the Book of the Dead ( PDF )

The Gods Of The Book Of The Dead.
makes her the mother of Anpu or Anubis by Osiris. In Egyptian texts Anpu is called the son of Ra.[2] In
religious texts Nephthys is made to be the companion of Isis in all her troubles, and her grief for her
brother's death is as great as that of his wife.
Anpu, or Anubis, the son of Osiris or Ra, sometimes by Isis and sometimes by Nephthys, seems to
represent as a nature god either the darkest part of the twilight or the earliest dawn. He is depicted either
in human form with a jackal's head, or as a jackal. In the legend of Osiris and Isis, Anubis played a
prominent part in connexion with the dead body of Osiris, and in papyri we see him standing as a guard
and protector of the deceased lying upon the bier; in the judgment scene he is found as the guard of the
balance, the pointer of which he watches with great diligence. He became the recognized god of the
sepulchral chamber, and eventually presided over the whole of the "funeral Mountain." He is always
regarded as the messenger of Osiris.
Another form of Anubis was the god Ap-uat, the ### of the pyramid texts,[3] or "Opener of the ways,"
who also was depicted in the form of a jackal; and the two gods are often confounded. On sepulchral
stelæ and other monuments two jackals are frequently depicted; one of these represents Anubis, and the
other Ap-uat, and they probably have some connexion with the northern and southern parts of the
funereal world. According to M. Maspero, the god Anubis led the souls of the dead to the Elysian Fields
in the Great Oasis.[4]
Among the primeval gods are two, Hu and Saa who are seen in the boat of the sun at the creation. They
are the children of Tmu or Tmu-Ra, but the exact part which they play as nature gods has not yet, it
seems, been satisfactorily made out. The first mention of them in the pyramid texts records their
subjugation by the deceased,[5] but in the Theban Book of the Dead
[1. De Iside et Osiride, § 14.
2. See Lanzone, op. cit., p. 65.
3 Pyramid of Unas, l. 187.
4 See Le Nom antique de la Grande-Oasis (in Journal Asiatique, IX e Série, to i., pp. 233-40).
6 ###. Pyramid of Unas, l. 439.]
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they appear among the company of the gods who are present when the soul of the deceased is being
weighed in the balance.
Tehuti or Thoth represented the divine intelligence which at creation uttered the words that were carried
into effect by Ptah and Khnemu. He was self produced, and was the great god of the earth, air, sea and
sky; and he united in himself the attributes of many gods. He was the scribe of the gods, and, as such, he
was regarded as the inventor of all the arts and sciences known to the Egyptians; some of his titles are
"lord of writing," "master of papyrus," "maker of the palette and the ink-jar," "the mighty speaker," "the
sweet tongued"; and the words and compositions which he recited on behalf of the deceased preserved
the latter from the influence of hostile powers and made him invincible in the "other world." He was the
god of right and truth, wherein he lived, and whereby he established the world and all that is in it. As the
chronologer of heaven and earth, he became the god of the moon; and as the reckoner of time, he
obtained his name Tehuti, i.e., "the measurer"; in these capacities he had the power to grant life for
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