Anubis was called Inpu in the ancient Egyptian language. The name is also transliterated as Anpu, because Egyptian writing usually omitted vowels and modern scholars represent its sounds in different ways.
Anubis was one of Egypt’s major funerary deities. Egyptians associated him with embalming, cemeteries, tomb protection, and the transition from earthly life to the afterlife. His familiar jackal-like appearance reflected the presence of wild canids around desert cemeteries.
Inpu should not be confused with Wepwawet, another canid deity whose name means “Opener of the Ways.” Khentiamentiu, whose name means “Foremost of the Westerners,” was also an earlier funerary figure later closely linked with Osiris. Greek speakers rendered the Egyptian god’s name as Anubis, the form most commonly used in English today.