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Why do ancient deities appear as certain animals? In the case of an ancient Egyptian god named Thoth, the relationship with his animal could be related to the light of the moon. Thoth was a god of magic, writing, wisdom and the moon, and often appears as a baboon or with the head of a large bird called an ibis. But we really don’t know why.
Recent work has traced the roots of the Egyptian name Thoth to “white/shiny thing” in North African linguistic terms and has made associations with the bright white feathers of sacred African ibises, several of which have been found mummified in various ancient Egyptian burials. Continuing with this line of research, a team of scientists has investigated the colors of both animals and has discovered that both reflect a light very similar to moonlight.
“We examine the two species of baboons accessible to the ancient Egyptians, P. anubis [Papio Anubis] and P. hamadryas [Papio hamadryas]along with T. aethiopicus [Threskiornis aethiopicus]and discovered that the gray hair of P. hamadryas and plumage T. aethiopicus “have spectral profiles indistinguishable from moonlight,” the authors wrote in a study recently published in the journal Time and mind.
The team measured the frequencies of light waves reflected by the animals using a method called spectroscopy. With this technique, researchers can avoid relying on subjective color perceptions. They eventually discovered that the colors reflected by both hamadryas baboons and sacred ibis are like moonlight, adding credibility to the theory that these animals became holy thanks to it.
“Why would two very different animals be used to represent one deity? Most other Egyptian deities are represented by a single type of animal. The ancient Egyptians were familiar with at least three species of ibis, but they chose white to embody Thoth. They were also familiar with two species of baboons, along with vervet monkeys and paw monkeys, but again they chose the silvery-white species,” Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist at the University of California, said in a statement. University of St Andrews and lead author of the study. statement. “So, sacred ibises and hamadryas baboons are different in many ways, but one thing that unites them is their moon-like color.”
Many African cultures today do not like baboons, according to the statement, mainly because these primates destroy crops. The ancient Egyptians, however, even went so far as to deify them, perhaps because they have the color of moonlight.
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