Wepwawet

What’s a werewolf site without info on wolf gods? Today’s wolf god is Wepwawet, a deity associated with the city of Asyut in Upper Egypt, later called Lycopolis (the City of the Wolves) in the Graeco-Roman period. Wepwawet is often confused with the god Anubis since they are both depicted as a man with the head of a jackal or wolf. But Wepwawet was usually shown with a wolf head, hence the name of his city. While shown in jackal form he still had gray fur, more like a wolf than a jackal.

Wepwawet was known as the Opener of the Way – the god who guided the souls of the dead through Duat (an area in Egyptian belief that resembles the early Christian idea of purgatory) and was also believed to be incredibly fierce.

Some historians believe that Wepwawet was a representation of a pharaoh (or maybe ever several pharaohs) of the Old Kingdom who wished to have wolf-like traits contributed to them. This is the reason this god was often considered the “champion of royalty” and something of a war deity.

A tablet from Sinai says that Wepwawet “opened the way” for the “great victory” of King Sekhemket (a pharaoh of the third dynasty), over his enemies, which suggests that the pharaoh could have been aggressive and wolf-like in battle.

Images of the god show him in Egyptian military clothing and carrying either a mace or a bow. In some depictions, he is shown carrying the mace of King Nermar, as Egyptian pharaoh who reigned in the 31st century BC. But later, as Wepwawet became assimilated into the traditional Egyptian pantheon, he became portrayed as the son of Anubis (probably because they look so much alike), although some traditions describe him as the son of the serpent god Set.

– Moonlight

By moonlight

One of the writers for werewolves.com, as well as vampires.com.

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