CANINE DEITIES

Egyptian religion embraced a number of canine deities from ancient times. Some of these deities were clearly represented by the wolf while others - such as Anubis himself - were more generic and exhibit qualities of both the dog and the jackal. Regardless of their specific origin, canine deities frequently represent mortuary and afterlife concerns and almost all were eventually associated in some way with the cult of Osiris. In some cases, however, the connection betw'een certain canine deities and the person of the king is clear.

(Above) Early slate palette representing unidentified canid. Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago.

The related goddess Ipet (Opet) at Karnak, Taweret was one of the Egyptian deities who regularly had no formal cult. Nevertheless, judging by the number of images of the goddess that have survived, Taweret appears to have been one of the most popular of Egyptian household deities. The goddess is one of the earliest recognizable apotropaic deities and she is widely represented on amulets from Old Kingdom times onward. She was represented on beds, head-rests and other small items of furniture as well as on cosmetic items such as unguent pots and spoons, and on various items with fertility significance such as the so-called ‘paddle dolls’. Faience vases, similar to the small jars in human form which were made to hold mother’s milk, were made in the shape of the goddess with pouring holes at the nipples, probably to hold milk for magical use. Interestingly, large numbers of Taweret amulets were found in the excavated houses of Akhenaten’s capital at el-Amarna, and Bes and Taweret images decorated some of the rooms there. In a similar manner, some of the houses in the workmen’s village at Deir el-Medina in western Thebes contained a room with a bed-shaped altar and wall paintings depicting Bes, Taweret and naked women which may have been associated with childbirth rituals. In her role as a protective deity, Taweret spread as a result of Egyptian trade in the wider Mediterranean world and eventually entered the iconography of Minoan Crete, for example, where her form remains recognizable despite the modification of her role as a goddess of water.

(Right) The Anubis animal exhibits features of both the jackal and the dog and may represent a hybrid of the two Egyptian Museum,