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Statuette of Thoth 7th-1st centuries B.C. Cast bronze Height: 15 cm Originally Thoth was a lunar god, but because the most ancient calendar was based upon the phases of the Moon, he became associated with counting, writing, knowledge and wisdom in general. He was considered the inventor of writing, the patron of scribes and the possessor of magic secrets. As scribe of the gods, he participated in the judgement of Osiris, recording his verdict on a papyrus scroll. For reasons unknown, Thoth was depicted either as an ibis or as a man with the head of an ibis, or as a baboon with a lunar disk and crescent on its head. The main centre of Thoth's cult was the city of Khnemu in Middle Egypt, with a large necropolis of sacred ibises nearby. Since the Greeks identified Thoth with their own Hermes, they called Khnemu Hermopolis - the city of Hermes. In late Antiquity syncretism of Thoth and Hermes gave rise to the image of Hermes Trismegistos (the "Thrice-Greatest"), the creator of arcane knowledge.
Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum
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