Green symbolized rebirth and the fertile Nile environment in ancient Egyptian religious and funerary symbolism. The color evoked vegetation, renewal, and the productive landscape that made Egyptian civilization possible.
Egyptian artists used color symbolically as well as descriptively. Green could appear on figures, objects, landscapes, and religious images when regeneration or flourishing life was important. Osiris, whose death and restoration were linked with renewed life, was sometimes depicted with green skin.
This symbolism does not mean every green object had one compulsory interpretation. Egyptian color meanings depended on the image and context, and artists also used available pigments for naturalistic details.
Green is distinct from the black often used for Anubis’s body. Anubis’s black color could suggest the darkened resin of mummification, the rich soil of the Nile, and regeneration. The two colors could therefore both carry ideas connected with renewal, but they were not interchangeable in every scene.