Wepwawet: Two-Spirited Opener of Ways
Did you know there was more than one jackal-headed god in Egyptian mythology? I hope so. Cause Wepwawet would be offended if you didn’t.
This sassy golden jackal god was the Opener of Ways and the facilitator of rebirth after death. But what do we really know about them?
Today, that’s what I’ll be talking about as I analyze Wepwawet’s roles in the rebirthing cycle from the Archaic Period to the Middle Kingdom.
Originating in the predynastic period as a local deity of the Lycopolitan nome in Upper Egypt, Wepwawet had taken on a significant role in the Egyptian pantheon in both life and death by the Middle Kingdom. Specifically associated with the Pharaoh, Wepwawet is depicted as a standing jackal or with the body of the king and the head of a jackal, while Anubis is depicted more often than not in the reclined position.[1] With the face or head of the golden jackal, Wepwawet, the king performs a variety of tasks, including “Opener of the Ways.”
Other jackal deities have similar roles within Egyptian mythology, mostly associated with death and the afterlife.[2] Wepwawet, however, seems to play both a male and a female role within the regeneration cycle as “Opener of the Ways,” simultaneously slaying and birthing. By synthesizing mythological literature, material evidence, and religious practices from the Egyptian Archaic Period to the Middle Kingdom with biological and behavioral signifiers of jackals, the pale, canid deity Wepwawet, emerges as an anthropomorphic, gender-bending method for the Pharaoh to be both the giver and taker of life in his functions within the cycle of death and rebirth.
That Golden Look
Much discussion can be made on the differing kinds of canids that might have inspired the representations of Wepwawet, Anubis, and the other jackal deities. However, the black-backed jackal, or c. mesomelas, exhibits certain distinct behaviors and physical traits which makes it the most likely candidate to have inspired archaic Egyptians to have given these canine features to their deities of the Underworld.[3] As a black-backed jackal kills by asphyxiation and then neatly “hollows out” a cavity in the abdomen of leftover carcasses,[4] both Wepwawet and Anubis perform roles similar to this description of jackal behavior in the preparation of the dead for their journey through the afterlife.
Wepwawet is even given the title “Extinguisher of Breaths” in an Osiris death ceremony,[5] signifying his rule over life, as Anubis is given the otherworldly title “lord of burial in the necropolis”.[6] Wepwawet was given the power over the world of the living, taking the life from the enemies of the Pharaoh, as Anubis ruled over the Underworld, preparing the bodies for their immortal interment.[7] This clear connection of the behaviors of black-backed jackals and their correlating anthropomorphic deities’ functions in the death and rebirthing cycle exposes a most archaic of origins.
Living on the edge of sedentary, predynastic Egyptian pastoral people’s villages which cling to the Nile Valley, these jackals were seen performing strange rites upon their prey, which Egyptians then began to copy at an early date.[8] As Egyptian culture developed, it became clear that consuming flesh was synonymous with assimilation as the “Cannibal Hymn” from the Pyramid Texts shows:
Unas is he who eats people, who lives on the gods…
Unas is he who eats their magic, swallows their spirits:
Their big ones are for his morning meal,
Their middle ones for his evening meal,
Their little ones for his night meal,
Their old males and females for his burnt offering.[9]
Mummification techniques may have not fully developed until the New Kingdom, but the ancient origins of preserving the dead are indisputable.[10] As a jackal ate the innards of its prey, leaving a corporeal husk, the Egyptians would empty the human body of organs in preparation for the afterlife. These creatures of the dawn and dusk were portals into the Underworld, leading the dead into the darkness and beyond by consuming their flesh.
The black-backed jackal’s coloring also must be given note, due to its resemblance to the gods Wepwawet and Anubis. While Anubis has black facial coloring, Wepwawet’s coloring is pale golden or white, as shown on the temple wall of King Sethos I at Abydos.[11] Wepwawet is the only canid deity depicted with a pale face and this is significant because he is the “Opener of the Ways”. The gold of Wepwawet’s head symbolizes the sunrise and rebirth.[12] The sun rises to spread a golden glow across the world, as Wepwawet leads the dead back into the realm of the living just as a jackal might lead a dying archaic herdsman to an oasis.[13]
In the Middle Kingdom, he even begins to be associated with Re, their names becoming conjoined as Wepwawet-Re.[14] With Anubis, the color black[15] is most important, as he presides over the preparation of dead bodies and judgment of souls.[16] As the “Opener of Ways,” Wepwawet not only has a connection to the afterlife and rebirth, but also to worldly warfare. He reveals the path for the Pharaoh to lead the army, with Wepwawet’s jackal standard at its head, to confront the enemy.[17]
Next, he places the sacred mace into the Pharaoh’s hand so that he may smite all of his enemies.[18] Then, with the Pharaoh’s enemies of Egypt slain upon the battlefield, Wepwawet takes their souls to the Underworld, where Anubis guards over their shallow graves as “Lord of the Graveyard”.[19] The duality of these two deities’ functions in relation to color schemes cannot be overlooked, with black representing the world of the dead, as white, or gold, represents the world of the living.
Two-Natured
Not only are the color schemes of Wepwawet important, but also the dual nature of much of the art representing him. The pairing of jackals within Egyptian art can be seen dating back to the Middle Kingdom,[20] with the twin jackals facing each other being represented in numerous places, including a stela from North Abydos[21] while jackals are known to almost exclusively hunt in pairs, unlike any other canid species, which form larger packs.[22] The constant representation of two jackals is much associated with the unifying of the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt, as seen in Wepwawet’s epitaph, “Controller of the Two Lands.”[23]
There is even mention of the “birth of the two Wepwawets,”[24] which is thought to mean the unifying of Upper and Lower Egypt. However, this duality in depiction might have more meaning than previously understood, for Wepwawet is painted both colors, sometimes gold, sometimes black, sometimes the revealer of the path to the Underworld, sometimes the “Opener of the Way” back into the realm of the living, a right usually reserved for female deities.[25] Wepwawet is represented with duality in color, image, and possibly gender.
Wepwawet might be able to give the Pharaoh the ability to change genders in his rebirth within his successor. In one uniquetext, the king asks to be turned into a wolf with the female form of the word.
I am a she-wolf
I am wolf-like
I am Hapy
I am Duamutef
I am Imsety
I am Qebhenuf… [26]
There is evidence of priestesses of Wepwawet as early as the Archaic Period continuing into the Middle Kingdom. In the Old Kingdom, they are always found within the Temple of the goddess Neith, or in association with her priestesses, who is also given the epithet “Opener of Ways”. [27] This combining of Neith with Wepwawet’s chief epithet is not incidental, but a deliberate syncretizing of Neith, a goddess with warrior qualities, with Wepwawet, who has roles in both the realm of warfare and the afterlife. This allows Wepwawet to imbue the Pharaoh with feminine qualities of rebirth alongside the masculine ones such as inflicting death.
Wepwawet is a god who exists in the realm of the living as a slayer of foes and within the realm of the dead as the rebirthing agent of kings, a porter of the passage back to life. By blurring the lines between male and female, Wepwawet and Neith — Wepwawet and Anubis — the Pharaoh, also was able to perform both masculine and feminine roles within the afterlife. Without this syncretization of genders, the power of the Pharaoh could not be passed down into his successor. It takes the power of one with a spirit in both worlds, the power of a two-spirit, the power of Wepwawet.
Embodying Wepwawet, Neith transports the enemies of Osiris into the realm of the dead. This gender-bending nature could possibly have an origin in The Tale of the Two Brothers, where Anubis’ brother, Bata, castrates himself, becoming like a woman, to show his brotherly love and devotion.[28] Within Egyptian mythological frameworks, a female counterpart to Anubis is needed to bring the dead back into the world of the living, as Anubis serves to take them into the underworld. Though Bata is a bull deity, this does not pose a problem in the comparison of Wepwawet and Bata, as Egyptian gods can be trans-anthropomorphic, changing into a variety of animals.[29] In an Old Kingdom script where Osiris addresses his son Horus, typically a falcon deity:
son of my son, Horus the Jackal of Upper Egypt,
Firstborn Horus, Opener of ways,
the son who was born Horus at the birth of Wepwawet[30]
This distinct association between not only Osiris but also Horus with Wepwawet solidifies the Pharaoh’s usage of the otherworldly powers of Wepwawet in his handing down the reigns of power to his successor, the embodiment of Horus until crowned. A ‘divine’ birth must be incorporated into the transition from one Pharaoh to the next, facilitated by Wepwawet, so Horus must become Wepwawet to be reborn.
Bata, from this brotherly tale, is usually depicted as a ram or a bull,[31] both manly, virile creatures of kingly power. There is one reference to the “Bull of Heaven” opening “the Ways” in a single text,[32] strengthening the association between Wepwawet and bull deities, if it is even needed t this point. This myth, as well as many others, is simply a single local telling of a story that would have been told in a variety of ways across Egypt, with other versions naming Bata evil and identifying him with the god of chaos, Seth.[33]
Before the Middle Kingdom, when this myth was written, there were few titles shared by Wepwawet and Anubis; however, during and after the Middle Kingdom they began to take on more of one another’s roles.[34] This could be due to missing versions which name Anubis’s brother Wepwawet, or simply the continual fluidic nature of ancient myth. With the help of Wepwawet, the Pharaoh is able to become as a woman and reenter the world of the living, much as Hatshepsut becomes a man in her divine birth myth to take the throne for herself[35] but in reverse. Hatshepsut knew to secure her power she had to promote a myth of her own right to rule. By becoming male within her birthing cycle, she was able to transcend gender and become Pharaoh. Losing his genitalia, Bata, or maybe Wepwawet, is able to perform female roles when the Pharaoh takes on his aspects and rebirths the Pharaoh in his son.
Mythicospacial Perspective
Ancient Egyptians did not have the same strict notions of religion that modern minds attempt to apply to their world. Myth could be taken in many ways, as a parable or a truth, as a fantasy or a historical fact. For modern readers to better understand ancient Egyptian religion, a mythicospacial perspective with which they viewed the world, must be attempted, as notions of concrete time and form are shed.[36] As archaic Egyptians were sedentary people, they defined their spiritual world by the physical characteristics of their surroundings in the lands of the living.[37] When they watched a jackal suffocate and eviscerate its prey, they saw it embodied as Wepwawet and Anubis. [38] Instead of their gods having the aspects of a jackal, the jackal has the aspects of their gods, much as the Pharaoh would take those same jackal aspects on to be reborn within his son.
The functions and identities of each jackal deity are difficult to determine. The Hieroglyphs used to define Wepwawet and Anubis can be easily mistranslated,[39] leading to entire sections of study being tainted. Without reanalysis of all jackal inscriptions from the very earliest findings, a true picture of each deity’s role is impossible to synthesize; however, certain specific images can be determined. The image of a standing jackal riding upon a sled (the shedshed), on top of a tall pole, many times carried before Osiris, is categorically defined as imagery of Wepwawet.[40] This ‘standard of Wepwawet’ becomes a central piece to the Osiris Mysteries, as they are defined within the Middle Kingdom,[41] while it has origins dating to the predynastic period.[42] The sled seems to signify a means of travel for the Pharaoh into and out of the Underworld, sometimes with a ‘placenta’-like image riding in front of him,[43] symbolizing the eternal rebirth of the Pharaoh as stated upon a tomb at Asyut during the IX or X Dynasty,
…The monuments were crafted for Wepwawet the god of great vigor
That he may give him (the king) millions of years
That (the king) may celebrate the Sed festival without end…[44]
This distinct image of Wepwawet with a female birthing organ and means of inter-dimensional travel further gives credence to his gender fluidity within his Underworld roles.
The festival of Wepwawet, of which his standard is a key piece, was a part of a larger ritualistic procession called the Sed festival and the Osiris Mysteries,[45] which might at times be a part of the same festivities. The Sed festival was a reaffirmation of the Pharaoh’s rule over the Two Kingdoms, Upper and Lower Egypt, associated with the bull’s tail which the Pharaoh is depicted with many times.[46] The standard of Wepwawet led the procession of the Pharaoh, from city to city, for the Sed festival, possibly starting in Asyut, the home of Wepwawet’s cult,[47] and ending in Abydos where Osiris, Wepwawet, and Anubis each held special functions.[48] This association with the bull’s tail and Wepwawet seems unresearched; no authors who are writing of jackal deities mention this connection, leaving the question to be asked: Is Wepwawet Anubis’ brother Bata, his sister, or the daughter of Anubis, who is given the ability to open the ways, as this one inscription states:
Hail to you daughter of Anubis
You who stand at the windows of the sky
The friend of Thoth
Who stands at the two supports of the ladder
Open the ways for me so that I may pass[49]
As in many other parts of their complex worldview, a single truth may not be possible to identify when location and historical context are lost to time or obscured by human error. The entire truth of the Osiris Mysteries is unlikely to be revealed for it seems to be an ever-changing part of the rituals of Egyptian religion.
Closing the Way
Wepwawet and Anubis may not always be able to be told apart from one another. Their functions with the dead in the afterlife fluctuate and switch places through the changing dynasties of Egypt. However, much of the pantheonic misunderstandings stem from a lack of cultural knowledge to validate proposed reasoning. To syncretize two gods, or many, into the roles of one another or even the likeness, was innate to Egyptian religion. Where modern Western thought has brought about singularity to roles within their religions, Egyptians saw a plethora of signs and symbols through which the gods revealed themselves. Wepwawet’s function as ‘Opener of Ways’ in rebirthing the Pharaoh sets them apart from the other jackal deities though as the hints to his dualistic gender roles and two-spirit nature are irrefutable.
As Egyptians witnessed the black-backed jackal behaving as a lord of the necropolis would, quietly killing and picking clean its prey, Wepwawet and his otherworldly brother Anubis continue to prepare the Pharaoh’s cadavers for eternal rebirth.
Originally published on Academia.com
Safe voyages out there, Space Pirates!
References
[1] Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, “Wepwawet in Context: A Reconsideration of the Jackal Deity and Its Role in the Spatial Organization of the North Abydos Landscape” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 43 (2007): 141. Seemingly, over time this distinction fell to the way side, as either jackal deity could be shown in either position by the Late Kingdom.
[2] Terence DuQuesne, The Jackal Divinities of Egypt / From the Archaic Period to Dynasty X. (London: Darengo Publ., 2005), xix.
[3] Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, “Wepwawet in Context,” 145.
[4] Ibid., 146.
[5] Ibid., 147.
[6] Terence DuQuesne, The Jackal Divinities of Egypt, 369.
[7] Ibid., 174.
[8] Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, “Wepwawet in Context,” 146.
[9] Toby A. H. Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (New York: Random House, 2010), 88.
[10] Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, “Wepwawet in Context,” 146.
[11] Sarah Nicole Chandlee, Walking through the Afterlife: A Study of the Scenes Where Anubis Leads the Deceased to Osiris. (Master’s thesis, University of Memphis, 2009), 81. Figure 2 depicts a pale jackal headed god handing a staff and flail to the Pharaoh.
[12] Terence DuQuesne, Black and Gold God: Colour Symbolism of the God Anubis with Observations on the Phenomenology of Colour in Egyptian and Comparative Religion. (London: Darengo, 1996), 16.
[13] Terence DuQuesne, The Jackal Divinities of Egypt, 390.
[14] Ibid., 395.
[15] Terence DuQuesne, Black and Gold God, 18.
[16] Terence DuQuesne, The Jackal Divinities of Egypt, 176–177.
[17] Ibid., 174.
[18] ________. “Ivory label for a sandal”, label, ivory, 1st Dynasty, Abydos, Egypt, British Museum, #EA55586.
[19] Terence DuQuesne, The Jackal Divinities of Egypt, 174.
[20] ________. “Limestone stela of Pentawer,” Stela, limestone, Ramesside Period, Egypt, The British Museum, #EA1632.
[21] Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, “Wepwawet in Context,” 142.
[22] Ibid., 144.
[23] Terence DuQuesne, Jackal Divinities, 391.
[24] Ibid., 269.
[25] Stephen Quirke, Ancient Egyptian Religion (2nd ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1995), 37.
[26] Terence DuQuesne, Jackal Divinities, 320. ‘Wolf’ here could also translate jackal.
[27] Ibid., 233.
[28] William Kelly Simpson, The Literature of Ancient Egypt; an Anthology of Stories, Instructions, and Poetry (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972), 92.
[29] Terence DuQuesne, Jackal at the shaman’s gate: a study of Anubis Lord of Ro-Setawe, with the conjuration to chthonic deities (PGM XXIII; pOxy 412): text, translation, and commentary and an annotated bibliography of the Anubis archetype (Thame Oxon: Darengo. 1991), 18.
[30] Terence DuQuesne, Jackal Divinities, 395.
[31] William Kelly Simpson, The Literature of Ancient Egypt, 92.
[32] Terence DuQuesne, Jackal Divinities, 298.
[33] William Kelly Simpson, The Literature of Ancient Egypt, 92.
[34] Terence DuQuesne, Jackal Divinities, 436.
[35] Stephen Quirke, Ancient Egyptian Religion, 37–38.
[36] Hans J. Klimkeit, “Spatial Orientation in Mythical Thinking as Exemplified in Ancient Egypt: Considerations toward a Geography of Religions” (History of Religions 14, no. 4 1975): 266.
[37] Ibid., 267.
[38] Stephen Quirke, Ancient Egyptian Religion, 72–73.
[39] Terence DuQuesne, Jackal Divinities, 74–75.
[40] Ibid., 116–117.
[41] Ibid., 265.
[42] Ibid., 258.
[43] Ibid., 116.
[44] Ibid., 527.
[45] David B. O’Connor, Abydos: Egypts First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris (London: Thames & Hudson, 2011), 74.
[46] Stephen Quirke, Ancient Egyptian Religion, 90.
[47] David B. O’Connor, Abydos, 91.
[48] Terence DuQuesne, The Jackal Divinities, 176.
[49] Ibid., 301.
