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Thoth

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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The Egyptian deity of written learning, the author of the mystical treatises on medicine and sacred literature, called by the Greeks the Hermetic books, and himself, as the author of them, Hermes Trismeegistus, and, in his character of introducer of souls in Hades, Hermes Psychopompos. He had many names and occupations, which led to his identification with many of the chief divinities by virtue of a parity of offices. He was called on a statue in the Leyden Museum "He who is the good Savior;" and on some of the funeral papyri he takes the place of Anubis, or even Horus, with respect to the souls of the deceased. In the Hall of the Two Truths it was the duty of Thoth to weigh the souls of the deceased, and to read from his tablets a record of their actions in the past life. Thoth was also the god of all writing, and founder of all the sciences. He brought to the gods a translation of all the sacred books, and he was called the "Scribe of the Gods." and the "Lord of the Divine Words." In another form the god Thoth was identified with the moon, when he would be represented with the head of an ibis, surmounted by the horns and lunar disk; but oftentimes he was figured with a human head, having-that of the ibis as a coiffure, and wearing the Atef crown. As Thoth Axah, or Thoth the Moon, he was generally entirely naked, and in the figure of an infa