Page 380 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

Frequently represented on temple and tomb walls as an ibis, or an ibis-
headed man, Thoth was venerated as the regulative force responsible for
all heavenly calculations and annotations, as the lord and multiplier of
time, the inventor of the alphabet and the patron of magic. He was
particularly associated with astronomy, mathematics, surveying and
geometry, and was described as ‘he who reckons in heaven, the counter
of the stars and the measurer of the earth’. He was also regarded as a
17
deity who understood the mysteries of ‘all that is hidden under the
heavenly vault’, and who had the ability to bestow wisdom on selected
individuals. It was said that he had inscribed his knowledge in secret
books and hidden these about the earth, intending that they should be
sought for by future generations but found ‘only by the worthy’—who
were to use their discoveries for the benefit of mankind.
18
What stands out most clearly about Thoth, therefore, in addition to his
credentials as an ancient scientist, is his role as a benefactor and
civilizer. In this respect he closely resembles his predecessor Osiris, the
19
high god of the Pyramid Texts and the fourth divine pharaoh of Egypt,
‘whose name becometh Sah [Orion], whose leg is long, and his stride
extended, the President of the Land of the South ...’
20

Osiris and the Lords of Eternity

Occasionally referred to in the texts as a neb tem, or ‘universal master’,
21
Osiris is depicted as human but also superhuman, suffering but at the
same time commanding. Moreover, he expresses his essential dualism by
ruling m heaven (as the constellation of Orion) and on earth as a king
among men. Like Viracocha in the Andes and Quetzalcoatl in Central
America, his ways are subtle and mysterious. Like them, he is
exceptionally tall and always depicted wearing the curved beard of
divinity. And like them too, although he has supernatural powers at his
22

reign, we have seven divine pharaohs up to and including Thoth (i.e., Ra, Shu, Geb,
Osiris, Set, Horus, Thoth).
17 The Gods of the Egyptians, volume I, p. 400; Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes,
Cambridge University Press, 1987, pp. 22-3. see also From Fetish to God in Ancient
Egypt, pp. 121-2; Egyptian Magic, pp. 128-9; New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology,
pp. 27-8.
18 Manetho, quoted by the neo-Platonist Iamblichus. See Peter Lemesurier, The Great
Pyramid Decoded, Element Books, 1989, p. 15; The Egyptian Hermes, p. 33.
19 See, for example, Diodorus Siculus, volume I, p. 53, where Thoth (under his Greek
name of Hermes) is described as being ‘endowed with unusual ingenuity for devising
things capable of improving the social life of man’.
20 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, volume II, p. 307.
21 Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, p. 179; New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology,
p. 16.
22 New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology, pp. 9-10, 16; Encyclopaedia of Ancient
Egypt, p. 44; The Gods of the Egyptians, volume II, pp. 130-1; From Fetish to God in

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