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Tehuti (Thoth)

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cleasterwood
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« on: April 19, 2007, 08:34:45 am »

There is so much information available about Tehuti that it's difficult to pick a starting point.  We are all familiar with the Emerald Tablets of Thoth and how it associates Thoth with Atlantis.  However I would like to keep this thread as an Emerald Tablet free discussion since there is already a thread for it.  Smiley  I gather most of my information from E. A. Wallis Budge's books so you will see many references to it.

Tehut was the nome attributed to Tehuti and it's capital was Per-Tehuti (Hermopolis to the Greeks).  He usually appears as a man with the head of an ibis, an ibis, and ocassionally as the baboon.
In the Pyramid Texts, Tehuti's functions are purely as a funeral character, helper of the deceased kings.  Later dynasties are where most of the information about Tehuti comes from.  He had many titles:
Lord of Khemennu, self-created, to whom none hath given birth, god One; He who rekons in heaven, the counter of the stars, the enumerator of the earth and of what is therin, and the measurer of the earth; and the heart of Ra wich cometh forth in the form of the god Thoth; lord of books; lord of divine words and the scribe of the gods.

The name Tehuti was derived from the oldest name of the Ibis (tehu).  The ending of "ti" indicates the idea that the king called Tehuti possesed the qualities and attributes of the ibis.  Tehuti played a prominent role in the Book of the Dead Judgement scene.  The baboon sits atop the support of a balance beam in which the heart of the deceased was weighed.  His ape form is associated with equilibrium.  The baboon watches the pointer and tells the ibis headed version of Tehuti when the beam is level. 

In all the disputes between the gods, Tehuti's duty was "to prevent either god from gaining a decisive vitory, and from destroying the other; in fact, he had to keep these hostile forces in exact equilibrium, the forces being light and darkness, or day and night, or good and evil, according to the date for the composition of legends, and the objects which the scribes intended to secure by writing them down." (Gods of the Egyptians- Budge volume 1 page 405.)
(Next quotes from page 407): "We are now able to sum up the attributes ascribed to Tehuti, and consider how he employed them in connection with the dead.  In the first place, he was held to be both the heart and tongue of Ra, that is to say, he was the reason and the mental powers of the god, and also the means by which their will was translated into speech; from one aspect he was speech itself, and in later times he may well have represented, as Dr. Birch said, the λόγος (logos) of Plato."  "His knowledge and powers of calculation measured out the heavens, and planned the earth, and everything which is in them; his will and power kept the forces in heaven and in earth in equilibrium; it was his great skill in celestial mathematic which made proper use of the laws upon which the foundation and maintenance of the univers rested; it was he who directed the motions of the heavenly bodies and their times and seasons; and without his words the gods, whose existence depended upon them, could not have kept their place among the the followers of Ra."

Tehuti is often identified with the Greek god Hermes. 
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dhill757
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« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2007, 06:23:43 am »

Great work, Cleasterwood!  Thoth is also credited (by myth, of course) with the creation of our 365 day calendar.

Originally, according to the myth, the year was only 360 days long and Nut with sterility during these days, unable to bear children. Thoth gambled with Khonsu, the moon, for 1/72nd of its light (360/72 = 5), or 5 days, and won. During these 5 days, she gave birth to Kheru-ur (Horus the Elder, Face of Heaven), Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nepthys.

In the Ogdoad cosmogony myth, Thoth gave birth to Ra, Atum, Nefertum, and Khepri by laying an egg while in the form of an ibis, or later as a goose laying a golden egg.



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dhill757
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« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2007, 06:26:16 am »

Another picture of Thoth:

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cleasterwood
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« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2007, 08:42:38 am »

I haven't got to that yet Dhill, but I will.   Grin  I was working out which myth I wanted to work with first.  However, I'll start with the calender.  I'll posting it today.  Some of this will have to be typed out and will take me some time; as you know, I have too much going on at once.  The next thread I start will cover Neith--Goddess of War.  Tehuti mythology is vast.  My intial thread was interrupted by my munchkin.  Smiley  

By the way, I love that picture!  I was hand drawing a pic of Tehuti, but I haven't finished it yet.

Blessed be,
Lynn
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cleasterwood
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« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2007, 10:03:09 am »

I'd like to start with a short list about Tehuti's associations with days, nomes, and sacred places.
Main center of worship:  Khmun/Hermopolis/el-Ashmunein, 15th Nome, Upper Egypt
Other sites: Nekheb/Eileityiaspolis/Elkab, 2nd Nome, Upper Egypt
Hermopolis Parva/Damanhur, 3rd Nome, Lower Egypt
Naukratis, 7th Nome, Lower Egypt
Bakh/Hermopolis/el-Baqlia, 15th Nome, Lower Egypt
Festivals: (exact dates not historically verified)
19th July - 1st Thuti - Feast of Thoth
6th August - 19th Thuti - Chief Festival of Thoth
20th August - 3rd Paopi - Tehuti(Thoth) orders the healing of the eye of Heru (Horus)
23rd October - 7th Koiak - Ceremony of Djehuty (Thoth)
13th December - 28th Tybi - Day of Tehuti's taking the oath (My birthday!  How interesting is that?)
14th December - 29th Tybi - Tehuti (Thoth) sends Bast and Sekhmet to guide Egypt
24th January - 10th Pamenot - Day of Coming of Tehuti (Thoth)
3rd April - 19th Pachons - Day of the Counting of Tehuti(Thoth) Who heard Ma´at
14th May - 30 Payni - Tehuti (Thoth) appears with Shu to bring back Tefnut

One myth relating to the Epagomenal days is:
Shu, the son of the sun god, Ra, reigned as king of Egypt for many years. When his daughter Nut fell in love with the god Geb, Shu was wildly jealous. To keep the lovers far apart, he turned Nut into the sky and Geb into the earth. Then he cursed Nut with barrenness, proclaiming that there were no months of the year in which she could give birth.

Thoth took pity on Nut and Geb. He challenged the reigning gods to a game of dice and soundly beat them all. As his prize he asked the gods to give him five days in addition to those that already existed. Thoth in turn presented the five extra days to the sky goddess, Nut. Because these five extra days did not belong to any particular month, they did not fall under Shu's curse. Thus, the goddess was able to use them to produce five children, including Osiris and Isis.

Prior to Thoth's gift, each of the twelve months of the Egyptian calendar had 30 days, resulting in a 360-day year. Thoth's act of kindness reconciled the Egyptian calendar with the earth's actual 365-day cycle.

We see in other places the myth uses Re, others Atum, as the jealous god.  Still others suggest that Tehuti was Nut's lover.  (Let's not go there.  lol)
Quote
He was a lover of Nut, and, playing draughts with the moon, won from her a seventy second part of every day which he compounded into five days, adding them the original Egyptian calendar of 360 days.


Creation myths changed over the course of Egyptian history.  I'd like to reference the following link for further elaboration of the creation myths.  http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/religion/deitiescreation.html
The  earliest myth the world was a formless watery void absent of light.  The abysmal waters receeded and the first mound of earth appeared.  On this eart, Atum brought all creatures and things to live.  Some myths say he masturbated to create the lesser male and female deities.  They in turn mated and populated the earth.  Another says Atum named his body parts and they became separate beings.

Later in the thrid millennium BCE, we find the Memphite theology.  This story strengthened Memphis' superiority and their patron god Ptah.  It generally says that Ptah was both heart and tongue (divine mind and speech).  He thought of the universe and ordered it exist with words of power.  This 'divine word' has notable similarities to the creation myth in Genesis.

To be continued...
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Trevor Proffitt
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« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2007, 01:14:30 am »

Nice work, Cleasterwood. You have to actually wonder where the Egyptians got the ideas for their deities from. Obviously, a lot of it has to do with the Nile, but there are whole elaborate mythologies brought up for each god, and their relationships from one another.  Too elaborate for some priest or shaman to have just made them up someday.

I go with the theory that the Egyptians were settlers from someplace else, even if I am not totally sold on Manetho's king's list.
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« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2007, 02:16:25 am »

Great work, Cleasterwood, is Thoth going to make an appearance in any of your own books on Egypt?
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« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2007, 06:05:24 am »

Thank you both.  Smiley  I've still a lot to do with this thread as there are so many myths of Tehuti I'd like to study. 
Trevor, I'm sold on the Manetho's king's list as Pre-antidelivian kings.  Just because people started associated the king's list with Atlantis doesn't make it so.  However, I'd like to think the deities were from another country too.
Isis,
There are 9 deities I use in my story.  Tehuti is one of the first ones the MC meets once she's in ancient Egypt.   Wink  And if you read closely, you'll see a goddess in disguise.  Cheesy 
Here's a short blurb about what Tehuti looks like in my story and I really think it's a description of how I see him.

Andrea wasn’t afraid, not really, but her complexion paled. He was a seven foot tall hybrid, man and bird, with a bulky, well-balanced physique. His entire body had a downy covering. Strange though was how his every aspect resembled and ibis: a round face, beaked nose, and thin, wide mouth. Aerodynamic creamy-white feathers grew from the underside of his arms. Spindly fingers with talons extended from elongated hands gripping a carved staff. Red metal wiring in a counter-clockwise spiral design clutched an unblemished white crystal ball. Thick silver wire secured the grip to the staff before it wound down the length of the burnished wood. 

Blessed be,
Lynn
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« Reply #8 on: June 24, 2008, 09:42:29 am »

I have been studying shamanism for about 8 years now, and it has led me to many different areas. I was drawn to Thoth through the Emerald Tablets, and Egypt then became another area for searching. I have read different perspectives on the history of Egypt as well as some of Budge's material, "Egyptian Magic" By: E. A. Wallis Budge and I believe that may things (religion, politics, ego, etc.) influence the Egyptian historians and researchers (I am not singling out Budge in this). This is certainly to be expected.

Because of my shamanistic slant, I came across the following book… “Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts: The Mystical Tradition of Ancient Egypt” by Jeremy Naydler. This  text provides a little different/new take on the traditional views of Egyptian history and although I have not finished it, I would recommend it as another perspective on the vast history of Egypt.

ILAL

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