So, I was really curious about this whole thing – who’s the Egyptian god that’s like the Greek’s Hades or the Roman’s Pluto? You know, the ruler of the underworld type.
First, I started digging around. I mean, who do you even ask about this stuff? So I just started with some general searching online. I looked up things like “Egyptian god of the underworld” and “Hades equivalent in Egyptian mythology.”
Honestly, the first results were all over the place. Some websites were saying it was Anubis, you know, the jackal-headed guy. He’s definitely involved with the dead, guiding souls and all that. But then other places were like, “Nah, it’s Osiris.” He’s more like the king down there, judging souls and whatnot.
- Anubis: The god of the dead, embalming, and funerals. But he’s more like a guide for souls.
- Osiris: The god of the afterlife, the underworld, and rebirth. He’s the one who judges the dead.
Then I came across Serapis, this god that seems like a mix of Greek and Egyptian. He was represented as Pluto sometimes, with a special hat and a three-headed dog. That got me thinking about how these mythologies kind of blended together back in the day.
I kept going, reading about how the Romans took over Greece and mixed up their gods. Pluto was their underworld god, just like Hades was for the Greeks. Both of them were also associated with wealth and had helmets that made them invisible. Pretty cool, right?
But back to Egypt. I wanted to figure out this Osiris and Anubis thing. Was there a clear answer? I found some sources saying that since Anubis’s main job was dealing with the dead, he was like the Egyptian Hermes, not Hades. But Osiris, being the actual ruler of the underworld, was more like Hades/Pluto.
I looked into some more comparisons between Egyptian and Greek gods. For example, Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and parties, is kind of like Min, an Egyptian fertility god. It’s interesting to see these parallels.
Here’s what I ended up concluding:
It looks like Osiris is the closest Egyptian counterpart to Hades and Pluto. He’s the king of the underworld, the big boss of the afterlife. Anubis has a different role, more like a helper than the ruler.
It was a fun little research project, though a bit confusing at times with all the different names and roles. But hey, that’s mythology for you, right?