Egyptian god, patron of wisdom, lord of letters and sacred texts. His cult, which probably originated in the Delta of the Nile, was centered on Hermopolis ( El Ashmunein ). Thoth is portrayed as an ibis, a baboon, or as a man with a baboon’s head. In the legend of Osiris he was one of his viziers : he was also god of the Moon, and thus god of chronology. In the classical period he was assimilated with Hermes and held to be father of the art of magic.