Anubis vs Nephthys

Anubis

Egyptian Pantheon

God of mummification and the afterlife. Guardian of tombs and guide of souls to judgment. He oversees the weighing of the heart ceremony.

Anubis's parentage varies across Egyptian traditions. In older myths, he was the son of Ra and Hesat, or of Ra alone. The most well-known version makes him the illegitimate son of Osiris and Nephthys. When Nephthys bore Anubis, she abandoned him in the desert, fearing Set's wrath. Isis discovered the infant and raised him as her own, and he became fiercely loyal to the Osirian family. This connection explains why Anubis assisted Isis in mummifying Osiris and why he serves as protector of the dead king.

Anubis is the jackal-headed god who presided over mummification, embalming, and the passage of souls to the afterlife. In the earliest periods of Egyptian religion, he was the supreme lord of the underworld before Osiris rose to prominence.

Nephthys

Egyptian Pantheon

Goddess of mourning and protector of the dead. Sister-wife of Set but loyal to Isis. She aided Isis in gathering Osiris's body and mourned him.

Nephthys (Nebet-Het) is the sister of Isis, Osiris, and Set. Temple lists pair her with Set as his wife, yet the Osiris cycle repeatedly puts her on Isis's side. She helps gather the pieces of Osiris's body, mourns with Isis in the kite-form of the two wailing sisters, and in several versions is the mother of **Anubis**. Egyptian religion is comfortable with that tension: a goddess can belong to the household of disorder and still nurse the dead back toward order.