Thoth's Hieroglyphs

Often depicted with a scribal reed and palette, or a papyrus roll, Thoth was also the patron deity of scribes (Wilkinson 2003: 215). He was a writer deity beyond just being a scribe, however. He was also credited with inventing writing – the means of retaining and transmitting knowledge to others, furthering his role as a messenger – “and the different languages of humanity”, (Pinch 2002: 209; Wilkinson 2003: 216). The Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphs, a writing they held sacred. Images and hieroglyphs were “[representations that] had the ability to function as the object that they presented” (Brewer and Teeter 1999: 121). For example, there was much power in the act of erasing one’s written name, as that was understood to be the same as erasing
Furthermore, the hieroglyphs were called “medu neter” (or “mdw nṯr”), meaning “god’s words” (Brewer and Teeter 1999: 110). While this term could refer to the divinity and sacredness associated with the writing, I would argue that this could also refer to either Thoth as the inventor of writing or perhaps to a creator god’s words with Thoth acting as their messenger (Pinch 2002: 209). Thoth has also been described as “the tongue [and] the divine creative Word”, meaning that he acts as the speaker and manifestation of the spoken language which is divine in origin (Piankoff 1957: 13). This may act as evidence for the latter interpretation of “medu neter”. There may also be a correlation between the “tongue” as a way of speaking, and as a weapon of the witty and an indicator of intelligence (as in being “sharp of tongue”), as found in the Instructions of Merikare: “If you are skilled in speech, you will win, the tongue is [a king’s] sword; speaking is stronger than all fighting…” (Lichtheim 1976:1: