the ibis and the baboon. He is regularly depicted as a human
with the head of an ibis. Baboons often appear in temple re-
liefs worshiping the sun god, and this association might indi-
cate his subordinate relationship to Re. In the judgment
scene of chapter 125 of the Book of Going Forth by Day,
Thoth as the ibis-headed god presides over and records the
weighing of the heart of the deceased owner of the book. A
baboon is also represented in this scene seated atop the bal-
ance, apparently to ensure its accuracy. Thoth is credited in
Egyptian mythology with separating the two contenders,
Horus and Seth, as well as with magically restoring Horus’s
injured eye. He has one of the major supporting roles in
much of Egyptian religious literature, and a number of
hymns are addressed to him directly, although Re and Osiris
are the principal gods discussed and invoked in these texts.
Thoth was renowned for his wisdom and praised as the
inventor of writing. The mdw-ntr (“god’s words,” i.e., hiero-
glyphs) were recognized as perhaps his greatest contribution,
and he was frequently shown with brush and papyrus roll in
the attitude of the scribes, whose patron he was.
In the eighteenth dynasty several kings took as their
throne name Thothmose (“Thoth is the one who bore him”).
This Thutmosid family included several other members with
Ei’h: (“moon”) in their names, so it is clearly Thoth’s position
as moon god that is being recalled. Remains of two small
temples to Thoth survive in the Theban area, one very late
and poorly decorated. Since the eighteenth dynasty was of
Theban origin and the son of Amun-Re at Thebes was the
moon god, Khonsu, these two moon gods could have been
assimilated, but the family could also have chosen the name
of the northern god (Thoth) when they moved their resi-
dence (capital) to Memphis.
In Egyptian literature there clearly was an ancient tradi-
tion concerning the secret knowledge of Thoth. Secret rooms
and mysterious books were sought by learned scribes, priests,
and princes. This tradition was carried over into some of the
Coptic gnostic library tractates, and the question arises
whether these were Egyptian or Greek in origin since the
Greeks had early identified their god Hermes with Thoth.
The origins of the continuing traditions of Hermes
Trismegistos and gnosticism can be traced to Egypt, to
Thoth, and perhaps even to the Hermopolitan cosmology,
but the extent of Egyptian influence on these beliefs remains
to be determined.
The great temple of Thoth at Hermopolis has not sur-
vived, although its location is known from finds in the area.
A large catacomb for the burial of mummified ibises and ba-
boons has been found nearby at the necropolis of Tuna al-
Gabal.
SEE ALSO Hermes Trismegistos.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bleeker, C. Jouco. Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures of the An-
cient Egyptian Religion. Leiden, 1973. Issued as a supplement
by the periodical Numen.
Boylan, Patrick. Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt. New York, 1922.
Cˇerny ́, Jaroslav. “Thoth as Creator of Languages.” Journal of Egyp-
tian Archaeology 34 (1948): 121–122.
LEONARD H. LESKO (1987)THRACIAN RELIGION. In ancient Greece the
name Thrakes referred to most of the inhabitants of the
northeastern Balkan Peninsula. Their neighbors to the east
were the Scythians; to the west the Pannonians, Dalmatians,
and Illyrians; to the north the Balts and the Celts. The name
seems to have initially belonged only to the Thracian tribes
in close proximity to Greece. Later on, it was extended to re-
lated tribes to the north, just as the name Graeci, which origi-
nally belonged only to a western Greek tribe, was later given
by the Romans to all the Hellenes. Nevertheless, the location
of the land called Thrake was always restricted to the area
south of the Balkan Mountains, principally to the Chalcidice
Peninsula.
THRACIAN PEOPLES. Nearly two hundred tribes are known
under the generic name of Thrakes, of which the most im-
portant were the Odrysi, who lived in what is today south-
eastern Bulgaria; the Dentheleti, north of Macedonia; the
Serdi, in Serdica, today the region of Sofia, the capital city
of Bulgaria; the Bessi, west of Serdica; the Moesi, between
the Balkan Mountains and the river Danube; and the Daco-
Getae, who occupied a northern territory approximating
modern-day Romania. Other Thracian tribes—the Thyni
and Bithyni—settled in Asia Minor. The Phrygians and the
Armenians, who originated in the Balkans, were related to
them.
History. In the ancient world, the Thracians were, ac-
cording to Herodotos (fifth century BCE), the most numer-
ous people after the Indians. Thracians are attested in con-
nection with the Trojan War, and they seem to have had a
share in the foundation of Troy (in Asia Minor, or modern-
day Turkey). Only occasionally did they form larger unions
of tribes: the only known confederations are the kingdom of
the Odrysi (fifth-fourth centuries BCE), the Geto-Dacian
kingdom of Burebista (c. 80–44 BCE), and the Daco-Getic
kingdom of Decebalus (87–106 CE). Nonetheless, a certain
material and spiritual unity of the Thracians (though not
without important inner distinctions) was preserved by sev-
eral tribes, despite their frequent displacements. Herodotus
(Histories 5.3) notes that most of the Thracians had kindred
customs, with the exception of the Getae, the Trausi, and
those living beyond the tribe of the Crestonians.
According to the Greek geographer Strabo (first century
BCE), the Getae spoke the same dialect as the other Thra-
cians. Subsequent scholarship has shown, however, that both
the culture and the language of the Getae, whom Herodotus
calls “the most religious and valiant among the Thracians,”
were distinct from those of the southern Thracians. Scholars
such as Vladimir Georgiev, Ivan Duridanov, and Cicerone9168 THRACIAN RELIGION