Biography

There are many different versions of myths throughout the centuries of the stories told from the past. We seek to give you a mix of different versions of stories combined to give a clear, interesting and exciting understanding of mythology

Thoth is the ancient Egyptian god of magic, education, wisdom, writing, medicine and the moon also he is credited with the longest tenure of worship of any god from any civilization. The Egyptians referred to Thoth as Dhejuty and the Greeks referred to Thoth as Hermes or Hermes Trismegistus. Thoth is also the right hand man of Ra working as his advisor and messenger. Thoth was also mostly depicted as having the head of an Ibis but also there are depictions of him as a baboon, he was depicted as Ibis to demonstrate how far he goes into the deep to bring up the light as Ibises are birds that stick their heads or beaks through the surface of the earth or water to find food also because the beak of an Ibis has resemblance to a crescent moon and Thoth’s depiction as a baboon predates the Ibis depiction because baboons represented the moon and wisdom in ancient Egyptian culture. 

Thoth’s Birth

There are three stories of how Thoth came to be. 

Set and Horus

The first story that we will put attention toward is that Thoth was born from the head of the Set the god of chaos and destruction and the semen of the Horus the sky god because in the midst of a battle over kingship between the two Set accidentally swallowed Horus’s semen resulting in Thoth being born from Set’s forehead. 

Lips of Ra

Second, we have Thoth being created from the lips of Ra the king of the gods meaning that Ra spoke him into existence. 

Self Creation

Lastly, we have Thoth bringing himself into existence even before creation and the universe itself came into existence, he then laid a cosmic egg as an ibis and brought about all of creation. All of these concepts and descriptions of Thoth’s creation seem to be missing one thing “a mother”, henceforth Thoth also being known as a motherless god. 

Thoth the Mediator

Thoth could often be seen as the mediator between the gods to maintain order they would often turn to Thoth for advice, seeming that he was the wisest among the gods, so let's dive into a few short stories to give a better example. 

Thoth helps Isis and Osiris

One of the most well known stories is how Thoth helped Isis revive Osiris after he was killed by his brother Set by treating his damaged cervical spine and using his magical wisdom to help Isis reassemble and bring Osiris back to life after Set chopped him into 13 pieces and sent his body parts to different parts of Egypt. 

Thoth helps Geb and Nut

Thoth also helps Geb and Nut bring their children Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Set to life by creating five extra calendar days outside of the calendar established by Ra because he feared a prophecy that he would be overthrown by their offspring and to prevent this Ra forbade Nut from from giving birth within the 360 day calendar. So, Thoth would often play senet with the moon God Khonsu and found that he won most of the time. Now, Thoth had a bright idea of placing a wager on their next game and the wager would be for Thoth to take part in Khonsu’s moonlight, after Thoth won this bet he created five extra days and since these days were not apart of Ra’s 360 day decree Nut was able to give birth to her children. 

Thoth helps Ra bring home Tefnut

Another myth that highlights Thoth as the mediator to keep balance between the gods is when Tefnut, Ra’s daughter the goddess of rain, moisture, water and sometimes associated with the lunar cycles of the moon, ran away in her lioness form to Nubia rampaging through the land and taking all of the water and moisture along with her after having a disagreement with her father Ra, in some variations of the myth her anger was imposed by the worship of the younger gods overshadowing her. This caused a severe drought throughout the land of Egypt causing the people to suffer, in other variations Ra just seemed to miss his daughter either out of love or protection. Ra saw that this situation started to become dire and sent for Thoth, or Thoth and Shu the god of the air and wind and Tefnut’s brother/husband in some variations of the myth, to retrieve her. Tefnut resisted Thoth’s attempts to get her to come back home multiple times until Thoth started to tell stories and fables that teach moral lessons and explained to her the much better life that she had in Egypt which eventually led to Tefnut agreeing to come back home. Thoth continued to tell her stories on the journey back and when they arrived festivals were thrown in her honor out of joy for her return bringing balance back to the pantheon of gods. 

Thoth helps Ra stop Sekhmet

Lastly, we will discuss the myth of how Thoth stopped Sekhmet, Ra’s daughter the goddess of war, from putting an end to humanity. Ra became upset because humanity was not following his laws or preserving the order of Ma’at, which is balance, so he sent Sekhmet in her lioness form to punish the humans, but Sekhmet became uncontrollable going on a bloodlust rampage. Thoth devised a plan to stop her by pouring tons of beer and adding pomegranate juice to turn the color of the beer red throughout her path. Thinking that it was blood Sekhmet drank until she finally fell asleep and when she awoke her bloodlust was gone henceforth humanity was saved. 

 

 

Thoth’s Books

Some of the most renowned books associated with Thoth are the Egyptian Book of the Dead which contains a series of myths, spells, and incantations meant to help guide spirits to a favorable afterlife. The Emerald Tablets of Thoth, which is not so much of an Egyptian civilization guided text but more of a universal cosmic text that entails a story of the recreation of civilization in Egypt by Thoth who escaped on his sky-ship after a great flood had washed away Atlantis. The Emerald Tablets also give sacred knowledge and seem to teach about the simplicity of the universe that relies on consciousness to manifest the desires of our own reality along with the principles of creation. The Book of Thoth is said to contain ancient wisdom such as the ability to speak to animals and bring the dead back to life. But, this book is not meant for humans which can be explained through the mythological tale of Naneferkaptah an Egyptian Scribe and Setne Khamwas an Egyptian Prince who stole The Book of Thoth which resulted in the wrath of Thoth being placed upon them. You may ask yourself if these texts really exist and were written by Thoth? There is no question that these texts actually exist, but as for being written by Thoth that may be something that we will never truly know. The Book of The Dead in its actual nature could definitely be written by Thoth, but they are for now credited to ancient Egyptian scribes who were followers of Thoth. As for The Emerald Tablets of Thoth I can not tell you that any version you seek or read is truly authentic and written by Thoth. The Emerald Tablets were claimed to be discovered by Maurice Doreal at the Pyramid of Giza in 1925 and the age of the tablets range from 36,000 years ago to 8th or 9th century AD, nevertheless it is still a magnificent read. Finally, The Book of Thoth is another one that is still questioned for authenticity, given the story of Naneferkaptah, reading or finding this book would result in a curse being placed upon you, given that the book is not meant for mortals to read I am not even sure why Thoth would have even left it here to be discovered. It is still amazing that all of these books were credited to being written by Thoth, though we may never know it still points focus to how revered Thoth was to Egyptian civilization.

 

Thoth’s Love Life

Thoth’s wife was said to be either Seshat, Ma’at or Nehmetawy. In ancient Egyptian culture even though the common people were mainly monogamous it was not uncommon for pharaohs or men of high status to have multiple wives. This does not give way that Thoth had multiple wives but due to the confusion of his monogamous relationship to each of these goddesses there is still room for contemplation.

Seshat

Seshat, also sometimes depicted as Thoth’s daughter and other half, is the goddess of writing, reading, arithmetic, record keeping and architecture illustrated as a woman wearing a leopard or panther skin dress, she looked after the libraries of the gods also described as “the goddess of libraries”. 

Ma’at

Ma’at is the goddess of truth, justice, balance and order who kept chaos at bay, illustrated as a woman wearing a crown with a single feather sticking out of it and sometimes depicted with wings. The goddess Ma’at personified the notion that it is not possible to be perfect but balance is achievable. Thoth’s primary concept was to maintain and preserve the balance of Ma’at which could be the reason Ma’at is depicted as his wife. 

Nehmetway

Nehmetawy is the goddess of comfort, support, music and healing, thought to be another form of the goddess Hathor or the goddess Seshat. Nehmetawy was worshipped as the wife of Thoth in Hermopolis, so her role later came into greater play during the Graeco-Roman time period, she was illustrated as a woman nursing a child wearing a sistrum headdress. 

 

Hermes Trismegistus 

Hermes Trismegistus was the name given to Thoth by the Greeks meaning “Thoth Thrice Born” or “Hermes Thrice Great”. The Greeks identified Thoth with their God Hermes, so Hermes Trismegistus was basically a combination of Hermes and Thoth. 

Hermeticism

Hermeticism is one of the oldest philosophical and religious traditions created by Hermes Trismegistus and this tradition explored the nature of the universe, the connection of all things and humanity’s place within it. He was attributed with writing anywhere from 20,000 to almost 37,000 pieces of work and some have still survived to this day if not all. Some of the known texts that are credited to Hermes Trismegistus that we have today are The Corpus Hermeticum, The Emerald Tablet, and The Asclepius. The many texts are said to contain the subjects of alchemy, astrology, philosophy, geography, math, music, art, medicine, magic and the list goes on. The main purpose of the text was to help humanity return to our own godly divine status. There is belief that Hermes Trismegistus could have been a high status all knowing king, philosopher, priest, scientist or magician of some sort. Hermeticism is not fixed to a single religious group, but it was the forefront of many traditions that are still upheld today. Hermeticism got started from ancient Egyptian philosophy, academic and religious culture. Many great philosophers such as Plato and Pythagoras from the ancient past often went to Egypt to gain wisdom. Hermeticism influenced just about every form of monotheistic religion there is today even the Christian Gnostics who believed that this realm was not created by the one supreme or king god but by a lower level ignorant god and that salvation was gained through knowledge not faith. Much of the Hermetic texts were said to be destroyed and Hermeticist said to be killed in the middle ages of AD forcing those who remained to become underground secret societies remaining anonymous to the church.

Research by Jameek Braggs