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
Caligula... The Untold Story continue to plot against him, discussing their options. In his nightmares, Caligula is visited by the shades of Aetius and Miriam. On the beach, Miriam Celsia, an Egyptian priestess of Anubis and close friend of Livia's, speaks against a Christian burial - Livia's God failed to defend her - and in favour of cremation according to Anubis, who speaks of vengeance. The Christians comply. Lucretius presents sumptious construction plans to Caligula and a group of senators. To finance the project, Caligula announces he will auction off all his things at a banquet with beautiful women and costly admission. He then