Cynocephalus (Aani)

IMG:file11.png: The dog-headed ape, sacred to Thoth, under which form the god is sometimes represented. Thoth being a moon god, the cynocephali are frequently represented with the lunar disk on their heads. The Hermopolitan ennead was sometimes represented by nine cynocephali, that is, Thoth and eight other deities; but sometimes the eight apes attend Amen. They are called "watchers for the dawn." Nine cynocephali were said to open the gates in the west for the setting sun, and each is then called by a name; "Opener of the earth," "Soul of the earth," "Heart of the earth," etc. They are thus represented in the illustrations to a work frequently inscribed on the walls of royal Theban tombs, relating to the pa age of the sun during the hours of night, and called "The book of that which is in the underworld." In the judgment scene represented in papyri of the "Book of the Dead," and on the walls at Der el Medineh, a cynocephalus is seated on the balance in the middle of the beam of the scales in which the heart of the deceased is being weighed, while Thoth stands by with palette and reed pen waiting to record the result. In this case the cynocephalus may represent equilibrium, which would naturally be a quality of the god Thoth.