Anput is a

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

ancient Egyptian religion Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of Polytheism, polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with Ancient Egyptian deities, many deities belie ...

. Her name is written in

hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...

as ''jnpwt'' (reconstructed in Middle Egyptian as /ʔan.ˈpa.wat/ or /jan.ˈpa.wat/). In English, her name also is rendered as Anupet, Input, Inpewt, and Yineput. As the female counterpart of her husband,

Anubis Anubis (; ), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian (), is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine hea ...

, who was known as ''jnpw'' to the Egyptians, Anput's name ends in a feminine "t" suffix when seen as ''jnpwt.'' She is also depicted as a woman, with a headdress showing a jackal recumbent upon a feather, as seen in the statue of the divine triad of

Hathor Hathor (, , , Meroitic language, Meroitic: ') was a major ancient Egyptian deities, goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god R ...

Menkaure Menkaure or Menkaura (; 2550 BC - 2503 BC) was a king of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. He is well known under his Hellenized names Mykerinos ( by Herodotus), in turn Latinized as Mycerinus, and Menkheres ( by Manetho). ...

, and Anput. She is occasionally depicted with the body of a woman and the head of a jackal, but this is very rare. As the consort of Anubis, Anput is a goddess of the dead, presiding over funerals and mummification. Additionally, she is a goddess of protection and also represented in relation to the desert, which was the realm of the dead for Ancient Egyptians. Unlike Anubis, Anput does not have a prominent role in Egyptian mythology, but she is thought to watch over the body of the god of the afterlife, Osiris, assuming the role of his protector for the duration of his death. She is depicted in the Pyramid Texts as the serpent who "refreshes and purifies" the pharaoh and is believed to bring water to the spirits of the dead, as they wait for the completion of their mummification.

Mythology

Anput is the female counterpart of the god

. She is also a goddess of the seventeenth nome of

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

.DuQuesne, Terence (2007), ''Anubis, Upwawet, and Other Deities: Personal Worship and Official Religion in Ancient Egypt'', p. 20 She is also considered the protector of the body of

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

, the god of the afterlife.

References

External links

* {{Ancient Egyptian religion footer Egyptian death goddesses Mythological canines Anubis