and goddesses - Anubis. Anubis was a jackal-headed deity who presided over the embalming process and accompanied dead kings in the afterworld. When kings were being judged by Osiris, Anubis placed their hearts on one side of a scale and a feather (representing Maat) on the other.
Anubis is the Greek name for the guardian of the tombs and is associated with death and life after death in the religion of ancient Egypt. Anubis is also described as the lord of the necropolis and patron of embalmers, depicted as a large black canid lying on his stomach, possibly a jackal or a wild dog.
Few things were as significant in this goal as the rituals maintaining the cycle of life, death, and afterlife. Therefore, Anubis was not evil but rather one of the most important gods who kept evil out of Egypt.
Occasionally Anubis is considered the son of Seth, but in the more prevalent myth, Nephthys left Seth and seduced her sister's husband, Osiris. She conceived Anubis, but when he was born she abandoned him in the wilderness. Isis found Anubis with the aid of some dogs, and she raised him.
However, few were as highly regarded as Anubis and Bastet. Anubis, depicted either in full animal form as a jackal or as a human body with a jackal head, became famous as the god associated with the passing into the afterlife, while Bastet, the cat goddess, was associated with funeral perfumory containers.
Mythology. Anput is the female counterpart of the god Anubis. She is also a goddess of the seventeenth nome of Upper Egypt.
“Cats were not worshipped as gods themselves, but as vessels that the gods chose to inhabit, and whose likeness gods chose to adopt,” Skidmore explains. Through their ubiquitous presence in the art, fashion and home ornamentation of ancient Egypt, cats served as an everyday reminder of the power of the gods.
Depicted with the black head of a jackal, Anubis helped mummify Egyptians when they died. Black represented the fertile soil of the Nile that was needed to grow yearly crops, so the Egyptians believed that the color black symbolized good fortune and rebirth.
Anubis is usually represented with the head of a jackal and the body of a man, but is shown here as a full jackal. Anubis is the guardian of the cemetery; he attends to and protects the mummy in his or her tomb. Anubis would also oversee the ritual of embalming (preparing the body to be wrapped).
Anubis' wife is the goddess Anput. Anubis's daughter is the goddess Kebechet. Usually, Anubis is portrayed as the son of Nephthys and Set, Osiris' brother and the god of the desert and darkness.
Ra was portrayed as a falcon and shared characteristics with the sky-god Horus. At times the two deities were merged as Ra-Horakhty, "Ra, who is Horus of the Two Horizons". In the New Kingdom, when the god Amun rose to prominence he was fused with Ra as Amun-Ra.
Since Anubis is the god of the dead, his Greek equivalent would be Hades.
Horus is depicted as a falcon wearing a crown with a cobra or the Double Crown of Egypt. The hooded cobra (uraeus), which the gods and pharaohs wore on their foreheads, symbolizes light and royalty. It is there to protect the person from harm. When Horus was a infant, his father was killed by Osiris' brother Seth.
Role in ancient Egypt
Bastet was originally a fierce lioness warrior goddess of the sun, worshipped throughout most of ancient Egyptian history. Later she became the cat goddess that is familiar today.
Background. Cleopatra is the most beautiful woman in Egypt, she even had a pet cat named Cleocatra, and inside Cleopatra's house was the legendary puppy, Buddasi.
7 Cat Gods From Around the World | History Cooperative.