Anubis is the Egyptian God of mummification and the afterlife. He is also the patron God of the lost souls and the helpless. It is believed that in the afterlife, Anubis owns the weighing scale and determines whether a soul can to enter the realm of the dead or not. By weighing the heart of a deceased person against an ostrich feather, Anubis decided who would be devoured by Ammit who was the Egyptian Goddess and the devourer of the dead souls. If the dead souls were lighter than the feather, they could visit the heavens else they would be killed by Ammit.

Anubis was born to Nephthys and Seth but was given to Osiris and Isis by Nephthys as she didn’t want Anubis to know his real father.  He is portrayed as a black canine faced muscular man with the head of a jackal. The colour black was chosen for its symbolism which denotes the decay of the body and the fertile soil of the Nile which is regeneration and life. As the protector of the afterlife, he had the responsibility to make sure that the dead received their burial rights. It is said that thousands of years ago, hungry jackals would dig up dead bodies and would feed on them. To have such a destruction of their loved ones in afterlife would pain the Egyptian family members. People would pray to Anubis who is the jackal God and make offerings to spare the bodies of their loved ones.

Anubis played a very significant role in the mummification process.  Priests would perform rituals and embalm the dead body under Anubis’s guidance so that the dead body was preserved perfectly and would have an easy transition into the world of the  dead.

In the famous myth where Seth deceptively killed Osiris, and after Isis found and assembled together her husband’s body parts, it is believed that she went to the Sun God Ra for help who then instructed Anubis to help Isis. Anubis alongwith Horus assisted Isis with the embalming process and wrapped Osiris’ body and mummified him so that he could stay alive in the afterlife. Anubis was also capable of shapeshifting and it is said that when he saw Osiris’s dead body, he was so shocked that he turned himself into a lizard.