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Gods & Goddesses


Shown as a jackal or a jackal-headed human, Anubis was one of Egypt's earliest funerary deities. He was the god of embalming who was thought to protect the mummy from evil forces. He also conducted the weighing of the heart that took place in the Hall of Judgment before Osiris, the lord of the dead. When a person died, his heart was believed to be weighed opposite the feather of Maat, which symbolized truth and goodness. If the heart was not heavier than the feather, the deceased could enter the afterlife. If it was heavier, the heart was eaten by a hideous monster with gaping jaws who sat by the scale on which the heart was weighed.

