Khentiamentiu was an ancient Egyptian god of the dead and the underworld whose name means “Foremost of the Westerners” — the jackal-god who ruled over the dead (the “Westerners,” those who dwelt in the realm of the west) at the sacred city of Abydos, and whose role and very name were eventually absorbed into the great god Osiris. He is the ancient lord of the dead who became an epithet of the king of the underworld.
The Foremost of the Westerners
Khentiamentiu (Egyptian Khenti-Amentiu, “Foremost of the Westerners” or “Chief of the Westerners”) was an ancient god of the dead, depicted as a jackal or a jackal-headed figure, similar to Anubis and Wepwawet. His name holds the key to his nature: the “Westerners” (Amentiu) were the dead — for the realm of the dead lay in the west, where the sun set, and to die was to “go to the west” and join the Westerners. As “Foremost” or “Chief” of these Westerners, Khentiamentiu was the ruler and leader of the dead, the god who presided over the realm of the deceased and stood at their head.
The Lord of Abydos
Khentiamentiu was especially the god of Abydos, one of the most ancient and sacred sites of Egypt and the chief cult-center of the dead. He was the original presiding deity of the necropolis at Abydos, the jackal-god who watched over the vast cemeteries and the realm of the dead there from the earliest dynasties. As a jackal — the animal that haunted the desert-edge cemeteries — he was, like Anubis and Wepwawet, a guardian of the tombs and a god of the burial-grounds, the protective canine deity of the place of the dead.
The Absorption into Osiris
The most significant fact about Khentiamentiu is what became of him. When the cult of Osiris rose to dominate Egyptian beliefs about death and the afterlife, Osiris took over Khentiamentiu's great cult-center of Abydos (which became the holiest site of the Osiris cult, believed to hold the god's tomb) and absorbed the ancient jackal-god's role and identity. Khentiamentiu's very name — “Foremost of the Westerners,” ruler of the dead — became an epithet of Osiris, so that Osiris was called “Osiris Khentiamentiu,” Osiris, Foremost of the Westerners, the lord of the dead. The older god was thus subsumed into the greater one, his rulership of the dead transferred to Osiris, his name preserved as one of Osiris's titles. This absorption is a vivid example of how Egyptian religion evolved over its long history, older gods merging into and being absorbed by the rising great deities.
The Ancient Lord of the Dead
Khentiamentiu endures as an ancient Egyptian god of the dead — the jackal “Foremost of the Westerners,” the original ruler of the realm of the dead at Abydos, whose role and name were absorbed into the great god Osiris. He embodies the deep antiquity of Egyptian beliefs about death and the western realm of the dead, and the way the religion's ancient gods were woven into and superseded by the rising cults; and his name survives, fittingly, as a title of Osiris himself — the lord of the dead, Foremost of those who dwell in the west.
The ancient jackal-lord of the dead, "Foremost of the Westerners," whose rule over the realm of the dead and whose very name were absorbed into the rising god Osiris.