Ancient allures primordia
In this view, Thoth would be the aspect of Ra which the Egyptian mind would relate to the heart and tongue. Wallis Budge, however, thought Egyptian religion to be primarily monotheistic where all the gods and goddesses were aspects of the God Ra, similar to the Trinity in Christianity and Devas in Hinduism.
Most egyptologists today side with Flinders Petrie that Egyptian religion was strictly polytheistic, in which Thoth would be a separate god. AttributesĮgyptologists disagree on Thoth's nature depending upon their view of the Egyptian pantheon. For example, Thoth's counterpart Ma'at is often depicted with an ostrich feather for a head. The Egyptians did not believe these gods actually looked like humans with animal heads. These forms are all symbolic and are metaphors for Thoth's attributes. In the form of A'ah-Djehuty he took a more human looking form. He also appears as an ape when he is A'an, the god of equilibrium. When not depicted in this common form, he sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly. He also is sometimes seen wearing the atef crown and the United Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. When depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher, he will wear the respective god's headdress. In this form, he can be represented as the reckoner of times and seasons by a lunar disk sitting in a crescent moon being placed atop his head. Usually, he is depected in human form with the head of an ibis. Thoth has been depicted in many ways depending on the era and aspect the artist wished to convey. One of Thoth 's titles, "Three times great, great" was translated to the Greek τρισμεγιστος (Trismegistos) making Hermes Trismegistus. Further, the Greeks related Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes and functions. In addition, Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself, for instance the moon god A'ah-Djehuty, representing the moon for the entire month. Among his alternate names are A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, and A'an. Similarly, each Pharaoh, considered a god himself, had five different names used in public. Not counting differences in spelling, Thoth had more than one name, like other gods and goddesses. Thoth (also Thot or Thout) is the Greek version derived from the letters ḏḥwty. Alternate names Alternate names for Thothĭjehuty is sometimes alternatively rendered as Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, or Tetu. However, many write "Djehuty", inserting the letter 'e' automatically between consonants in Egyptian words, and writing 'w' as 'u', as a convention of convenience for English speakers, not the transliteration employed by Egyptologists. The final -y may even have been pronounced as a consonant, not a vowel. The Egyptian pronunciation of ḏḥwty is not fully known, but may be reconstructed as *ḏiḥautī, based on the Ancient Greek borrowing Θωθ Thōth or Theut and the fact that it evolved into Sahidic Coptic variously as Thoout, Thōth, Thoot, Thaut as well as Bohairic Coptic Thōout. Hence his name means "He who is like the ibis".
The addition of -ty denotes that he possessed the attributes of the ibis. Īccording to Theodor Hopfner, Thoth's Egyptian name written as ḏḥwty originated from ḏḥw, claimed to be the oldest known name for the ibis although normally written as hbj. He has further been involved in arbitration, magic, writing, science, and the judging of the dead. In the Egyptian mythology, he has played many vital and prominent roles, including being one of the two gods, the other being his feminine counterpart Ma'at, who stood on either side of Ra's boat. He has also been likened to the Logos of Plato and the mind of God. He was considered the heart and tongue of Ra as well as the means by which Ra's will was translated into speech. He also had shrines in Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens. His chief shrine was at Khemennu, where he was the head of the local company of gods, later renamed Hermopolis by the Greeks (in reference to him through the Greeks' interpretation that he was the same as Hermes) and Eshmûnên by the Arabs. Thoth, a Greek name derived from the Egyptian *ḏiḥautī (djih-how-tee) (written by Egyptians as ḏḥwty) was considered one of the most important deities of the Egyptian pantheon.