Not an owl

When we read Anubis’ name, we see that sometimes hieroglyphs are used iconographically: what they depict is also what they mean. Most of the time though, this isn’t the case. Most hieroglyphs are ‘just’ used to write sounds, which go together to form words. For example, this bird you see here is an owl (just like the one in fig. 1). There are many hieroglyphs depicting different birds - we recognize the owl by its boxy, square head. The owl is used to write the sound ‘m’, which, in this case, translates as ‘in’. Nothing to do with owls, see?

But sometimes, there’s a little more to it.