"Sir…" Sam Carter said slowly, "Assume for a moment, for the sake of argument, that the Goa'uld wasn't there because of us. Could he have been there for the same reason we were – to study the Ancient facility?"
The words prompted startled looks from around the table. For his part, Teal'c frowned. One of the false gods seeking to learn from another race – even the fabled Gate Builders? Surely their pride would never permit it.
But beside him, Jack O'Neill's expression slowly shifted from skeptical to thoughtful. "Huh. We already know a fair bit of their tech is hand-me-down…"
Daniel Jackson's eyes were bright and speculative. "And technological innovation – original or derivative – implies curiosity. In humans, at least." He drummed his fingers on the table. "And if this is Thoth – he's the Egyptian god of magic. If we take magic to mean technology…"
"Thoth?" General Hammond interrupted.
"Oh – sorry, sir. That's my guess, based on those ibis-headed helmets Sam and Janet described. Thoth is associated with the ibis and the baboon… Jack?"
The colonel was shaking his head. "Sorry, Danny – but that's not the name we got from Sanura."
Janet Fraiser had been listening patiently, but at the name, she leaned forward with a small frown. "Sanura?"
"The Jaffa captured in the Gate Room," Teal'c said. "Her story was one known to me."
"In short, the big guy here apparently isn't the only one with an Inigo Montoya grudge. Only, this lady somehow got another snake to personally help her get payback, or so the story goes." Jack O'Neill shook his head. "But the name Teal'c had, and the one we got out of the lady, wasn't Thoth. Joo-ty or something, nothing I recognized…"
Daniel Jackson's head came up. "Djehuty?" he echoed, eyes wide. "Oh. My. That's… oh, fascinating…"
The glances exchanged around the table this time combined both tolerant amusement and the foreboding of long experience. The events that often followed that particular tone from the scholar were… never boring.
As usual, the colonel was the first to brave the waters when the expectant silence began to stretch overlong. "Earth to Danny. Share with the class, prof."
Daniel Jackson started out of whatever mental world his blue eyes had been staring into so intently, flushing as he sheepishly resettled his glasses. "They're the same. Djehuty is the Ancient Egyptian name for Thoth."
Jack O'Neill blinked. "Am I missing something here? Because, you know – Ancient Egyptian god? Wouldn't Ancient Egyptian names come with the turf?"
"Well, yes, of course. But much of our knowledge of Egypt has been filtered through Greek sources. Even the word 'Egypt' – they called their country Khemet, the Black Land, because black was associated with soil laid down by the Nile…" Daniel Jackson visibly grabbed the reins of his mind and hauled himself back. "Right. Long story short, the names we generally use for the Egyptian gods are actually Greek glosses." He frowned, lips pursing. "That includes the names of all the Egypt-associated Goa'uld we've met up until now."
General Hammond raised his eyebrows. "Why has no one mentioned this before?" he asked.
Daniel Jackson scratched his head. "Well, Ra is the same name in either language. All the Goa'uld we met after that, well, Earth's Stargate had been up and operating long enough for the translation protocols to update. I thought the names were just translating to the versions most familiar to us – we've had other instances where odd personal names didn't register correctly. But if this Goa'uld really does go by Djehuty rather than Thoth…"
Daniel Jackson's voice trailed off suddenly as his face paled. The bright glitter of fascination in his eyes darkened. "Sir… the Greek names date primarily from the New Kingdom. Fifteen hundred BCE and later."
Though Teal'c had studied the Tau'ri and their history, their manner of counting years and dates still confused him at times. It took him a moment to recall why such a date would cause their faces to darken. "Was not the rebellion against Ra some time before that?"
"A good fifteen hundred years earlier," the general said, drumming his fingers on the tabletop briefly before he caught the gesture and stilled it.