Group statue of Thoth-ibis and devotee on a base inscribed for Padihorsiese

The elements of this group all appear to be ancient, and the juxtaposition of the Thoth-ibis with a worshipper is found in other statuettes, but it seems that this particular group was constituted secondarily in ancient or in modern times. Traces on the upper side of the base show it originally supported a striding rather than a crouching ibis.

The slight rise with rounded corners that appears on the base below the ibis is found on a number of the original bases for ibises, many of them striding ibises, that have been published from those excavated at Tuna-el-Gebel, adjacent to Hermopolis and a center of the ibis cult associated with Thoth. In one case this unusual feature is elaborated with water signs at the front edge; this points to an interpretation of the rise as the mound rising from primeval waters where, in the Hermopolitan theology, the Ogdoad or eight primeval gods produced an egg that contained creator gods. As the main god of Hermopolis, Thoth came to be associated with this moment too.


The offering formula on the base indicates that the original donation recorded on the base was made for the benefit of Padihorsiese through the agency of a servant of the ibis cult, a donation procedure only recorded in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.