Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt by Patrick Boylan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Outstanding Religious Poetry

Thoth is the ibis-headed (sometimes monkey-headed) god of the ancient Egyptians, made famous by the costumes of medieval plague-doctors (among other things Thoth was a kind of Lord of the Dead). His mythical status and character probably originates independently as some sort of weather deity (as did the Hebrew YHWH). But like all divine beings, Thoth evolves and his myth is combined with others, particularly those of the perhaps more renowned figures of Osiris, Isis, and Horus.

Unlike later dogmatic religions, even Christianity which likely incorporated much of Thoth-like conceptions, the Egyptians didn’t feel the need to systematise or rationalise their divine thinking. Nevertheless certain themes, which can credibly called insights about reality, remain reasonably constant.

For example, in the mature stages of his myth, Thoth becomes the god of writing and speech, that is to say, language. Thoth is the scribe of Re-Atum, the supreme sun god and is responsible for maintenance of The Book, that is to say, the complete record of reality. The myth suggests that even the supreme god requires the mediation of language to comprehend the universe. Thoth’s association with the moon, and therefore the calculation of the seasons, implies even his control over the recognition of time.

Although Thoth is technically inferior to the sun god, he is nevertheless self-generated quite independently and unlike any of the other gods, who all have progenitors. It may not be too far-fetched to suggest that Thoth is in fact a precondition for the recognition, if not the very existence, of Re-Atum not to mention all other deities. The ancient historian Plutarch therefore identified Thoth with the Logos of Greek philosophy, the ordering principle of the universe. Thoth also comes to he thought of as the expressive ‘organ’ of Re-Atum. This same idea is, of course, expressed in the Christian gospel of John referring to Jesus as just this necessary condition for creation as well as the divine ‘voice’ to the world.*

Thoth’s incorporation into the myth of Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, amplifies his participation in making the world perceptible. When Horus loses an eye in the fight with his brother/uncle Set, it is Thoth who not only finds the damaged organ but also heals and re-implants it into Horus. Hence it seems appropriate that Thoth is also the god of magic, in the very specific sense that he brings the unseen and the invisible literally to light. And since the Eye of Horus is also the symbol of the Pharoah, Thoth is the one who carries the soul of the Pharoah over the seas of heaven upon his death, as it were holding eternity in his hands.

Like all theology, the mythology of Thoth is a kind of poetry. And like all good poetry, that of Thoth seeks to both identify and undermine its dependency on language. Nothing, certainly nothing that could be considered human, can exist outside of language. This seems to me a central message of this part of Egyptian Mythology.

* In some legends, Thoth is considered as “the first begotten of Re.” To protect himself from danger or sickness, a man need only “invoke the name of Thoth” to become one with him and therefore invulnerable. Thoth is the saviour who comes when he is called upon. One cannot but suspect that the Trinitarian thinking of the early Christian church, consciously or otherwise, borrowed from this source.

Postscript: this is the first book I’ve read and the first review I’ve posted in about 18 months. I have been more or less blind as far as print media of any length due to cataracts. But now after my second op two weeks ago, the world has opened up. I haven’t seen this distinctly or colourfully for half a century. A miracle perhaps, except I know it was rather the skill of several very talented doctors.

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