Thoth, The Ibis-Headed
From Wilkinson’s Manners & Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians.
It is doubtful that the deity called Thoth by the Egyptians was originally
Hermes, but the two personalities were blended together and it is now impossible to
separate them. Thoth was called "The Lord of the Divine Books" and "Scribe
of the Company of the Gods." He is generally pictured with the body of a man and the
head of an ibis. The exact symbolic meaning of this latter bird has never been discovered.
A careful analysis of the peculiar shape of the ibis—especially its head and
beak—should prove illuminating. MPH