This divinity is represented with the head of a dog (erroneously thought a jackal).
It’s not exactly known the origin, but, already in Aha’s epoch a tablet mentions his celebration, and to the end of the V dynasty, when Osiris will appear, only Anubi presides over the funeral cult.
Anubi was also the emblem of the XVII nomos in the South, the capital of which,Kasa (Cynopolis), rendered him a particular cult.
His sacred animal was the dog that wandered in the valley of the Nile that, on the contrary of the God, represented by a black dog or by a man with the head of a black dog, is rarely black. It’s thought anyway that this color isn’t a mournful color, but the color used for the mummification, so a symbol of rebirth.
The technique of the mummifying was attributed to him and, in the legend of Osiris, Ra sent him to Osiris, to give him funeral honors and to submit him to mummifying, after his adventure with Seth. This legend appears on a tomb of the Middle Reign but, with no doubt, it goes back to a further epoch: so the ritual of mummifying is shaped only as a repeat of a divine ritual, changed from an archetype, the priest who performs it, is assimilated to Anubi, wearing a mask that represents the God.
The most common denominations for Anubi are “he who lives on the mountain (the mountain that leads to the home of the dead and where the “ipogei” are dug)”, “the master of the Necropolis” and “he who has the ut2 (Im-Ut, Ut is the name of the bandages of the mummy).
Anubi’s Egyptian name is Inpu or Anepu.