Conan lore – the god Ibis

This is an account on Ibis and his priest Kalanthes, foes of the Old Serpent, from Conan's original tales

Conan was created by Robert E. Howard (1906–1936), who wrote the original adventures. They are set in the Hyborian Age, a fictive era ten or tens of thousands of years ago (art by John Buscema).

The Hyborian Age is polytheistic and Howard often included entities from real historical myths and religions such as Mitra, Ishtar and Set, though in reimagined forms - as is apperent with his god Ibis.

In real history was the deity Thoth ["He who is like the ibis"] worshipped in ancient Egypt and Nubia. The god was often depicted with an ibis head and was associated with wisdom, knowledge, science, writing, magic, art, and justice; and in one tradition even the creation of the universe.

It was thought that the bird species African sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) was Thoth's representative on Earth, and that it preserved the land along the Nile from plagues and serpents.

African sacred ibises do eat snakes, and Herodotus (5th Century BCE) recorded in An Account of Egypt a belief that they killed mythological serpents which tried to enter the land (photo by Ambar Chakraborty).

Howard was seemingly inspired by such myths when he wrote the short story The God in the Bowl, our sole original source to his deity (art by Mark Schultz).

The short story is in the public domain in some countries and for those who wish to read it spoiler free, see http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1501131h.html

The Hyborian Age was named after the fictive Hyborian people. Of their civilized kingdoms are Nemedia (green) and Aqualonia (orange) of further interest here, though there were many others (yellow).

Conan was a barbarian from Cimmeria (grey) and at about twenty years of age he for a time lived in Nemedia as a thief. There he got involved in an ancient feud from far off Stygia (red).

In Numalia, a city in Nemedia, was located a private museum and antique house. One night Conan broke into it in order to steal a diamond goblet.

Unbeknown to him that same morning a caravan had passed by Numalia and it had left a great, round sarcophagus in the antique house (art by Christoph Haußner).

The caravan crewmen had known nothing of the sarcophagus "except that it had been placed with them by the men of a caravan from Stygia, and was meant for Kalanthes of Hanumar, priest of Ibis. The master of the caravan had been paid by these other men to deliver it directly to Kalanthes, but he's a rascal by nature, and wished to proceed directly to Aquilonia, on the road to which Hanumar does not lie" (The God in the Bowl onwards, art by Mark Schultz).

Hanumar was likely a place in Nemedia, but if it was a settlement or a region is unknown. Regardless, the caravan master had left the sarcophagus at the meuseum in Numalia until Kalanthes could send for it.

The caravan crew had explained that the men who had given the round chest to them "told them that it was a priceless relic, found among the tombs far beneath the pyramids and sent to Kalanthes 'because of the love the sender bore the priest of Ibis'" (art by Stepan V. Bakalowicz).

The chief clerk of the antique house was a man named Promero. Learning what the caravan crew had reported Promero was filled with doubt and said (art by Wietze Fopma):

"`Why should a man in Stygia send Kalanthes a gift? Ancient gods and queer mummies have come up the caravan roads before, but who loves the priest of Ibis so well in Stygia, where they still worship the arch-demon Set who coils among the tombs in the darkness? The god Ibis has fought Set since the first dawn of the earth, and Kalanthes has fought Set's priests all his life. There is something dark and hidden here.'"

In Stygia "sorcerers wove awful spells in the murk of sacrificial smoke mounting eternally from blood-stained altars" dedicated to "Set, the Old Serpent, arch-demon of the Hyborians but god of the Stygians, was said to writhe his shining coils among his worshippers" (Queen of the Black Coast; I).

Note: the historical Set was a feared Egyptian god of deserts, disorder, violence, and foreigners, but people were not sacrificed to him; nor was he a serpent but an enemy of Apep, the serpent of Chaos.

In the Nemedian antique house the chief clerk Promero found a symbol on the bottom of the Bowl from Stygia. Upset he said (GitB):

"`Not an ancient hieroglyphic, but a symbol recently carved! The mark of Thoth-amon, the Stygian sorcerer, Kalanthes' deadly foe! He found it in some grisly cavern below the haunted pyramids!"

The God in the Bowl is set when Conan is about twenty, making it the first time chronologically that his path crossed the schemes of Thoth-amon, a Stygian sorcerer devoted to Set (art by Al MrZarono).

Thoth-amon appeared in the first Conan story ever, The Phoenix on the Sword (1932), that was written merely some weeks or few months before The God in the Bowl. The latter was the third Conan story Howard wrote but it was rejected by the publisher, and remained unpublished in the author's lifetime.

It is plausible that Howard had not yet imagined Ibis, arch-nemesis of Set, when he named Set's devotee Thoth-amon, and the sorcerer is perhaps why Ibis was not named Thoth (art by Wietze Fopma).

However, The Phoenix on the Sword was published many months after The God in the Bowl was written, and Howard had the opportunity to change the sorcerer's name inbetween if he wanted to.

Perhaps he deemed the name for the villain settled, or expected that the short story would not be rewritten and printed so it mattered not, or it distanced his bird god from its Egyptian inspiration?

Whether the cause, the distinction is reinforced when Thoth-Amon in Hour of the Dragon (1935) became known as not only a Set priest but "the master of all priests of Set" (HotD; XIX, art by Ronan Toulhoat).

The God in the Bowl was published posthumously in 1952 through L. Sprague de Camp (1907 - 2000), himself a productive author who was the initial custodian of Howard's works.

de Camp is controversial among fans for though he kept Howard's stories in print he to various degrees edited the source materials (when he did not finish drafts by Howard or wrote his own pastiches).

One example of de Camp's edits was to change Kalanthes' name to Caranthes because he found it too alike the name of another character. The short story was not published unedited until 2002.

Inbetween, in October 1970, Marvel began its Conan comics. Ibis is mentioned in Conan the Barbarian nr 7 (1971) and the priest is depicted but named Karanthes due to de Camp's version of the short story.

The wise Karanthes became a reoccuring ally of Conan and of Red Sonja. Marvel portrayed Karanthes with a shaved head and gem on his brow, and as an old Stygian for he and Ibis are presented as exiles from Stygia. This is not stated by Howard but as far as speculation goes it is possible (panels from Red Sonja nr 6 and nr 7, 1975).

Finally, Ibis and Kalanthes have appeared in later graphic novels by DK Publishing and by Dark Horse Comics, and in video games like the MMORPG Age of Conan (above) and the RTS Conan Unconquered.

Some related accounts (art by Frank Frazetta):

Crom https://imgur.com/gallery/5Hy0UwZ

The Hyborian Age https://imgur.com/gallery/azrRY8c

— — — — —

In case you enjoyed this and want more Conan lore, here is my index: https://imgur.com/gallery/Xc4OIH8