Monday, 2 November 2 2026 | The Kynomorphism of Anubis in Iconography and Cult: Between Animal and Human, Between Egypt and Greece

Wojciech Mazur, PhD Candidate, University of Liverpool

Two distinctive features of Egyptian religion were its fusion of human and animal forms in divine iconographies and the sacred functions bestowed on animals as ritual participants and divine mediums. By contrast, Hellenic deities are represented predominantly as anthropomorphic, with animals playing the role of attributes that help to define their personalities and domains. The Greek literary tradition from Herodotus until Plutarch tends to portray the Egyptian religious pre-occupation with animals as superstitious and alien and endeavours to provide elaborate symbolic justifications for it. 

Throughout the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Egyptian and Greek religions were increasingly in contact, both in Egypt and Greece. A closer study of the material and epigraphical sources heavily complicates the neat picture outlined above. One insightful case study is that of Anubis, who came to be worshipped throughout the Greek world at this time. 

Building on the work of Grenier (1977), Smelik and Hemelrijk (1984), Malaise (2014) and Aston (2017), this talk will discuss how the iconography and cult of Anubis among Hellenes in the Hellenistic and Roman period provided a useful medium for an interplay between various theological conceptions and modes of representation dealing with the boundaries between animal, human and god, Egyptianism and Hellenism and foreign and domestic traditions between the 3rd century BCE and 2nd century CE.