Thoth

In Egyptian mythology, the god of wisdom, learning, and magic. Inventor of hieroglyphic writing, he was the patron of scribes, and associated with the Moon, whose phases were used for reckoning. He was represented as a dog-faced baboon or as a scribe with the head of an ibis; the bird was sacred to him. He was identified by the Greeks with Hermes Trismegistos.

With the hawk-headed sky god Horus, Thoth was chief lustrator (conductor of purification by sacrifice) of Osiris, ruler of the underworld He also recorded the result of the weighing of the hearts of the dead.

Hermopolis (Ashmunein) in Middle Egypt was the centre of his cult.