Thoth

Thoth (as he known in Greek, Egyptian: Ḏaḥutij, modernized as Djehuti, Latin: Theutus), 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, animals sacred to him. As in the main picture, Thoth is almost always shown holding a Was (a wand or rod symbolizing power) in one hand and an Ankh (the key of the Nile symbolizing life) in the other hand.He was the oldest son of Ra.

His feminine counterpart (sometimes portrayed as a wife or daughter) was Seshat, and his wife was Nehemetaway, sometimes portrayed as Ma'at. Thoth's chief temple was located in the city of Khnum, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era (in reference to him through the Greeks' interpretation that he was the same as their god Hermes) and Shmounein in the Coptic rendering.

In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of 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.

Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities ( which is recalled M'mat ) who stood on either side of Ra's boat. In the later history of ancient Egypt, 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.

Trivia

 * The German occultist Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa came up with the demon "Theutus" from a misinterpretation of the Egyptian god Thoth.