Thoth, Heart and Tongue of Re
Research by Ellen Brundige, MA in classics, MA in mythology
Thoth, Djehuty in ancient Egyptian (see attached image), is the god of wisdom, writing, speech, measurement, medicine, the moon and magic. Like all Egyptian gods, he is an amalgamation of various regional divinities and myths that accreted over thousands of years. He is often called the heart or tongue of Re (or Ptah, in Memphite cosmology), the organs of thought and speech for the Egyptians. Thoth is closely associated with sia — intelligence, perception, conscience and judgement — and hu, the voice that expresses and manifests thought (Ions 112). He is a Titan-like, Promethean figure, independent of the main family tree of gods, save for rare references that attempt to fit him in as a son of Geb (Ions 48). Thoth serves as the scribe, record-keeper, and vizier of Re, mirroring on a divine scale the sophisticated bureaucracy upon which Pharaonic Egypt depended to oversee its taxes, public works, laws and land management.
Thoth manifests as an ibis, a baboon, or as an anthropomorphic figure wearing the head of one of these animals. Baboons, like all primates, demonstrate cleverness and intelligence, linking them with Thoth's intelligence. Their custom of howling in unison while facing the rising sun persuaded ancient Egyptians that they are "gods who make music for Re" communicating with him via a "secret language" (Abt and Hornung 27). In the Amduat, cohorts of baboons open the gates for Re when he enters the netherworld, and there, too, Thoth often wears baboon form. He may have inherited his baboon shape and association with the moon from assimilation with Hedj-Wer, a local moon-god of Hermopolis, Thoth's chief cult center (Lurker 121). During the New Kingdom dynasty founded by Thutmose ("Thoth is born," Gardiner 72), Thoth assimilates Khonsu as well, the local moon-god of Thutmose's capital, Thebes (Baines, Lesko and Silverman 105).
The origin of Thoth's association with the ibis is more obscure. Some scholars guess that Egyptians saw a "baboon in the moon" instead of a man's face, and that they related the ibis' beak to the lunar crescent (Lurker 121). The hieroglyph for ibis — heb, root of the modern word (Wilkinson 89) — means "to be radiant" and, metaphorically, "transfiguration" or "the transfigured dead" (Lurker 69), linking the bird with both moonlight and Thoth's magical expertise and his role in the Duat. Perhaps too the Egyptians equated the ibis' habit of wading the shallows searching for hidden tidbits with Thoth's keen powers of perception (sia), or its deliberate stride along the riverbank with the measuring paces of a surveyor. Or Thoth's ibis-form may stem from yet another local god that fused with the baboon version. The Fifteenth Nome of Egypt in the marshy delta has an ibis emblem which some have proposed as an antecedent (Lurker 69). While both baboons and ibises received Egyptian's reverence on behalf of the god, many more temples maintained sacred flocks of the birds (e.g. at Abydos, Hermopolis, and Memphis/Saqqara), especially during the later periods when popular faith in the royal cults was undermined by the ignominy of foreign pharaohs. At Saqqara, records show provisioning for over 60,000 birds, and the mummies of over 10,000 ibises a year were buried in the catacomb cemeteries for cult animals (Spencer 197, Bowman 163).
Thoth is primarily a god of writing. Temple walls often portray Thoth with his consort Seshat, the goddess and personification of writing (Baines, Lesko and Silverman 42). Egyptian scribes and priests proclaim their literacy and affiliation with the god by commissioning votive portraits of themselves reading or writing with the god in baboon-form watching or perching on their shoulders (Aldred 170). In the well-known Weighing of the Heart scene in the Book of the Dead, Thoth verifies and records the results on a tablet and announces them to the Ennead of divine judges, affirming the deceased's pledge of innocence: "What you have said is true. The Osiris scribe Ani [or other defendant], justified, is righteous" (Spencer 145).
As "lord of time" and "reckoner of years," Thoth measures out the lifespans of living beings as well as their fate at life's end (Lurker 121). According to one myth of the afterlife in the Middle Kingdom Book of Two Ways, commoners become stars ruled by Thoth in the Region of Ma'at in the night sky (Baines, Lesko and Silverman 119). For Pharaohs, Thoth serves as celestial archivist, notching a palm frond for each year of their reign, recording important events, and tracing the king's name on the leaves of the sacred tree of Heliopolis each year during the jubilee festival(Meeks and Favard-Meeks 119). Thoth is frequently depicted opposite Horus (replacing earlier images of Set) in royal purification or inauguration rituals crowning the Pharaoh (Baines, Lesko and Silverman 24).
Thoth is more than divine secretary and chronicler. In one account, the god boasts:
"I am Thoth. I repeat to you what Re has declared... I am Thoth, master of the divine words which put things in their (proper) place. I give the offerings to the gods and to the blessed dead. I am Thoth who puts Ma'at in writing for the Ennead... I am the creator of the sky, he who is the origin of the mountains... I make the gods and men live." (Meeks and Favard-Meeks 100)
Egyptians believed that hu, words, are the building blocks of reality, and that writing embodies the essence of things named. So Thoth confirms and establishes events, lives and things by recording and proclaiming them.
Thoth's power to ratify by speech is closely linked to the Egyptian concept of "justified" or "true of voice." His accurate record-keeping and exacting measurements allow him to determine Ma'at: righteousness, truth, "the way things are." There are, in fact, several sculptures of an ibis facing a small Ma'at figure; the negative space between them suggests the silhouette of her feather of truth. In Thoth we see how Egyptian concepts of justice, wisdom, truth, mathematics, speech, writing and reality are all intertwined. This is a very different perspective from that of the Greeks, who recognize that sophia, wisdom, can very easily be twisted into sophistry, and that rhetoric can be used to argue or disprove almost anything. For Greeks, atoms or other primal substances are the building blocks of matter; for Egyptians, the first principle is Logos.
Usually, Thoth is a subcreator, not a poet: he affirms and demarcates what is, but does not invent new things through his own imagination (e.g. Isis and her cobra). In Hermopolis, however, he occasionally assumes the role of demiurge. The basic Hermopolitan cosmology begins with the Ogdoad, eight primal gods arising out of the watery chaos of Nun, who give the city its Egyptian name Khemnu, "eight town" (Hart 20). They bring forth the primordial mound upon which "the Great Cackler," usually Geb, lays the cosmic egg out of which the world emerges. Later variants sometimes graft Thoth onto the older cosmology and have him bring or even lay the egg in ibis-form instead of Geb (Ions 29). Sometimes the Odgoad are called the "souls of Thoth" (Ions 84) as if they are simply different aspects of him, in the way that Memphite cosmology styles all the other gods as aspects of Ptah. During the New Kingdom, Amun or Atum often replace Thoth as creator/ruler of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad (Ions 93), yet one Hellenistic bronze proves the persistence of the older myth, depicting an ibis-headed Thoth enthroned with the full regalia of Re-Atum-Khnum behind smaller figures of the Ogdoad (Baines, Lesko and Silverman 35).
Thoth appears prominently in many myths as Re's advisor and herald. Here is one exchange between them in the Book of the Dead:
"Oh Thoth, what is to be done with the Children of Nut? They have fomented rebellion, they have committed massacres, they have imprisoned — in a word, they have debased what was great in all that I have created."
"You should not tolerate error, you should not put up (with it)! Cut short their years, cut back their months, since they have done severe damage to all that you have created." (Meeks and Favard-Meeks 18)
Thoth enunciates Re's will like the transcendent function that brings unconscious knowledge into conscious realization. Here, once again, Thoth the "lord of years" allocates time and lifespans as well as justice.
Thoth is also associated with the retrieval and restoration of the Eye of Re, Tefnut/Hathor, who storms off to the Nubian desert to sulk after Re repents commanding her to wipe out humanity. Several myths recount Thoth's guile "in the guise of an impish little monkey" (Meeks and Favard-Meeks 26), luring the fierce lioness home with flattery and a whole sequence of stories reminiscent of the delaying ploy of Scheherazade. Some versions of the tale conclude with Tefnut becoming Thoth's consort (Ions 45), uniting solar and lunar deities; other versions have Re grant Thoth stewardship of the night sky as his reward (Ions 37). In a sense, Thoth is the second Eye of Re, which is often identified with the moon. Tefnut is the destructive eye, Thoth the constructive.
The Amduat reworks this Thoth/Tefnut myth as it traces Re's journey through the underworld. In the fourth hour, an ibis-headed Thoth receives the Eye for safekeeping in the center panel. His baboon-headed aspect appears in the same position in the sixth hour, seated on a throne and offering an ibis-headed image of himself to an unnamed goddess (surely an aspect of Tefnut) holding the Eyes of Re. Meanwhile, Re is undergoing rebirth and transformation in the inmost part of the Duat. In the tenth hour, a fully baboon Thoth and eight Sekhmets (another avatar of Tefnut) heal the Eye before returning it (Abt and Hornung 82). It is never stated explicitly, but the ibis-headed form of Thoth seems to emphasize his sia, his knowledge and discernment, a more passive quality of wisdom, whereas the baboon form seems to represent his more active and crafty side. We may read Thoth as both the gnosis that one gains in the underworld (the ibis aspect, offered to the Eyes to open them to the Duat's secret knowledge) and the techne or art that applies it.
Back in the mundane world, Thoth acts as Re's viceroy and kingmaker. In the New Kingdom Book of the Divine Cow, Thoth succeeds Re as Pharaoh on earth (Hart 49) while other sources place him after Horus (Hart 30). The King List at Hermopolis (unsurprisingly) has Thoth reign for 7,000 years, in contrast to Horus' mere 300 (Meeks and Favard-Meeks 29). Not only does Thoth occasionally rule as Pharaoh, but as we have seen, he and Horus are often shown conducting the purification rituals that anoint a new Pharaoh. On the divine plane, Thoth conveys Re's royal insignia to Osiris to recognize him as Pharaoh of the Duat (Meeks and Favard-Meeks 88). Again, Thoth enacts the will of Re.
In the New Kingdom "Contendings of Horus and Set" story, Thoth happens to be presenting the Eye to Re-Atum when Horus and Set arrive at the gods' tribunal to argue their cases (Simpson 109ff). The Eye, of course, is a symbol of Re's authority, and he seems less than pleased to have it undermined by the gods who immediately take the younger god's side, especially when Thoth hastens to judge Horus' claim "a million times right." Seeing that Re is not ready to yield, Thoth suggests and pens a letter to the formidable goddess Neith (the use of writing to solve this crisis so characteristically Egyptian; few other pantheons are so literate). Neith endorses Horus, but Re is not ready to yield; more reasoned words from Thoth are needed.
The wise god also presides over a humorous episode, calling forth Set's and Horus' semen to prove which of them sodomized the other. In this story, Horus' semen arises from the head of Set and becomes the moon, which Thoth then takes for himself. Several more scuffles between Set and Horus follow, including a few duels that Thoth argues against on the grounds that physical combat cannot prove or disprove justice. Thoth asks, "Is it while a bodily son [is] still living that the office is to be awarded to a maternal uncle?" (Simpson 113) Meanwhile, Thoth's shabby opposite, a rude dwarf-god called Babi, takes Set's part. The dispute is finally resolved when Thoth suggests and scribes another exchange of letters with Osiris, who threatens dire things to the gods passing through the underworld if his son's claim is rejected. Re finally caves in. In this version of the story, Re's angry responses and heel-dragging resemble the ego's resistance to deep knowledge that has not yet reached consciousness. He refuses to see what he knows deep down (sia), and Thoth has to keep telling him (hu).
Babi, who appears briefly in this story and mocks Re with "your shrine is empty," is an intriguing minor deity who figures elsewhere as Thoth's opponent. Sometimes he is a grotesque dwarf like Bes; other times he is a baboon. There are several manuscripts that have Babi accusing Thoth of pilfering the gods' offerings, which he is suppose to measure and distribute. Re hastens to throw his support behind Thoth in a rigged trial, and there are hints that the Ennead who sit in judgment realize that Babi's accusations are just (Meeks and Favard-Meeks 44). In another tale, a dead man demands Thoth's protection, blackmailing him by threatening to reveal that Thoth has manipulated time in order to claim for himself all the offerings meant for the Ennead during the three nights of the new moon Meeks and Favard-Meeks 45). The accusation is serious, since reality itself is dependent upon Thoth's fair-minded and accurate bookkeeping. This tale may be a parable written by priests to chastise fellow priests for stealing temple goods.
In some variants of the Osiris myth, Thoth even helps Set with his dismemberment, disrupting the natural order of the world that he is supposed to maintain. In psychological terms, these myths hint at Thoth's shadow side, sometimes split off in the figure of Babi. Like Prometheus, Thoth is an older divinity who sometimes puts his wisdom in service to the king of the gods, but other times may turn trickster — although at least in Thoth's case he retrieves solar fire with Re's blessing. Thoth's "dark side of the moon" aspect may explain one cryptic text asserting that Thoth arose "from the heart of the creator in a moment of bitterness" (Meeks and Favard-Meeks 78).
Thoth's pilfering of the moon's light also appears in the myths of Isis and Osiris. The fullest version of their tale is Plutarch's, but allusions in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts corroborate most of his account (Ions 50). Certain details, of course, have altered, especially the names of gods: Thoth at this late date is Hermes, reputedly Isis' father by Rhea (Budge 217). When Re forbids Rhea (Nut) to give birth to her children on any day of the year, Thoth gambles with Selene to win five days' worth of light from the moon which fall outside Re's edict. Later, Thoth teaches Isis all his magic, assists Osiris in the spreading of knowledge and agriculture, and helps Isis, Nepthys, and Anubis in resurrecting Osiris, again fulfilling his role as dispenser of applied knowledge (Ions 52).
Thoth's aid to Osiris extends to his son, as we have seen in the "Contendings of Horus and Set." Plurtarch's story includes a charming episode alluded to on earlier Egyptian stelae. Isis escapes Set's clutches with Thoth's guidance and hides in the marshes, but Set sends a deadly serpent to sting the infant Horus. Hearing her cry, Re commands his barque of Millions of Years to stop, bringing time itself to a halt, and dispatches Thoth to save Horus' life. Thoth is so loquacious in reassuring Isis and predicting her son's triumph that she finally interrupts, "How wise is your heart, Thoth, but how slow are your decisions" (Meeks and Favard-Meeks 102). Having healed the boy, Thoth commends his safety and his mother's to awestruck bystanders. Even in this late version of the myth, Thoth retains his association with time, the heart, speech, magic, medicine and enacting the will of Re.
The Greeks' attempts to identify their gods with Egyptian equivalents sometimes yield unconvincing correspondences — Osiris is Apollo in Plutarch's account — but Thoth's assimilation with Hermes is fortuitous. It loses Thoth's lunar aspect, but it retains his role as psychopomp (a role he shares with Anubis) and emphasizes his wisdom, eloquence, and trickster aspect. More importantly, the fusion gives both gods a new lease on life as Hermes Trismegistos. Thoth is associated with magic and magicians as far back as the Old Kingdom, when a marvellous tale, "Djedi the magician," establishes the protagonist's credentials on his knowledge of Thoth's secrets (Simpson 21). Many Egyptian spells and tomb curses invoke Thoth's magical protection. A Ptolemaic story, The Book of Thoth, relates how another magician rouses Thoth's deadly wrath by stealing a book in which Thoth has recorded the spells encapsulating his own powers, to know all things and to exist in the Duat without having to die (Bowman 163).
Hermes is not primarily a god of magic, but after his assimilation with Thoth in Hellenistic Egypt, he becomes the patron of magicians and alchemists. Hermes Megistos is the putative author of the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of second to third century C.E. manuscripts that combine Egyptian, Judaic and Greek gnostic traditions (Bowman 185). Many are in the form of dialogues between "Trismegistos" and a devotee, such as one in which Hermes instructs his disciple concerning the nature of god, idols, good and evil, apocalyptic prophecy, and demons (Asclepius). Another hermetic text has Thoth explain the magical power of speech and sound and teach various animal tongues, of which "baboonian" is said to be the most potent (Meeks and Favard-Meeks 103). In the Codex Marcianus, Isis instead is the teacher, but she swears first by "Hermes" and then by Anubis before imparting alchemical secrets to her son Horus (von Franz 69).
Hermes Trismegistos, in this late amplification of Thoth, has resonances with many of his earlier archetypal incarnations. In mainstream Egyptian mythology, Thoth is not so much creator and poet as he is recorder and affirmer, making real what Re has already ordained, restoring Ma'at, and returning the Eye of Re to its proper place. As judge, he declares what is true. By the Hellenistic period, when royal gods like Re seem to have become parodies of themselves in the service of foreign rulers, it is the Hermopolitan variant of Thoth as demiurge that fuses with Hermes — as the name of his old cult center demonstrates. Thoth-Hermes embodies what the Aristotelian interpreter Avicenna calls nous poiétikos, "the creative intelligence which exists in things themselves," bestowed by God. Like angels and daimons, Trismegistos acts as a go-between, a sophia or khidr from whom the magician learns the mysteries of God, divine knowledge, and the secrets of physical and spiritual reality. Thoth continues to teach healing and magical transformation, although more enlightened alchemists realize that his transformative wisdom applies to the soul more than to physical matter. He never quite loses his early associations with speech and writing: magic incantations, alchemical symbols, and later attempts to decipher and use Egyptian hieroglyphs hearken back to the old belief in hu, the speech and writing by which Thoth manifests and stabilizes God's creation. In the Amduat, Thoth's hidden knowledge of what is helps restore the wounded Eye during the deepest part of Re's night journey. In modern psychological terms, we may understand that the Self — Tefnut, the Eye of Re — may only be restored by inner transformation following the counsel of Thoth, the inner wisdom and voice of the unconscious.
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