In ancient Egyptian belief, Thoth is an incredibly complex and powerful deity. Here is a brief overview of his main roles:
Thoth is the primordial deity who called everything into being. „everything that comes from his mouth is realised.“ He is the one who is above the gods, the „All-Lord“.
Thoth is the inventor of language, writing, and the art of arithmetic. He is worshipped as the one “who writes Maat and brings Maat”, as “he who began writing at the primeval beginning” and as “he who calculates all things”. He is the Lord of the Laws.
As early as the Pyramid texts, Thoth is regarded as the moon and especially as the dynamic aspect of the moon. In later ptolemaic times, Thoth was also regarded as the god who regulates the course of the stars.
Thoth is the lector priest of the gods and responsible for the exact execution of the rites of the dead. He is the one documenting the results of the “Weighing of the Heart” ritual.
From the New Kingdom onwards, Thoth has the epithet “great of magic”. He became an oracle god “who proclaims tomorrow and explores the future without making any mistake”.
Thoth was equated with the Greek god Hermês and later merged with him to Hermês Trismegistos.
He was predominantly depicted in human form with the head of an ibis, but also as an ibis and a baboon, his two sacred animals.
Glazed composition, 14.3 cm, Egypt, ca. 664 – 525 B.C.
British Museum, London, EA64606 © The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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