Wepwawet

About Wepwawet

Wepwawet (Egyptian Wep-wawet, 'Opener of the Ways'), the jackal- or wolf-god of Asyut in Middle Egypt — the city the Greeks called Lykopolis, 'Wolf-city' — was the divine pathfinder who opened the roads before the king in battle, before the sun-god in the sky, and before the dead in the underworld. Among the oldest of the Egyptian deities, attested from the predynastic period, he appears in royal processions as a standard surmounted by a standing canine, carried at the head of the king's march to clear and consecrate the way ahead. His name declares his function: he is the one who opens the ways, the scout and trailblazer who goes before, and his power is invoked wherever a path must be cleared, whether the military road of the king, the funerary road of the deceased, or the cosmic road of the sun.

Wepwawet is depicted as a standing canine, gray or white in color, distinguishing him from the recumbent black jackal Anubis, with whom he is closely associated and often confused. Where Anubis lies couchant upon his shrine, Wepwawet stands erect, alert and ready to move, and this upright posture marks him as the active opener of the way rather than the guardian of the necropolis. The two jackal-gods share the funerary sphere and the necropolis of the western desert, and their roles overlap, but the Egyptians distinguished them in iconography and in function, Wepwawet the opener and Anubis the embalmer and guardian.

In the royal sphere, Wepwawet was the standard-bearer who led the king's processions and opened the way before him in war. His standard, called the Shedshed, went before the king from the earliest dynasties, and he was invoked as a war-god who cleared the path to victory and trampled the king's enemies. The Narmer macehead and early royal monuments show the jackal-standard at the head of the procession, and Wepwawet's role as the opener of the king's way persisted through the whole of pharaonic history. He was also associated with the Sed-festival, the royal jubilee in which the king renewed his power, where his standard led the ritual procession.

In the funerary sphere, Wepwawet opens the ways of the underworld for the dead, clearing and consecrating the roads the deceased must travel through the duat. The Pyramid Texts (c. 2400–2300 BCE) invoke him as the one who opens the roads for the king's ascent, and the Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead carry forward his role as the pathfinder of the afterlife. His great cult-center was Asyut, capital of the thirteenth nome of Upper Egypt, where he was the principal god and the focus of an annual festival; the largest find of his cult-objects, the Salakhana hoard of votive stelae from Asyut, attests the depth of his local worship. At Abydos, the holy city of Osiris, Wepwawet led the great procession of the god's festival, opening the way before the bark of Osiris as he had opened the way before the king. The Middle Kingdom faithful who erected memorial stelae at Abydos recorded their wish to follow Wepwawet's standard in this procession, and his role as the opener of the festival road carried his cult beyond his home at Asyut into the great pilgrimage religion of Osiris. Across the royal, funerary, and festival spheres, the standing jackal of Asyut performed a single office in many forms, going before to clear and consecrate the way, whether the way of the king's army, the way of the dead through the duat, or the way of the god in his mysteries.

Mythology

The story of Wepwawet is the story of the opener of the ways, the standing jackal who goes before — before the king in war, before the sun in the sky, before the dead in the underworld, and before Osiris in his great festival procession. Like many of the older Egyptian gods, he has no single connected myth, but his role as pathfinder runs through the royal, funerary, and festival theology of Egypt across three thousand years.

Wepwawet belongs to the deep stratum of Egyptian religion, attested from the predynastic period in the imagery of the jackal-standard carried at the head of the royal procession. On the Narmer macehead and other early royal monuments, the standing canine on its pole goes before the king, the divine scout who clears and consecrates the way ahead. From the beginning, Wepwawet's function was to open the road, and his standard, the Shedshed, led the king's march from the earliest dynasties onward. The Egyptians understood the opening of the way both literally and ritually: Wepwawet cleared the physical road before the king's army, and he opened the consecrated path along which the king moved in ritual and procession.

In the royal and military sphere, Wepwawet was a war-god who led the king to victory. As the opener of the ways, he went before the king's army, cleared the path, and trampled the enemies who stood in the king's road. The king's victories were won under Wepwawet's standard, and the god's power was invoked to open the way to conquest and to clear the obstacles before the sovereign. This military role connected Wepwawet to the protective war-deities of kingship, and his standard at the head of the procession was the sign of the divine opening of the king's path.

Wepwawet's association with the Sed-festival placed him at the center of the royal renewal. The Sed-festival, the jubilee in which the aging king renewed his power and reasserted his rule over the Two Lands, included a ritual procession led by Wepwawet's standard, the god opening the way before the renewed king as he had opened the way before the king in war. The Shedshed standard going before the king in the jubilee rite was the sign of Wepwawet's role in clearing and consecrating the path of kingship itself, the way along which the king moved from his old rule into his renewed sovereignty.

In the funerary sphere, Wepwawet opened the ways of the underworld for the dead. The Pyramid Texts invoke him as the one who opens the roads for the king's ascent to the sky, the pathfinder who clears the way before the deceased king as he travels to join the gods. The Coffin Texts carry the role forward to the non-royal dead, and the Book of the Dead invokes Wepwawet among the powers that open the ways of the duat. The deceased, traveling the roads of the underworld toward the judgment hall and the field of reeds, needed those roads opened and cleared, and Wepwawet, the opener of the ways, was the god who performed this office. His funerary role overlapped with that of Anubis, the embalmer and guardian of the necropolis, and the two jackal-gods shared the western desert and the roads of the dead, but Wepwawet's particular function was the opening of the way.

Wepwawet's great festival role was at Abydos, the holy city of Osiris. In the annual mysteries of Osiris, the great procession that bore the god's image from his temple to his tomb and back, Wepwawet went before the bark of Osiris, opening the way for the god as he had opened the way before the king. The opener of the ways led the procession of the lord of the dead, clearing and consecrating the road along which Osiris traveled in his festival, and the Middle Kingdom stelae from Abydos record the desire of the faithful to participate in this procession behind Wepwawet's standard. The god who opened the king's way in war and the dead person's way in the underworld opened also the way of Osiris in his mysteries, the pathfinder of kings, of the dead, and of the lord of the afterlife.

Wepwawet's principal home was Asyut, the city the Greeks called Lykopolis, 'Wolf-city,' capital of the thirteenth nome of Upper Egypt. There he was the chief god, the focus of an annual festival and of a deep local cult, and the Salakhana hoard of votive stelae found at Asyut — the largest single find of Wepwawet cult-objects — attests the devotion of his worshippers. The standing jackal of Asyut, opener of the ways, was the local lord of the city and the divine pathfinder whose power was invoked across the whole of Egypt wherever a way had to be cleared and consecrated, whether the road of the king, the road of the dead, or the road of the god.

Symbols & Iconography

Wepwawet's central symbol is the standing canine, the upright jackal or wolf that distinguishes him from the recumbent Anubis and marks him as the active opener of the way. Where Anubis lies couchant upon his shrine, the guardian at rest, Wepwawet stands erect, alert and ready to move, his upright posture the sign of the pathfinder who goes before. The standing jackal on its standard, carried at the head of the procession, is the visible emblem of the god's function: the divine scout who clears and consecrates the way ahead.

The name itself, 'Opener of the Ways,' is the key to Wepwawet's symbolism. He is the one who opens the road, the trailblazer who goes before and clears the path, and his power is symbolic of every kind of opening — the military road of the king, the funerary road of the dead, the festival road of the god, and the cosmic road of the sun. The opening of the way carries connotations of pioneering, of clearing obstacles, of consecrating and making passable a road that would otherwise be closed, and Wepwawet embodies this power of the opener and the pathfinder.

The jackal or wolf as the form of the opener carries its own symbolism. The canine of the desert margins, ranging the necropolis and the edges of the cultivated land, was a fitting form for the god who travels the roads and opens the ways, at home in the liminal zones between the world of the living and the realm of the dead. The desert canine that ranges ahead and scouts the path is the natural image of the divine pathfinder, and the standing posture of Wepwawet's jackal expresses the readiness to move and to lead.

The Shedshed standard, the pole surmounted by the standing jackal that went before the king, is the heraldic emblem of Wepwawet's role in kingship. The standard at the head of the royal procession symbolized the divine opening of the king's way, in war, in the Sed-festival, and in ritual, and the god's leadership of the king's march was the sign of his protective and pioneering

The desert canine that ranges ahead and scouts the path is the natural image of the divine pathfinder, and the standing posture of Wepwawet's jackal expresses the readiness to move and to lead.

The Shedshed standard, the pole surmounted by the standing jackal that went before the king, is the heraldic emblem of Wepwawet's role in kingship. His name declares his function: he is the one who opens the ways, the scout and trailblazer who goes before, and his power is invoked wherever a path must be cleared, whether the military road of the king, the funerary road of the deceased, or the cosmic road of the sun.

Wepwawet is depicted as a standing canine, gray or white in color, distinguishing him from the recumbent black jackal Anubis, with whom he is closely associated and often confused. The Middle Kingdom faithful who erected memorial stelae at Abydos recorded their wish to follow Wepwawet's standard in this procession, and his role as the opener of the festival road carried his cult beyond his home at Asyut into the great pilgrimage religion of Osiris.

Worship Practices

His principal cult-center was Asyut, capital of the thirteenth nome of Upper Egypt, the city the Greeks called Lykopolis, 'Wolf-city,' after the canine god who was its lord. At Asyut, Wepwawet was the chief deity and the focus of a deep local cult that persisted throughout Egyptian history, and the city's Greek name preserves the memory of the standing canine who opened the ways. The Salakhana hoard, a large deposit of votive stelae dedicated to Wepwawet found at Asyut, is the principal archaeological witness to the devotion of his worshippers and the largest single find of his cult-objects.

Wepwawet's role in kingship was rooted in the predynastic period and persisted through the whole of pharaonic history. As the opener of the king's way in war and in the Sed-festival, Wepwawet was a god of kingship and of military victory, and his leadership of the royal procession connected him to the deepest layers of Egyptian royal ideology.

Wepwawet's funerary role placed him in the necropolis religion alongside Anubis. During the Middle Kingdom, as Osiris rose to dominate the afterlife and Anubis became Osiris's embalmer, Wepwawet retained his distinct role as the opener of the roads of the underworld, the pathfinder who cleared the way before the dead.

Wepwawet's great festival role was at Abydos, the holy city of Osiris in the eighth nome of Upper Egypt. The Middle Kingdom stelae erected by pilgrims at Abydos record their desire to follow Wepwawet's standard in the procession of Osiris, and the god's role as the opener of the festival way connected his cult to the central Osirian religion of Abydos. This festival role carried Wepwawet's worship beyond his home at Asyut and into the great pilgrimage cult of Osiris.

The modern study of Wepwawet draws on the royal monuments that depict his standard, the funerary texts that invoke him as the opener of the ways, the Abydos stelae that record his festival role, and the Asyut votive material, above all the Salakhana hoard. Terence DuQuesne's The Jackal Divinities of Egypt (2005) is the principal modern study, distinguishing Wepwawet from Anubis and tracing his cult at Asyut and his roles in kingship and the afterlife. Wepwawet's cultural significance lies in his antiquity, his unbroken role in Egyptian kingship as the opener of the king's way, and his function as the divine pathfinder of the dead and of the gods..

Sacred Texts

The earliest primary evidence for Wepwawet is the jackal-standard carried at the head of the royal procession on the Narmer macehead (c. 3100 BCE), one of the oldest pieces of royal iconography from Egypt. The standing canine on its pole, going before the king, is the visual prototype of Wepwawet's role as the divine opener of the royal way, and this iconographic record precedes the textual sources by several centuries.

*Pyramid Texts* Utterances 130, 357, 467, and related passages (c. 2400–2350 BCE, Dynasties 5–6; ed. R.O. Faulkner, Oxford, 1969; James P. Allen, SBL Writings from the Ancient World 23, 2005) invoke Wepwawet as the divine pathfinder who opens the roads for the deceased king's ascent. The corpus names him explicitly as 'Opener of the Ways' and invokes his standard and his protective function in the royal funerary journey. These are the oldest textual attestations of Wepwawet's funerary role and his epithet.

The *Coffin Texts* (Middle Kingdom, c. 2055–1650 BCE; ed. R.O. Faulkner, Aris & Phillips, 1973–78; hieroglyphic ed. Adriaan de Buck, OIP, 1935–61) extend Wepwawet's role as opener of the ways to the non-royal dead. Several spells invoke him among the powers that open and clear the roads of the duat, and his function as the pathfinder of the underworld is developed across the corpus alongside his older royal associations.

The *Book of the Dead* (New Kingdom onward; ed. R.O. Faulkner, British Museum Press, 1985; T.G. Allen, OIP, 1974) carries forward Wepwawet's funerary pathfinding role. Vignettes and spell texts invoke him among the protective powers of the afterlife journey, and his standard and his name as opener of the ways appear in the funerary literature of the New Kingdom and later periods.

The Middle Kingdom stelae from Abydos — preserved in the collections of the British Museum, the Cairo Museum, and other institutions, published in W.K. Simpson, *Inscribed Material from the Pennsylvania-Yale Excavations at Abydos* (Peabody Museum / University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1995) and in numerous specialized studies — are a primary source for Wepwawet's festival role at Abydos. These stelae record the desire of their dedicators to follow Wepwawet's standard in the procession of Osiris, the great annual festival at the holy city. The Abydos stelae are the principal documentary witness to Wepwawet's role as the opener of the festival road and to the depth of personal devotion to him among the Middle Kingdom faithful.

The Salakhana hoard of votive stelae from Asyut, the largest single find of Wepwawet cult-objects, is documented in specialized studies of the god's local cult. The stelae, now distributed among several collections, attest the depth and duration of Wepwawet's worship at his principal cult-center and are a key primary source for his local religion. Miriam Lichtheim, *Ancient Egyptian Literature* vol. I (UC Press, 1973) provides translations of Middle Kingdom texts that illuminate the Abydos festival context in which Wepwawet's leadership of the procession of Osiris is embedded.

Significance

Wepwawet's significance lies in his antiquity and his unbroken role in Egyptian kingship as the opener of the king's way. Attested from the predynastic period and persisting through the whole of pharaonic history, his jackal-standard went before the king in war, in the Sed-festival, and in ritual procession, making him a constitutive god of the royal march and a witness to the deepest layers of Egyptian royal ideology. The opening of the king's way was a function exercised at the head of the procession from the earliest dynasties to the latest.

His significance as the opener of the ways extends across the royal, funerary, festival, and cosmic spheres. Wepwawet opened the way before the king in war, before the dead in the underworld, before Osiris in his mysteries, and before the sun in the sky, and this multiplication of his pathfinding role made him a god whose power was invoked wherever a way had to be cleared and consecrated. The opener of the ways was a god of pioneering, of clearing obstacles, and of leading the procession, and his function touched every domain in which a path had to be made passable.

Wepwawet is significant for the funerary religion as the pathfinder of the dead. The roads of the underworld that the deceased must travel needed opening and clearing, and Wepwawet, the opener of the ways of the duat, performed this office from the Pyramid Texts onward. His role in the afterlife, distinct from but overlapping with that of Anubis, places him at the heart of the Egyptian conception of the journey of the dead through the roads of the underworld toward the judgment and the field of reeds.

His leadership of the Osirian procession at Abydos made Wepwawet a key figure in the central pilgrimage cult of Egyptian religion. Going before the bark of Osiris in the god's annual mysteries, the opener of the ways led the procession of the lord of the dead, and the Middle Kingdom faithful who erected stelae at Abydos longed to follow his standard. His festival role connected his cult at Asyut to the great Osirian religion and carried his worship across Egypt.

For the modern study of Egyptian religion, Wepwawet is significant as a witness to the predynastic origins of kingship, to the ritual of the royal procession, to the distinction between the jackal-gods of the necropolis, and to the Egyptian conception of the opening of the way as a divine office. His standing jackal, his standard at the head of the march, and his role as the divine pathfinder of kings, of the dead, and of the gods make him a figure through whom the royal, funerary, and festival theology of Egypt can be read across the long span of its history.

Connections

Anubis is Wepwawet's closest associate, the recumbent jackal-god of embalming and the necropolis with whom the standing opener of the ways shares the funerary sphere and the western desert. The Egyptians distinguished the two — Wepwawet erect and active, Anubis couchant and guardian — and the relationship between them is fundamental to understanding the jackal-gods of Egypt.

The Osiris entry connects to Wepwawet through the great festival at Abydos, where the opener of the ways went before the bark of the lord of the dead in his annual mysteries, clearing and consecrating the road of the god's procession as he had opened the way before the king.

The Horus entry addresses the divine embodiment of kingship before whom Wepwawet opened the way; the opener of the ways led the processions of the king who was the living Horus, in war and in the Sed-festival, and his standard was the sign of the divine opening of the king's path.

The Ra entry connects to Wepwawet through the cosmic opening of the way, the pathfinder who in some texts opens the road before the sun in the sky as he opens the way before the king and the dead.

Khentamentiu, the 'foremost of the westerners' of Abydos absorbed by Osiris, connects to Wepwawet as a canine god of the necropolis and the roads of the dead, sharing the jackal-form and the funerary sphere of the western desert.

The Sed-festival, the royal jubilee in which the king renewed his power, connects to Wepwawet through the ritual procession his standard led, the opener of the ways clearing the path of the renewed king as he had cleared the path of the king in war. The Shedshed standard going before the king in the jubilee was the sign of Wepwawet's role in the renewal of kingship.

The city of Asyut, the Greek Lykopolis, capital of the thirteenth nome of Upper Egypt, was Wepwawet's home and the center of his deep local cult, and the Salakhana hoard of votive stelae found there is the principal witness to his worship. The connection of the god to his city ties him to the local religion of Middle Egypt and to the geography of his cult.

Montu the falcon war-god and the protective deities of kingship connect to Wepwawet through his martial role as the opener of the king's way in battle and the trampler of the king's enemies, placing the standing jackal among the protective and warlike powers of Egyptian kingship.

Further Reading