Most of the Egyptian God’s and Goddesses are depicted with heads of animals which till recently was interpreted as the Gods and Goddesses being partial human and partial animal.

But it was not so. The heads were used to symbolise the Gods as they shared characteristics with those animals. Like Sekhmat, goddess of war is shown with the head of lioness, as lions are ferocious

creatures. Similarly Anubis is shown with head of jackal, as jackal were associated with necropolis and Anubis was God of Death.

In the Coffin Texts, it is mentioned only the dead could see Gods. So none of these images shows the form of God and was just an iconography to encase the characteristics of Gods. The animal heads are meant to help us distinguish and tell some characteristics of each God.