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THOTH

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 882 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOTH , the See also:

Greek name of the See also:Egyptian See also:god of letters, invention and See also:wisdom (e.g. Thowt, Zlnviy), the See also:mouthpiece and See also:recorder of the gods, and arbiter of their disputes. Thoth is found on the earliest monuments symbolized by an See also:ibis (Ibis aethiopica, still not uncommon in See also:Nubia), which See also:bird was sacred to him. In the See also:Pyramid texts Thoth is already closel'yassociated with the See also:Osiris myth, having aided the god by his See also:science and knowledge of magic, and demonstrated the See also:justice of his claims in the contest with Set. Thoth presided over See also:writing, measuring and calculation, and is prominent in the See also:scene of the weighing of the soul. He was often identified with the See also:moon as a divider of See also:time, and in this connexion, during the New See also:Empire, the See also:ape first appears as his sacred See also:animal. Thoth was identified by the Greeks with See also:Hermes, and Hermes Trismegistus (q.v.) is a See also:late development of the Egyptian god. Geographically the See also:worship of Thoth in See also:Lower See also:Egypt centred in the Hermopolite See also:nome, contiguous to the Busirite and Mendesian nomes. This was. the See also:district anciently called ZJIwi, and the god's name Zhwty means simply him of Zhwt." But Hermopolis Magna in Upper Egypt, now Eshmunain, was a See also:city of greater See also:political importance than Hermopolis in Lower Egypt. See E. A. W.

Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians; and specially EGYPT: See also:

Ancient, § See also:Religion. (F. Li.

End of Article: THOTH

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