ANUB1S, an Egyptian deity, represented by a hu man figure, with the head of a dog. The common account of the origin of this deity, is this : Isis having lost Osiris, employed dogs to assist her in her search, and at last discovered him by the help of that animal ; hence it came to pass, that dogs went foremost in the anniversary procession in honour of Isis ; and the Egyp tians, in gratitude to that faithful animal, represented one of their principal deities with the head of a dog. Whatever be the true account, we may safely pronounco this to be absurd. A modern traveller, not more distin guished by the novelty of his discoveries, than by the originality of his genius, proposes a new theory on this subject, which, if founded on truth, seems to cast con siderable light on the whole system of Egyptian mytho logy. Anubis, he says, is the same as Osiris. This, indeed, is not new ; but he supports the argument in a novel manner. He maintains, that Osiris is the same as Sirius, the dog-star ; derived from Seir, which, in the language of the first inhabitants of the Thebaid, as well as in that of the low country of Meroe, signifies a .dog. It farther appears, that Seir, or Siris, was the original name of the Egyptian god ; for Diodorus Siculus informs us, that the Greeks, by putting 0 before the word, had rendered it unintelligible to the Egyptians. " " then," (we use the author's own words), was Osiris; "but he was not the sun, no more than he Was Abra ham ; nor was he a real personage. He was Sirius, or the dog-star, designed under the figure of a dog ; be cause of the warning he gave to Athara, when the first observations were made there, at his heliacal rising, or his disengaging himself from the rays of the sun, so as to be visible to the naked eye. He was the Latrator Anubis, and his first appearance was figuratively com pared to the barking of a dog, by the warning it gave to prepare for the approaching inundation. I believe, therefore, that this was the first hieroglyphic ; and Isis, Osiris, and Tot, were all later inventions relating to it ; and in saying this, I am so far warranted, because there is not in Axum (once a large city) any other hieroglyphic but of the dog-star, as far as I can judge from the huge fragments of figures of this animal ; re mains of which, in different postures, arc still distinctly to b. seen upon the pedestals every where among the
ruins."—Rruce's Travela,vol. ii. p. 337. 2d ed.
This theory is farther illustrated in Maurice's History of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 185.
The ingenious Mr Murray, Mr Bruce's editor and commentator, gives, from Jablonski, a different theory from that stated above, which, however, is not very in consistent with it ; and they both tend to prove, that the mythology of the Egyptians had its origin chiefly in as tronomy, (See Arts). " Not content with adoring the sun in the many different characters already mentioned, the Egyptians worshipped him in the horizon, when rising and setting, under the name of Anubis. The figure was that of a man with a dog's head, all of gold, to denote his flaming beauty in these stations. Dogs were con secrated to Anubis, because this deity (the idea of the horizon is implied) attends faithfully on Isis, (nature) seeking her Osiris, (the sun). The absence of the solar power in winter was represented in long processions ; in which the priests, weeping and deploring, carried about the images of Isis and her attendant Anubis. At last they pretended that she had found her child by means of Anubis. Then an image of the boy Arpocrate, (Harpocrates) with his finger on his mouth, was presen ted ; the priests shouted for joy, and Anubis was made to dance, as glorying in what he had done. Annoub, in Coptic, signifies the golden ; an epithet derived from the glow of the morning and evening resembling that metal. The Greeks and Latins called this deity Hermes and Mercurius, from the idea of his attending on the gods."—Bruce's Travels, as above, Appendix. Anubis was generally represented with a caduceus, which the Greeks and Romans transferred to their Hermes and Mercury. (g)