Hey everyone, welcome to another installment of Mythology Explained, in today’s video
we’re going to be discussing the Egyptian God Thoth. Here’s what’s in store: a god
who called out to the semen of two other gods; a god who recorded if the heart of each and
every dead person was lighter than the feather of truth; a god who created the moon to illuminate
the night; and finally, a god who summoned ingested semen to a god’s forehead where
said semen gains the appearance of the sun.
Let’s get into it.
Thoth was depicted as having the head of an ibis, which is a long-beaked, wading bird.
He came to be the god of learning, wisdom, and all vocations that centered on either
the pursuit of knowledge or record keeping, but originally, he was a lunar deity; and
as such, his sphere of influence included the passage of time (for which the waxing
and waning of the moon was a key marker) and the cyclical passage of the seasons. The part
of divine judge was another of his responsibilities, and throughout the entire ancient Egyptian
mythos, Thoth is shown to be a staunch supporter of both Horus and Osiris, advocating for them
on numerous occasions.
Like many gods from long-defunct pantheons, Thoth’s lineage, or genesis, is more than
a little ambiguous, meaning that there are a multitude of competition origin stories.
Here are the more salient versions that have survived through to today: Thoth being the
son of RA, the sun god; Thoth being born out of the side of set’s head after set was
tricked into eating some of Horus’ semen; and Thoth being the first god to emerge from
the primordial mound and, thus, the primary figure in one version of the Egyptian creation
myth.
Thoth’s province was the entire spectrum of human knowledge. Scribes especially maintained
a deep affinity for Thoth. All scientific knowledge was said to be held in the sacred
books in the house of life, and included in them, was the book of Thoth, which comprised
42 papyrus scrolls and was written by the god himself.
One of the main parts that Thoth played in the myths of ancient Egypt was his maintaining
of law and order when night fell. Ra, the sun god and the first king, had grown old
and tired. He relinquished his crown and ascended into the sky, but up high, now ensconced on
his celestial boat, what Ra observed below troubled him. People had turned on each other;
fighting had broken out; and everyone was looking for someone else to blame for the
departure of the sun. To stop the chaos below, Ra did two things: he installed a successor,
his first born, the god Shu (air), to rule in his stead, and secondly, Ra deputized Thoth
to act with his own authority during the night. Thoth was tasked with upholding law and order,
bestowing mankind with the gift of writing, and illuminating the night sky, the last of
which he accomplished by creating the moon.
Thoth was a stalwart defender of Horus, and he remained so throughout Horus’ decades-long
conflict with set, in which they relentlessly competed for the throne. His most notable
contribution was in the events that followed set’s rape of Horus. set forced himself
upon Horus while he slept, and then, the following day, set rushed off to the divine council
to boast to the other gods about what he had done. But in the intervening time, many things
happened of which set was not apprised. Horus was not actually filled with set’s seed.
He caught it in his hand, which Isis then chopped off and cast into the nile. (Don’t
worry, though: Isis used her magic to later restore Horus' hand.) The second thing that
happened was that some of Horus' own seed was put on the favourite lettuce plants that
set ate each morning, impregnating him.
So set bombastically recounted his domination of Horus, but Horus responded with an unexpected
request: he asked the gods to call out to the seed of both he and set. Thoth placed
his hand on Horus and called out to set’s seed, and to set’s chagrin, it answered
from the nile. Thoth then went over to set and did the same thing, this time calling
Horus’ seed. The answer came from within a gobsmacked set, who was impregnated by Horus.
Thoth proceeded to place his finger on set's forehead, drawing all of Horus seed to that
area. Once all gathered, Horus’ seed gained the appearance of a golden sun, which was
taken as a divine symbol of Horus’ domination of set
The last thing I want to touch on is Thoth’s role in the judgement of the souls of the
dead. After death, the heart of each person was weighed on a set of scales against the
feather of Ma’at, a token that represented all the world’s truth. If the feather was
heavier, the person passed on to the afterlife, but if the heart was heavier, then the person’s
soul was devoured by a ravenous demon. Osiris, seated on his throne, presided over each weighing;
Anubis inspected the scales to see which was heavier; and Thoth, as the divine scribe,
recorded an entry for each heart weighed. Some versions greatly expanded Thoth’s responsibilities
in the underworld. Those ranged from Thoth restoring the head and heart to the dead body,
allowing for resurrection, to Thoth shepherding souls through the underworld, and, finally,
to Thoth flying souls to heaven.
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