Statue of Anubis

This marble Anubis combines a jackal’s head with a short tunic, cloak and shoes. A small solar disc rests on a crescent between the ears. The figure also carries a caduceus, the staff associated with Mercury. These details place an Egyptian deity within the visual language of the Roman world. Anubis presided over mummification and burial rites in Egypt. In Roman settings, his role as a guide of the dead encouraged his association with Mercury. The shared function explains the combination of Anubis’s recognisable head and Mercury’s attribute. The statue gives that religious connection a single human-shaped body clothed in a Roman manner. The work dates from the first or second century AD and is carved in Parian marble. It was discovered in 1749 on land belonging to the Pamphilj family at Anzio and donated to Pope Benedict XIV. In 1839 it was transferred to the newly founded Gregorian Egyptian Museum, alongside other works connecting Egypt with Rome.