Anubis, depicted with a jackal or dog head, was, from the Old Kingdom on, the primary funerary god. He assisted in judging the dead in the Underworld, and he was involved in the process of mummification. It is said that he invented mummification primarily to preserve the body of the god-king Osiris. The later Greek writer Plutarch and others told a story that Anubis was the son of Osiris, the result of Osiris’s having been somehow tricked into sleeping with his brother’s wife, Nephtys.

Another important god was Thoth, the inventor of writing and of human languages. As the magician and wise one among the gods, he had mysterious healing powers. Thoth was usually depicted as a baboon or as a man with the head of an ibis.

Horus, with the falcon head, was an important god from early dynastic times. He represented the sacred kingship. This Horus is usually differentiated from the boy Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. The older Horus was said by some to have been responsible for initiating creation in primeval times. He was god of the sky with enormous wings and eyes that represented the sun and the moon.