Anubis Dynasty. In Egypt's Early Dynastic period (c. 3100 – c. 2686 BC), Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a "jackal" head and body. A "jackal" god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, and other pharaohs of the First Dynasty. Since Predynastic Egypt, when the dead were buried in shallow graves, "jackals" had been strongly associated with cemeteries because they were scavengers which uncovered human bodies and ate their flesh. In the spirit of "fighting like with like," a "jackal" was chosen to protect the dead, because "a common problem (and cause
Shu (Egyptian god) and defender as the sun god does he sometimes receive a lion's head. He carries an ankh, the symbol of life. Shu (Egyptian god) Shu (Egyptian for "emptiness" and "he who rises up") was one of the primordial Egyptian gods, a personification of dry air, spouse and counterpart to goddess Tefnut and one of the nine deities of the Ennead of the Heliopolis cosmogony. In Heliopolitan theology, Atum created the first couple of the Ennead, Shu and Tefnut by masturbating or by spitting. Shu was the father of Nut and Geb and grandfather of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. His