Book: Thoth The Hermes Of Egypt by Patrick Boylan
1922. The purpose of this essay is to indicate the chief tendencies of ancient Egyptian speculation in regard to the god Thoth. Taking as the basis of his work a fairly complete examination of the chief references to the god in Egyptian literature and ritual, the author has tried to distinguish the more important phases of Thoth's character as they were conceived by the Egyptians, and to show how these aspects, or phases, of his being help to explain the various activities which are assigned to him in the Egyptian legends of the gods and in the ritual of tombs and temples.Thoth was considered one of the more important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon; these animals were sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat.[2] His chief shrine was located in the city of Khmun[3], later renamed Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era (in reference to him through the Hellenic Greeks' interpretation that he was the same as their god Hermes) and Eshmunen in the Coptic rendering. In that city, he led the local pantheon of the region known as the Ogdoad, and its eight principal deities. He also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens.
He was often considered as the heart, which, according to the ancient Egyptians, is the seat of intelligence or the mind, and tongue of the sun god Ra; as well as the means by which Ra's will was translated into speech. He had also been related to the Logos of Plato and the mind of God (see The All). In the Egyptian mythology, he has played many vital and prominent roles in maintaining the universe, including being one of the two deities (the other being Ma'at) who stood on either side of Ra's boat. Later in ancient Egyptian history, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.
Taking as the basis of his work a fairly complete examination of the chief references to the god in Egyptian literature and ritual, the author has tried to distinguish the more important phases of Thoth s character as they were con ceived by the Egyptians, and to show how these aspects, or phases, of his being help to explain the various activities which are assigned to him in the Egyptian legends of the gods, and in the ritual of tombs and temples. An attempt has been made, in many instances, to discover the simple concrete meaning which often underlies characteristic epithets of the god, and the need of seeking groupings among epi thets which can in any way be associated with well-defined activities or aspects of the god has been emphasised.
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Patrick Boylan - Thoth The Hermes Of Egypt.pdf
