Thoth | God, Symbol, & Facts (2024)

Egyptian god

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Also known as: Djhuty

(Greek), Egyptian:
Djhuty

Thoth | God, Symbol, & Facts (1)

Thoth, in Egyptian religion, a god of the moon, of reckoning, of learning, and of writing. He was held to be the inventor of writing, the creator of languages, the scribe, interpreter, and adviser of the gods, and the representative of the sun god, Re. His responsibility for writing was shared with the goddess Seshat. The cult of Thoth was centred in the town of Khmunu (Hermopolis; modern Al-Ashmūnayn) in Upper Egypt.

In the myth of Osiris, Thoth protected Isis during her pregnancy and healed the eye of her son, Horus, which had been wounded by Osiris’s adversary Seth. He weighed the hearts of the deceased at their judgment and reported the result to the presiding god, Osiris, and his fellow judges. Thoth’s sacred animals were the ibis and the baboon; millions of mummified bodies of those animals have been found in cemeteries near Hermopolis and Memphis. Thoth was usually represented in human form with an ibis’s head. The Greeks identified Thoth with their god Hermes and termed him “Thoth, the thrice great” (Hermes Trismegistos). Important philosophical works were attributed to Hermes Trismegistos.

Thoth | God, Symbol, & Facts (2)

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.

Thoth | God, Symbol, & Facts (2024)

FAQs

Thoth | God, Symbol, & Facts? ›

Thoth is the god of magic, writing, the moon, and wisdom, and appears as a man with an ibis head. His role as a god of knowledge and wisdom appears throughout Egyptian mythology

Egyptian mythology
Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Egyptian_mythology
. In the Contending of Horus and Set, Thoth mediates the contest between the two gods and also records its history.

What are Thoth's symbols? ›

What is the symbol of Thoth? The symbols of Thoth is an ibis, a baboon, scales, papyrus role, stylus, crescent moons, and pens. These all represent his intelligence or physical form.

What are the facts about the god Thoth? ›

Thoth was credited with creating the art of writing, inventing the calendar, and controlling space and time. Since he was the god of the moon, he had celestial functions and replaced the sun god, Ra, in the sky at night. Thoth helped the funerary deities as a messenger and bookkeeper for them.

What is the animal symbol of Thoth? ›

Thoth's sacred animals were the ibis and the baboon; millions of mummified bodies of those animals have been found in cemeteries near Hermopolis and Memphis. Thoth was usually represented in human form with an ibis's head.

What bird symbolizes Thoth? ›

We now know that the sacred ibis was considered (and revered) by the Egyptians to be the earthly form of Thoth. For about a millennium starting in 1100 BC, ibises were frequently mummified as an offering to Thoth, believing that mummification would put the birds on a direct line to the afterlife.

Who is Thoth in the Bible? ›

Thoth was the Egyptian god of wisdom and knowledge. However, he was the god of false wisdom. He was often depicted as an ibis-headed man or a baboon. Thoth was thought to be the inventor of hieroglyphics and the patron god of scribes.

What number represents Thoth? ›

Three: symbol of plurality

The beer used to trick Sekhmet soaked three hands into the ground. The second god, Re, named three times to define the sun: dawn, noon, and evening. Thoth is described as the “thrice-great god of wisdom”. A doomed prince was doomed to three fates: to die by a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog.

What does Thoth mean? ›

noun. Egyptian Mythology. the god of wisdom, learning, and magic, the scribe of the gods: represented as having a human body and the head of either a dog or an ibis.

What is Thoth's weakness? ›

Weaknesses. Power Limitation: Despite Thoth's intelligence being vast, his answers can be sometimes incorrect. His mind is also a vulnerable spot, as Set was able to enter his head and literally pull it out, leaving Thoth in a mindless state or possibly dead.

What does the Thoth tattoo mean? ›

Thoth tattoos symbolize wisdom, knowledge, and intellect. Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god, is often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon. He is associated with writing, magic, science, and judgement.

What was Thoth's famous quote? ›

Birth is not the beginning of life - only of an individual awareness. Change into another state is not death - only the ending of this awareness.

What color represents Thoth? ›

Statues and depictions of the god Thoth are routinely blue, blue-green, or have some aspect of blue in them linking the god of wisdom with the life-giving heavens. Blue also symbolized protection.

What is sacred to Thoth? ›

In ancient Egypt, the ibis was one manifestation of Thoth, the god associated with divine knowledge and writing. The breed of ibis specifically sacred to Thoth is the African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) which became extinct in Egypt in the mid-19th century.

Who is the sister of Thoth? ›

Seshat was closely associated with Thoth (Djehuty in ancient Egyptian), the reckoner of time and god of writing who was also venerated as a god of wisdom, with whom he shared some overlapping functions. She was variously considered to be the sister, wife, or daughter of Thoth.

Who is the wife of the god Thoth? ›

Ma'at was often considered to be the daughter of Ra and was married to Thoth, god of wisdom. However, Ma'at was more than just a goddess to the ancient Egyptians. She represented the crucial concept of how the universe was maintained.

Why is Thoth a baboon? ›

The baboon was usually associated with Thoth, one of the moon gods. This animal has a hole in the crown that once held a lunar disk sitting on top of a crescent moon, an attribute of Thoth.

What colors represent Thoth? ›

Statues and depictions of the god Thoth are routinely blue, blue-green, or have some aspect of blue in them linking the god of wisdom with the life-giving heavens. Blue also symbolized protection.

What is Thoth in hieroglyphics? ›

Etymology. According to Theodor Hopfner, Thoth's Egyptian name written as ḏḥwty originated from ḏḥw, claimed to be the oldest known name for the ibis although normally written as hbj. The addition of -ty denotes that he possessed the attributes of the ibis. Hence his name means "He who is like the ibis".

Why does Thoth hold an ankh? ›

In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. Thoth is almost always shown holding a Was (a wand or rod symbolizing power) in one hand and an Ankh (the key of the Nile symbolizing life) in the other hand.

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