In the Osiris myth, Anubis helped protect and prepare Osiris during embalming.
Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his brother Seth. Isis searched for the scattered body and, in later traditions, Anubis assisted with the restoration and funerary treatment of Osiris. This myth helped explain why Anubis became associated with embalming, the protection of corpses, and the proper transition into the afterlife.
Anubis is often shown as a black jackal or as a man with a jackal’s head. His black coloring was connected symbolically with fertile Nile silt and regeneration, rather than with evil. In funerary scenes he may supervise embalmers, guard a mummy, or conduct the weighing of the heart.
The story also reflects the importance Egyptians placed on correct burial rites. Osiris’s preservation became a mythic model for the treatment of the dead, while Osiris himself became the ruler and judge of the blessed dead.