Anubis is the Greek name for the ancient jackal god of the dead in Egyptian mythology while the original Egyptian name is Anpu or Ienpw.
Anubis was the guardian of the dead, who greeted the souls in the Underworld and protected them on their journey.
He was said to have a wife, Anput (who was really just his female aspect, her name being his with an additional feminine suffix: the t), who was depicted exactly the same, though feminine. He is also listed to have taken to wife the feminine form of Neheb-Kau, Neheb-Ka, and Qeb-hwt (Kebauet or Kebechet). Kebauet, the goddess of cold water, who's responsible for the purification of body organs due to be placed in canopic jars during mummification, is also listed as his daughter in some places. His father was originally Rê (Ra) in many papyrus records which were found in pyramids, (Anubis was the fourth son of Ra.) But in after ages, his father was said to be Usir (Osiris), as he was the god of the dead, and his mother was said to be Nebt-het (Nephthys).
In later times, during the Ptolemaic period, as their functions were similar, Anubis came to be identified as the Greek god Hermes, becoming Hermanubis.
Anubis was worshipped throughout Egypt, but the center of his cult was in Uten-ha Sa-ka (Cynopolis), a place whose Greek name simply means "city of dogs", in the 17th nome of Upper Egypt. In Book XI of "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius, we find evidence that the worship of this god was maintained in Rome at least up to the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.




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