Anubis

System Lord Anubis

Earth Culture of Origin

Egypt

Alternate Names / Spellings

Anpu, Inpu, Ienpw, Imeut (Lord-of-the-Place-of-Embalming)

Presides Over

Mummification and the dead as they pass into the afterlife

Personal Symbols

Usually depicted as having the head of a jackal

Earth Mythological References

Because Anubis is one of the most ancient of the Egyptian gods, there is some confusion as to his lineage. Some stories have Anubis as the son of Ra and Nephthys; some say Seth and Nephthys (the connection to Seth attributed their sharing of the same totem animal, the jackal). Others have Heset as his mother, and still others say Bastet. Anubis also has a daughter named Kabechet. She is said to help with the mummification process.

Anubis was the original god of the dead before Osiris assumed that role. After that, Anubis' role changed to that of a guide leading dead souls to the underworld. His symbol, the jackal, is attributed to the animals of the same name said to have hunted at the edges of the desert near the necropolis and cemeteries throughout Egypt.

Ancient tombs in Egypt are inscribed with prayers to Anubis. They tell of Anubis watching over the mummification process to ensure it is done properly. As he conducts the souls through the underworld, he tests their knowledge of the gods and their faith. He places their heart on the Scales of Justice during the Judging of the Heart against the Feather of Maat, and he feeds the souls of wicked people to Ammit. Those souls whose hearts are judged favorably are led to

Stargate References

Season Five

Anubis attacks Earth with an asteroid

Anubis was the unnamed mysterious and powerful Goa'uld responsible for despatching Tanith to Tollana with a ship equipped with newly acquired advanced weaponry capable of destroying even that advanced society. Tanith managed to force the cooperation of the Tollan Curria (their governing counsel) to acquire trinium, a critical element needed to create a weapon of mass destruction, intended to wreak havoc across the galaxy with Earth as its first target. When the Tollan resisted being used as an instrument in Earth's destruction, they were destroyed. (5.09 "Between Two Fires")

There was a great deal of in-fighting among the remaining System Lords for the domains of Apophis and Cronus. When they realized that they were destroying themselves, they called a truce and decided to meet in a neutral setting to hold a summit to define a new order. The summit was attended by the seven most powerful System Lords, and they discussed many issues, but one of the hottest topics of discussion was an unnamed adversary who was attacking them without revealing his identity. It wasn't until later that they discovered that Osiris was in league with this very ancient and thought to be dead Goa'uld: Anubis. Anubis was banished by the System Lords over a thousand years ago, and according to Osiris, the only System Lord remaining from that time was Yu. Anubis sent Osiris to the summit to request that he be voted back into the fold. In exchange, he promised to rid them of the Tok'ra and the Tau'ri. While the summit was taking place, Anubis had already sent Zipacna to destroy the Tok'ra base on Ravanna. That attack nearly wiped out the Tok'ra. Osiris said that before Anubis took his position with the System Lords, he would take care of the Tau'ri as well. All the System Lords at the summit, except for Yu, voted Anubis back in. (5.15 "Summit Part 1" and 5.16 "Last Stand Part 2")

Anubis's method of getting rid of the Tau'ri and keeping the Asgard from intervening on their behalf was to attack the planet with an asteroid. This appeared to be a "natural" catastrophe, something the Asgard could do nothing about, according to the Protected Planets Treaty. SG-1 discovered that the asteroid contained naquadah after the Asgard said that they would not help, and by that time, they had to act on their own. They sent the asteroid through a hyperspace window through the Earth and ended up on the other side (5.17 "Failsafe").

Osiris and Anubis later captured Thor of the Asgard while he was attempting to protect a secret genetics facility. The Goa'uld probed his mind for every bit of Asgard knowledge they could. This probing left Thor in a coma, but the three remaining members of SG-1 (following the death and ascension of Daniel Jackson) rescued him. Osiris was also busy fighting a battle with Lord Yu and had unwisely reduced the number of ha'tak he had at the Asgard's facility by sending his remaining ships as reinforcements. The Asgard sent three of their large ships to engage the one ship Osiris and Anubis had remaining and, as a result of their intimidation, the Goa'uld left without a shot fired. (5.21 "Meridian", 5.22 "Revelations")

Season Six

Daniel, as an Ascended Being, attempts to destroy Anubis

Anubis again attempted to rid the galaxy of the Tau'ri — this time by attacking the Stargate. He was using an Ancient weapon that bombarded the Stargate with enough energy to make it go critical and explode. The resulting explosion would wipe out the entire world. The SGC strapped the Stargate to the X-302, took it far into space through a hyperspace window, and allowed it to explode far from Earth. Once again, Anubis's plan to destroy the Tau'ri failed. For his part in helping Earth survive Anubis's attack, Jack gave Daniel's position on SG-1 to Jonas Quinn, the Kelownan who had been present when Daniel sacrificed his life to prevent the naquadria test from destroying his planet. (5.21 "Meridian", 6.01 "Redemption Part 1", 6.02 "Redemption Part 2")

SG-1 helped the Tok'ra in an undercover operation in which they would purposefully get themselves captured and brought into the presence of the Goa'uld Khonsu, who actually happened to be a Tok'ra spy. Khonsu had a Jaffa named Her'ak in his service who killed him and took SG-1 hostage for himself, revealing that he was in service to Anubis. This Jaffa later became Anubis's First Prime. SG-1 escaped from Her'ak before they were presented to Anubis. (6.08 "The Other Guys")

Anubis learned of the Tok'ra's hidden base in the Risa System and attacked it. The Tok'ra did not know that there was an Ashrak in their midst when they escaped to the Alpha Site, already the home to Rebel Jaffa and some SGC personnel. The Ashrak attempted to set the Jaffa and Tok'ra off on each other, but they united instead when the Ashrak's presence was revealed. (6.09 "Allegiance")

Anubis was considered the largest threat to the galaxy, and it was because of this that Gen. Hammond and Maj. Paul Davis revealed the Stargate Program to the representatives of the British, Chinese, and French governments. Russia was already aware of the Stargate and the USAF's Stargate Command and were already considered partners in the Program's operation. Senator Robert Kinsey proposed that the Stargate Program be handed over to a civilian organization to remove the military's control, but Thor of the Asgard pursuaded the representatives that Hammond's command was preferred. The Gate Alliance Treaty was signed among these nations and paved the way for international cooperation, and funding, of the SGC's operations in the defense of Earth. (6.17 "Disclosure", 9.17 "The Scourge")

Anubis began searching Abydos for the Eye of Ra, a component that when joined with other Eyes would create a superweapon. Daniel Jackson, as an Ascended Being, asked SG-1 to help the Abydonians, Earth's first ally in the war against the Goa'uld, defend their world. While helping the team search for the Eye, Daniel discovered a tablet that told of what became of the Ancients: some of them learned to ascend and became known as "The Others" and the rest died from the plague. He also learned from the tablet that the Ancients left behind a city that was said to have a vast store of weapons that could be used to gain power in the galaxy if Anubis discovered its location. This city was since referred to as the Lost City of the Ancients. Daniel realized the importance of finding the Lost City before Anubis did and told Jack to give the Eye of Ra to Anubis so that they would be granted safe passage and could get off of the planet alive with the tablet. (6.22 "Full Circle")

While trying to negotiate with Anubis for the safety of SG-1 and Abydos, Daniel learned that Anubis was once a Goa'uld with a human host, but had somehow learned how to ascend. The Others acted against Anubis and he was left as some form of energy, stuck between the corporeal and the ascended forms. He used his cloak and mask as a shield to hold his energy form so that he could interact on the corporeal plane. (6.22 "Full Circle")

Daniel informed the rest of the System Lords where Anubis was and about the superweapon, and the System Lords, led by Yu, attacked him in orbit over Abydos. Significant damage was done, but Anubis was the victor and he turned his attention to using his new superweapon on Abydos as a test and demonstration of his power. Daniel attempted to buy more time for SG-1 to get off of the planet through the Stargate by confronting Anubis. SG-1 got off of the planet with the tablet, but Daniel was forcibly removed from Anubis's presence before he could wipe him from existence. Anubis used the superweapon and destroyed Abydos, killing everyone with the blast, but Oma Desala helped all of the Abydonians ascend. (6.22 "Full Circle")

Season Seven

Anubis stands before his army of Kull Warriors

Daniel returned to human form following this battle and was discovered by his friends on the planet Vis Uban. Daniel chose to return to human form because he was restricted by the rules of The Others to take actions to help humanity, but one of the conditions of his return was for his memories to be erased. Instead of erasing his memories, Oma Desala disobeyed the rules and merely buried his memories deep into his subconscious mind. SG-1 convinced him to return home with them and as soon as he was there, he started to remember who he was. It was not long after this that he got involved with SGC's plan to destroy Anubis's superweapon that he used on Abydos and on the other System Lords. Daniel and Jonas Quinn boarded Anubis's ship in order to hack into his computer systems, encoded with the language of the Ancients, so that they could discover the location of a ventilation shaft that allowed the superweapon to cool. Once they found the location of this shaft, Jack and Carter destroyed it and Anubis's superweapon overheated and exploded when he tried to use it. In their attempt to escape the ship, Jonas was captured and Daniel was left in the inner-workings of the ship trying to find a way of freeing him. (7.01 "Fallen", 8.18 "Threads")

Anubis had discovered naquadria on Jonas's homeworld of Kelowna through a memory probe he used on him. So, Anubis took his ship to Kelowna to get his hands on the mineral and all of the research that Thanos had recorded. A Goa'uld scientist, in service to Anubis on his vessel, confidently stated that he could stabilize naquadria's power flow so that Anubis could build a new superweapon. When his test of the naquadria-enhanced weapon failed, Anubis had his First Prime Her'ak kill him. Jonas escaped when the power to his prison cell was cut off by the damage done during the failed weapons test and he and Daniel ringed to the planet. With the help of the System Lords under the leadership of Ba'al, Anubis was attacked and his ship was destroyed. Anubis, however, escaped. (7.02 "Homecoming")

Ba'al gained more power after this leveling of Anubis, but Anubis was not one to be put down for long. Soon, he was building a vast army of Kull Warriors who were the product of genetic engineering. These warriors were implanted with a Goa'uld symbiote that was programmed to be completely loyal to Anubis. This loyalty was something that Anubis knew he could not depend upon from his Jaffa. Anubis was using his knowledge gained from being one of the ascended to create these Kull Warriors by animating their laboratory-grown inanimate tissue with a device similar to the sarcophagus. This technology was once that of the Ancients and it came to be known as the Telchak Device. Telchak was the Goa'uld who discovered the technology a long time ago and developed the first sarcophagus from it. Long before he had ascended, Anubis defeated Telchak, but he didn't find the device. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1" and 7.12 "Evolution Part 2")

Master Bra'tac and Teal'c were informed by a Rebel Jaffa working in the minor Goa'uld System Lord Ramius's service, that Ramius and Tilgath, another minor Goa'uld System Lord, were planning an alliance in order to build strength against Anubis. Anubis was aware of their plans and sent one of his Kull Warriors to kill them as they met. Tilgath and several of the Jaffa on both sides were killed by this one warrior. Ramius escaped, but he was tracked down by another Kull Warrior and killed. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1")

Daniel and fellow civilian scientist Dr. Bill Lee found the Telchak Device in Honduras using the research notes left behind by Daniel's grandfather, Nicholas Ballard. Concurrent to Daniel's mission in Honduras, Major Carter, Teal'c, Jacob Carter/Selmak, and Master Bra'tac infiltrated Anubis's base on Tartarus and discovered the Goa'uld queen that was producing all of the symbiotes for the Kull Warriors. They destroyed the queen and were almost captured by the Goa'uld Thoth who was serving Anubis as a technical specialist in producing the Kull Warriors, among other things. They killed Thoth in their escape from Tartarus. (7.12 "Evolution Part 2")

Osiris, still working under Anubis, knew that the Tau'ri were searching for the Lost City of the Ancients and that Daniel had once been ascended. The assumption was that he knew of the location of the Lost City, but that memory was buried in his subconscious. Using modified memory recall devices, Osiris visited Daniel as he slept and invaded his dreams with false images of his time with Sarah Gardner, Osiris's host and Daniel's former lover, and his attempt to decipher a tablet. This tablet was supposed to help Daniel recall his memory of where the Lost City was located, if he ever knew. Daniel realized what was happening and with the rest of his team set a trap to capture Osiris the next time he visited. Daniel wanted to remember where the Lost City was, but soon the morning was upon him and he still had not remembered. They were successful at capturing Osiris and the Tok'ra removed him from Sarah. It was not revealed what the Tok'ra did to the symbiote, but it can be fairly assumed that Osiris was killed. (7.15 "Chimera")

Along with the Tok'ra, Major Carter developed a weapon derived from the Telchak Device to counteract the Kull Warrior's life-giving energy. They had just improved its design at the new Alpha Site when Kull Warriors attacked through the Stargate. The commander of the Alpha Site set off the self-destruct, killing himself in the process, to prevent Anubis from gaining a foothold on the site and access to the design of the weapon and other intelligence. The Rebel Jaffa and Tok'ra accused each other of revealing the location of the Alpha Site because there were missing Jaffa and Tok'ra who had infiltrated the ranks of Olokun. How Anubis discovered the location of the site remained a mystery, but the Rebel Jaffa and Tok'ra both decided to leave the Alpha Site, placing a strain on their alliances with the Tau'ri. (7.16 "Death Knell")

Continuing on the search of the Lost City, the SGC remained only one step ahead of Anubis. When the SGC was discovered to have a presence on the planet P3X-666, Anubis sent ships to attack them. In the battle, Dr. Janet Fraiser was killed (7.17 "Heroes Part 1" and 7.18 "Heroes Part 2"). The SGC gained another step ahead upon discovering an Ancient's Repository of Knowledge on the planet P3X-439, but once Anubis was attacking, Jack decided to take the download once again (he had done it previously in 2.16 "The Fifth Race"). Eventually, the knowledge he gained helped them locate an Ancient outpost in Antarctica, and Jack activated a weapon that destroyed all of Anubis's attacking fleet (including Anubis himself). Although the weapon was powerful, Daniel concluded that the outpost in Antarctica was not the actual Lost City of the Ancients because the outpost was not big enough to match the description of the city. Jack placed himself in a stasis chamber at the outpost when he realized that he was about to die because the knowledge of the Ancients was overloading his system, and was later rescued by the Asgard. (7.21 "Lost City Part 1" and 7.22 "Lost City Part 2", 8.02 "New Order Part 2")

Season Eight

Anubis wanted to possess the weapon on Dakara

After Earth's successful destruction of Anubis's attacking fleet, the System Lords took advantage of Anubis's defeat and agreed to divide the spoils evenly among themselves. Ba'al, however, decided to take more than his share, including reprogramming Anubis's Kull Warriors to be loyal to him, and the other System Lords were wanting Earth to help them even the playing field by eliminating Ba'al with the same weapon that was used to defeat Anubis. They sent three System Lords to represent their interests: Camulus, Amaterasu, and Yu (along with his First Prime Oshu). Negotiations between the SGC and the System Lords did not go well and so the System Lords decided to send a ship to test out Earth's defenses. Ba'al destroyed that ship before it reached Earth and the System Lords were asked to leave. Camulus, however, asked for asylum because his army was no more and he had nothing with which to fight. He felt that he could offer more help staying on Earth. The other System Lords looked upon him as a coward and traitor to his kind. (8.01 "New Order Part 1" and 8.02 "New Order Part 2")

Amazingly, the SGC discovered that Anubis wasn't killed after all when the Ancients' weapon was used to destroy his fleet over Earth. Instead, since he was part ascended, his essence survived the blast in a portion of his ship. When the International Space Station and the debris in which Anubis abode came close in orbit, Anubis transferred himself into Cosmonaut Konstantinov and upon Konstantinov's return to Earth, Anubis transferred to Russian Air Force Colonel Vaselov. Vaselov was given a position at the SGC and from there, Anubis got to the Stargate. Vaselov sacrificed his own life because he knew that he was about to die after having "hosted" Anubis's detrimental energy form. He walked through the Stargate and, unknown to him at the time, Carter sent the wormhole to a planet in the middle of an ice age. At this point, Anubis was assumed to be trapped in Vaselov's body with no way of reaching a DHD to get to his stronghold to obtain another shield to retain his form in the corporeal plane. (8.03 "Lockdown")

Anubis managed to get back to one of his strongholds and started to take human men as hosts. As soon as he burned one out, he'd replace him with another. Ba'al joined forces with him to combat the Replicator invasion of the galaxy, which placed a serious strain on their combined fleets. Anubis commanded Ba'al to disengage the battle with the Replicators so that they could go the planet Dakara and wipe out the Rebel Jaffa who had taken the temple there. This planet was said to be the place where Anubis first rose from the dead and where the first Jaffa was created. Ba'al learned that Anubis planned to use a powerful weapon on Dakara to destroy all life in the galaxy, so he began working with the SGC and Tok'ra to destroy the weapon before Anubis could gain access to it. (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1")

Carter and Jacob Carter/Selmak used the information that Ba'al gave the SGC about the weapon on Dakara and went to the planet to find it. Teal'c and Bra'tac commanded Rebel Jaffa forces in a ha'tak in the planet's orbit. Jack remained at the SGC and ended up fighting Replicators that were sent by their new master, Replicator Carter. Daniel was a captive of this duplicate of his teammate onboard her mothership where she probed his mind for ascended knowledge. Daniel managed to gain control of the Replicators long enough for Ba'al, Carter, and Jacob/Selmak to calibrate the weapon to destroy only the Replicators. Replicator Carter killed him just a few minutes before the weapon's wave destroyed all of the Replicators. Anubis discovered Ba'al's betrayal and told him that he'd spare his life long enough to see the galaxy destroyed. (8.16 "Reckoning Part 2", 8.17 "Threads")

Oma Desala partially ascended Daniel upon his death on Replicator Carter's ship and gave him a second chance at ascension. She created a diner on his plane of existence so that they could talk. While in this place, The Others kept watch and Anubis, in disguise as a man named Jim, came and went, all the while bragging about how Anubis was going to destroy all life in the galaxy and the Ascended Beings would do nothing to stop him. (8.18 "Threads")

Anubis sent all of the Kull Warriors to Dakara to eliminate the Rebel Jaffa. He gained access to the weapon and was about to push the button when Daniel pleaded to The Others to stop Anubis and end Oma's punishment for having ascended him. The Others did not act, but Oma was moved by Daniel's plea to stop Anubis herself. She was not permitted to destroy him, so she chose to engage him in an eternal battle instead. When Anubis was swept away by Oma, the Kull Warriors were confused and easily defeated. Mysteriously, the self-destruct that Jack started after the Stargate at the SGC was dialed by the one on Dakara to send the life-ending energy wave was frozen. Jack suspected that it was Daniel who had done this, but Daniel, upon his second return from ascension, never said what he had done or remembered from either of his ascensions. (8.18 "Threads")

Season Nine

Khalek was considered to be the son of Anubis

Even though Anubis himself was locked in an eternal battle with Oma Desala on the ascended plane, he still remained a threat to the galaxy because of what he left behind: research into ascension by means of DNA manipulation of humans. Some of the Ancient research on ascension that Anubis found before he tricked Oma into ascending him included the use of a DNA manipulation device that permitted Anubis to re-create his genetic memories and incorporate them into a human clone. He, in effect, created a Harsesis with his Goa'uld genetic memories and his thirst for power through death and destruction. The first of Anubis's clones was named Khalek, and he was discovered in stasis in an underground laboratory on the planet P3X-584. (9.09 "Prototype")

Khalek was accidentally revived before his true nature was discovered. Not only did Khalek possess Anubis's pre-ascension Goa'uld genetic memories, but he also had memories of Anubis as an Ascended Being, including his encounter with Daniel over Abydos. Daniel shocked everyone at the SGC by recommending that Khalek be killed before he reached ascension, but the SGC compromised and decided to return him to his stasis chamber until they figured out what could be done with him. Hoping that studying Khalek's advanced human traits would lead to the development of a means of combating the Priors of the Ori who possessed similar advanced human characteristics, Richard Woolsey, representing the International Oversight Committee that finances much of the SGC's operations, overrode the SGC's recommendation, much to Daniel's extreme disappointment and concern. Khalek demonstrated Anubis's evil nature, punctuated by telekinetic and psychic powers. After learning that he needed to return to the lab on his home planet in order to manipulate his DNA to achieve ascension, Khalek engineered a violent escape that left several SGC personnel dead. Daniel and Mitchell, the new leader of SG-1, killed Khalek by unloading their handgun clips into him, and Woolsey felt the guilt and remorse of the consequences of ignoring Daniel's warnings as to how exceedingly dangerous Khalek truly was. (9.09 "Prototype")

Episodes

Gallery

Anubis occupied the bodies of several human hosts once he lost his shield in the battle over the Antarctic. The detrimental nature of his energy form caused the hosts' bodies to literally burn out, much like one exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. Additionally, because Anubis was partially-ascended, he could interact with other ascended beings on their plane of existence. He took on the form of a friendly businessman named Jim in the place where Oma Desala took Daniel Jackson after he was killed by Replicator Carter. It was in this place that Daniel witnessed Oma engage Anubis in an eternal struggle to prevent him from wiping out all life in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Cosmonaut Konstantinov (8.03 "Lockdown")	Col. Vaselov (8.03 "Lockdown")	Daniel Jackson (8.03 "Lockdown")
Lt. Evans (8.03 "Lockdown")	Airman Malcolm McCaffrey (8.03 "Lockdown")	Lt. Col. Samantha Carter (8.03 "Lockdown")
Gen. Jack O'Neill (8.03 "Lockdown")	Col. Vaselov for final time (8.03 "Lockdown")	Unnamed host (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1")
Last known human host (8.16 "Reckoning Part 1", 8.18 "Threads")	Anubis as Jim in ascended plane (8.18 "Threads")	Oma and Anubis in eternal struggle (8.18 "Threads")