Thoth Gambles With The Moon

***Miscellaneous Myths: Thoth Gambles With The Moon*** is the seventy-seventh episode of the *Miscellaneous Myths* series by Red, narrating the story of Thoth's gamble with Khonshu, wherein Thoth wins and adds an extra five days to the Egyptian lunisolar calendar and allowing Nut to have children.

## Summary

Red begins the video by explaining the anomalies of the lunisolar calendar, pointing out how close the Moon is at the end of each year. Additionally, both types of calendars seem off to each other and do not line up exactly with each day, leaving the calendars to slowly drift after many years. And since all calendars use days as their smallest unit of measurement, they will all eventually be subjected to a rounding error that causes said drift.

Red then goes on to explain the various methods that cultures have used to account for the drifting of their calendars, nothing the Babylonians' extra month added seven times every nineteen years. Or the Hebrew calendar, which became more of a calculated calendar rather than an observational one similar to the Babylonian calendar. The Mayans created the Tzolkin, consisting of thirteen twenty-day units. Ending with the Egyptian calendar, whom used a civic calendar that rounded out the year's twelve lunar months with five special days at the end that add up to 365.

The myth is recounted in Plutarch's *Morals*, wherein he, like many other Greek writers, had a habit of syncretizing the gods of other religions to corresponding Greek deities; implying that all other cultures were, in fact, worshipping the Greek gods in some other, strange way. This made Thoth cast as Hermes; Set as Typhon; Geb and Nut are called Cronus and Rhea; Ra is downgraded to the Sun; and Nephthys is often described as being Aphrodite, who is said to be consorting with Typhon, which Red found oddly unsurprising.

Due to the intimate relationship between Geb and Nut, Ra becomes angry, cursing Nut and forbidding her from having children on any of the 360 days of the year. Seeing Nut in her despair, Thoth, the god of wisdom, decides to help her out in some way. He ends up gambling with the moon god Khonshu in a game of senet, winning almost every time.

After winning almost every game against Khonshu, Thoth was able to win some of Khonshu's moonlight; one seventieth, in fact. Since the Moon's phases result in a new Moon every lunar month, this happening twelve times a year combined with Thoth's winnings of one seventieth, that gave him an extra five days which he could add to the year.

Upon the five extra days being added to the year, Thoth was able to allow Nut to give birth, which baffled Ra, as Thoth had found an exploit in the curse. As a result, Nut had one child on each of those days: Osiris, Set, Horus, Isis and Nephthys. This finished out the Innead, and almost perfectly rounded out the solar year; save for leap days, which the Egyptians didn't add to their calendar.

## Credits

Red sings *Seasons of Love* from the Broadway musical, *Rent*.

## Characters appearing

Aphrodite (syncretized with Nephthys)

Cronus (syncretized with Geb)

Geb

Hermes (syncretized with Thoth)

Horus

Isis

Khonshu

Nephthys

Nut

Osiris

Ra

Rhea (syncretized with Nut)

Set

Typhon (syncretized with Set)

## Links

Watch *Thoth Gambles With The Moon* on YouTube