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60 free Anubis trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Anubis trivia for anyone who has stared at the jackal on a museum wall and wondered what he actually did. The quiz covers his jobs - embalmer, protector of tombs, guide of souls and guardian of the scales at the Weighing of the Heart - and how Osiris took over from him as lord of the dead. It explains why he is black, why a scavenger of graves became their guardian, what his Egyptian name Inpu meant, and where the Greeks got 'Anubis'. It also digs into his family and myths (the disputed parentage, Nephthys and Isis, flaying Set in leopard form and giving the leopard its spots), his fusion with Hermes as Hermanubis, his cult city Cynopolis, the wolf-versus-jackal debate, and the wider funerary world of natron, canopic jars, Ammit the Devourer and Spell 125 of the Book of the Dead. The last questions cover the Anubis Shrine from Tutankhamun's tomb and Anubis on screen in The Mummy Returns. Every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Egyptian Mythology and Ancient Egypt quizzes.
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Q 01Anubis is usually shown with the head of which animal?
A jackal-like canine
In the earliest period he was shown entirely as a black canine, not as a man with an animal head.
Q 02Anubis was the ancient Egyptian god of what?
Funerary rites and the dead
He was also a protector of graves and the guide who led souls into the underworld.
Q 03What colour is Anubis traditionally painted?
Black
The colour stood for the fertile Nile silt, rebirth, and the darkening of an embalmed corpse.
Q 04By which period had Osiris replaced Anubis as lord of the underworld?
The Middle Kingdom
In Roman-era tomb paintings Anubis leads the dead by the hand into Osiris's presence.
Q 05In the Weighing of the Heart, the dead person's heart was weighed against what?
An ostrich feather
The feather represented ma'at, truth and order; a heart heavier than it was fed to a monster.
Q 06Which creature devoured the hearts of those who failed Anubis's weighing?
Ammit
She was a composite of the three deadliest animals Egyptians knew.
Q 07The Devourer of the Dead had the head of which animal?
A crocodile
The forequarters were a lion's and the hindquarters a hippo's.
Q 08'Anubis' is a Greek rendering; what was the god called in Egyptian?
Inpu or Anpu
The root inp means 'to decay', and the name may also mean 'royal child'.
Q 09Why was a jackal-like animal chosen as protector of the dead in early Egypt?
Jackals dug up shallow graves
The idea was to fight like with like: turn the scavenger into the guardian.
Q 10Which of Anubis's roles made him patron god of embalmers?
He helped Isis embalm Osiris
The murdered god's organs were said to have been given to Anubis as a gift after Set killed him.
Q 11Anubis's epithet 'Foremost of the Westerners' refers to what?
The dead were buried on the west bank
The west, where the sun died each day, was the land of the dead.
Q 12Per Plutarch, Anubis was the illegitimate son of Isis's husband and which goddess?
Nephthys
Isis found the abandoned baby with the help of dogs and raised him as her guard and ally.
Q 13In the Coffin Texts, Anubis is said to be the son of the cat-headed Bastet or which cow goddess?
Hesat
His parentage varied wildly; early myth made him a son of Ra.
Q 21What did priests wear during funerary rites to commemorate Anubis's victory over Set?
Leopard skin
The sem-priest's spotted pelt is one of the most recognisable costumes in Egyptian art.
Q 22The Greek term for Anubis's role guiding souls to the afterlife is what?
Psychopomp
The Greeks used the same word for their own messenger god.
Q 23Anubis's female counterpart, sharing his name with a feminine ending, is called what?
Anput
She wears a headdress of a jackal lying on a feather.
Q 24Anubis's daughter Kebechet was a goddess in the form of what?
Q 14In the Ptolemaic period Anubis was merged with which Greek god to form Hermanubis?
Hermes
Both were psychopomps who guided souls to the afterlife.
Q 15The composite god Hermanubis is shown with a jackal head and carrying which Greek object?
A caduceus
He represented the Egyptian priesthood and pops up in medieval alchemical texts.
Q 16Anubis's cult centre was a town the Greeks called Cynopolis, meaning what?
City of dogs
The Egyptians called it Saka; its nome stretched across both banks of the Nile.
Q 17What mocking nickname did the Greeks give the animal-headed Anubis?
Barker
Yet Plato has Socrates swear 'by the dog of Egypt' as a serious oath.
Q 18Plato's Socrates often swears an oath 'by the dog', which scholars link to what?
Anubis as judge of truth
The oath 'by the dog, the god of the Egyptians' appeals to the underworld arbiter of truth.
Q 19In the Jumilhac papyrus, Anubis beats Set, who attacked the dead god's body as what?
A leopard
Anubis branded and flayed him, and wore the skin as a warning to tomb-robbers.
Q 20That legend of Anubis branding Set's hide was used to explain what?
How the leopard got its spots
The brand marks became the animal's spots.
A serpent
Her name means 'cooling water'; she refreshed the dead while they awaited mummification.
Q 25Anubis is associated with Wepwawet, another canine god whose name means what?
Opener of the ways
Wepwawet had grey or white fur and rode at the prow of the sun boat; historians think the two were eventually merged.
Q 26Wepwawet's cult centre Asyut was known to the Greeks as Lycopolis, meaning what?
City of wolves
The two canine gods each got a different Greek animal for their cities.
Q 27Anubis's imiut fetish, a stuffed animal skin on a pole, was named for which of his roles?
Embalming
Imiut means 'he who is in the place of embalming'.
Q 28What did Anubis's priests wear on their heads when performing rituals?
Wooden jackal masks
Book of the Dead scenes show a masked priest holding the mummy upright.
Q 29Anubis is sometimes shown sitting on what, symbolising dominion over Egypt's enemies?
Nine bows
New Kingdom tomb seals show him seated on the bows.
Q 30Anubis appears in inscriptions as early as kings Hor-Aha and Djer, of which ruling house?
The First Dynasty
Pharaohs Hor-Aha and Djer already show a jackal god around 3000 BC.