Ancient Egyptian deities purposes. Egyptian texts often refer to deities' true, underlying forms as "mysterious". The Egyptians' visual representations of their gods are therefore not literal. They symbolize specific aspects of each deity's character, functioning much like the ideograms in hieroglyphic writing. For this reason, the funerary god Anubis is commonly shown in Egyptian art as a dog or jackal, a creature whose scavenging habits threaten the preservation of buried mummies, in an effort to counter this threat and employ it for protection. His black coloring alludes to the color of mummified flesh and to the fertile black soil that Egyptians saw as
House of Anubis the end of series two. "Anubis Unlocked" was re-commissioned for the third series of "House of Anubis". Youth Television News praised the series, commending Nickelodeon's attempt at a drama series, saying "a good story always outdoes a repetitive sitcom." The hour-long series premiere on 1 January 2011 was watched by an average of 2.9 million viewers for the first two episodes. The series scored a 4.0 share (846,000 viewers) among teens 11–17, a 4.4 share (952,000 viewers) among kids 11–15 and a 3.5 share (1.2 million) among kids 11–18, ranking #1 amongst all broadcast and basic cable programs in its