Ancient Egyptians worshipped many animals for thousands of years. Animals were revered for different reasons. Dogs were valued for their ability to protect and hunt, but cats were thought to be the most special. Egyptians believed cats were magical creatures, capable of bringing good luck to the people who housed them.
To honor these treasured pets, wealthy families dressed them in jewels and fed them treats fit for royalty. When the cats died, they were mummified. As a sign of mourning, the cat owners shaved off their eyebrows and continued to mourn until their eyebrows grew back. Art from ancient Egypt shows statues and paintings of every type of feline.
Cats were so special that those who killed them, even by accident, were sentenced to death.
Ancient Egyptians were familiar with a variety of indigenous cats, big and small. In North Africa and the Near East, various species of lions roamed, while to the south of Egypt, leopards and cheetahs were found. The African wild cat could be found living in the deserts and marshes. We all know that cats are amazing hunters, so it is no surprise that they were prized as defenders against unwanted rats, mice, and snakes. We can also see from depictions of cats in Ancient Egypt, that over time they became domesticated.
For a long time, it was believed that the Ancient Egyptians were responsible for the domestication of the cat.
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Feline and leonine imagery abounds in ancient Egypt, so it is clear that the Egyptians held cats in high esteem. Classical writers also observed the importance of the cat in Egyptian society and remarked on the ways in which cats seemed to be favored.
The Greek historian Herodotus (who lived ca. c. 484-425 BCE) wrote much about his impressions of ancient Egyptian history, culture and religion. He too remarked on the special position of the cat in Egyptian society. He notes:
“Moreover when a fire occurs, the cats seem to be divinely possessed; for while the Egyptians stand at intervals and look after the cats, not taking any care to extinguish the fire, the cats slipping through or leaping over the men, jump into the fire; and when this happens, great mourning comes upon the Egyptians. And in whatever houses a cat has died by a natural death, all those who dwell in this house shave their eyebrows only, but those in whose houses a dog has died shave their whole body and also their head” (Herodotus, Histories 2.66).
The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who was active ca. 60 and 30 BCE, had much to say about the Egyptians’ relationship with cats. He recorded his personal observations of the fate of a person who harmed a cat in ancient Egypt:
“And whoever intentionally kills one of these animals is put to death, unless it be a cat or an ibis that he kills; but if he kills one of these, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he is certainly put to death, for the common people gather in crowds and deal with the perpetrator most cruelly, sometimes doing this without waiting for a trial. . . . So deeply implanted also in the hearts of the common people is their superstitious regard for these animals and so unalterable are the emotions cherished by every man regarding the honor due to them that once, at the time when Ptolemy their king had not as yet been given by the Romans the appellation of ‘friend’ and the people were exercising all zeal in courting the favor of the embassy from Italy which was then visiting Egypt and, in their fear, were intent upon giving no cause for complaint or war, when one of the Romans killed a cat and the multitude rushed in a crowd to his house, neither the officials sent by the king to beg the man off nor the fear of Rome which all the people felt were enough to save the man from punishment, even though his act had been an accident. And this incident we relate, not from hearsay, but we saw it with our own eyes on the occasion of the visit we made to Egypt” (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History I, 83.1-8).
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The Macedonian author Polyaenus, who wrote in the 2nd-century CE, described a battle between the Egyptian army and that of the Persian king, Cambyses. He notes how the foreign invader used the Egyptians’ love of cats against them.
He wrote:
“When Cambyses attacked Pelusium, which guarded the entrance into Egypt, the Egyptians defended it with great resolution. They advanced formidable engines against the besiegers, and hurled missiles, stones, and fire at them from their catapults. To counter this destructive barrage, Cambyses ranged before his front line dogs, sheep, cats, ibises, and whatever other animals the Egyptians hold sacred. The Egyptians immediately stopped their operations, out of fear of hurting the animals, which they hold in great veneration.
According to Egyptian mythology, gods and goddesses had the power to transform themselves into different animals. Only one deity, the goddess named Bastet, had the power to become a cat. In the city of Per-Bast, a beautiful temple was built, and people came from all over to experience its splendor.
Bastet - The Egyptian Cat Goddess
The oddly solitary nature of cats has intrigued humans since ancient times. The inherent mysteriousness and aloofness of the cat and other felines have made them ideal for representing divinities, while their propensity to be tamed, and ability to hunt harmful vermin, have helped them form intimate relationships with humans, particularly in agrarian societies.
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The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon of Feline Deities
The Ancient Egyptians had a complicated spiritual system with many deities. It was the birth of the sun god Ra, however, that was the most significant event in Egyptian mythology. Ra merged with the primeval forces of creation to form the universe. The Ancient Egyptians believed that the morning sunrise was the daily rebirth of Ra. He took the form of the scarab beetle, Khepri, in the morning when he would roll the sun into the sky. At night he assumed a ram-headed form, Khnum, and made his journey through the underworld where he merged with Osiris, the god of the dead. He was reborn every morning to begin his journey again.
Khepri, Ra-Horakhty, and Khnum are all aspects of Ra.
Ra has a lot to do with sacred cats in Ancient Egypt!
As the god of order we could probably guess that he would have to have an opposite. This was the serpent, Apophis, who represented chaos. Ra fought an epic battle against Apophis in which he assumed the form of a gigantic male cat. Cats were ferocious killers, so this was a good strategic move for Ra to make.
The Eye of Ra is a feminine aspect of his identity. It is also the instrument of his retribution, sent down to punish and destroy his enemies.
The best known of all of the feline deities is the goddess Bastet. The meaning of her name is uncertain, but may mean something like “She of the ointment jar”. She was thought to be a daughter of the sun god, Re.
Bastet was originally a formidable goddess associated with Lower Egypt. She was the Eye of Ra, and his first-born daughter. She became alienated from her father and wandered the deserts in the form of a lion. In this form she could even annihilate other deities.
Bastet was eventually superseded by Sekhmet in Ancient Egyptian spiritual culture, and her image softened. She became a goddess of fertility, domesticity, protection against disease, and a keeper of women’s secrets rather than the vengeful Eye of Ra. Over time her leonine form also disappeared and was replaced by that of the domestic cat that we know today.
One of the most famous depictions of Bastet in full cat form is the Gayer-Anderson Cat, a bronze figure probably from a temple, dating from ca. 600 BCE.
Glencairn’s Egyptian collection includes images of cats in bronze, stone, faience and other materials. Bastet’s place was in the home. She was primarily a protective domestic goddess who, like a mother cat with her kittens, took good care of the children in the house.
As a goddess closely connected to motherhood, fertility and nurturing, a popular way in which Bastet is shown is as a mother cat nursing her litter. Glencairn houses a charming bronze votive statuette of a mother cat suckling several kittens (Figure 10). Dating to the Late Period, this cat undoubtedly would call to mind the protective nature of the goddess Bastet in her role as a domestic goddess taking care of the family, house and home. It may also express a wish for fertility.
Ra created two main feline goddesses as his daughters, the second of which was Sekhmet. She was a powerful goddess, originally associated with Upper Egypt. Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt and thus there was a shift in terms of significance between these two goddesses. Sekhmet was a fearsome warrior goddess in leonine form and was also the Eye of Ra. As a deity she was solar, usually bearing a solar disk and a uraeus. Her importance was such that she stood in the solar barque to defend Ra from the Apophis serpent. Sekhmet is also an instrument of divine retribution.
Her arrows were personified as seven messengers who brought destruction, plague and suffering to humanity. By contrast, she was also the patron goddess of medicine. Like other feline goddesses, she was in possession of both destructive and restorative powers.
Cats were generally seen as emblematic of the sun and therefore of Ra and of the Eye of Ra. This symbolism translated well when it came to representing power in the realm of Kings and Pharaohs. Female rage was especially feared, so sacred cats in Ancient Egypt who were depicted as leonine goddesses were more important than leonine gods.
The lion was also a component of Bes, Tawaret, and of the Griffin and the Sphinx.
There were other lesser gods and goddesses in sacred cat form.
Aker, or Ruty, was a double lion. These twin lions of “yesterday” and “tomorrow” guarded the horizon.
This was an important occupation because the horizon was a place of regeneration for both deities and kings, as well as where Ra appeared and disappeared each day.
Mafdet was the first known cat-headed deity in ancient Egypt. The Pyramid Texts state that one of Mafdet’s roles is to help a dead king by clawing out the eyes of evil snakes. She was depicted as having the head of a cat or a mongoose, later depictions of her are in the form of a cheetah or lynx.
In the Coffin Texts we find Pakhet the Great, huntress by night and a goddess of war. She is depicted as a lioness or a panther, and is also deadly to snakes. Her name means “one who scratches”.
Mummification and Burial Practices
Cats were protected and worshiped, personified as deities, and believe it or not, also mummified!
There are many examples of cats found throughout Egypt either buried with or very close to their owners. According to Herodotus (a Greek writer and the first historian, 484-425 BCE), members of a household in which the family cat had died would all shave off their eyebrows.
Mummified cats were often dedicated to the goddess Bastet at her temple in the city of Bubastis. However, the significance of having your cat with you in death went further still.
Comical scenes and moral stories often depicted cats. They could be found punishing people for their crimes, especially those against cats.
Cats were praised for killing venomous snakes, rodents and birds that damaged crops, and protecting the Pharaoh since at least the First Dynasty of Egypt. Skeletal remains of cats were found among funerary goods dating to the 12th Dynasty.
Historical Context and Archaeological Evidence
The protective function of cats is indicated in the Book of the Dead, where a cat represents Ra and the benefits of the sun for life on Earth. Cat-shaped decorations used during the New Kingdom of Egypt indicate that the domesticated cat became more popular in daily life.
Cat cemeteries at the archaeological sites Speos Artemidos, Bubastis, and Saqqara were used for several centuries. Mafdet was the first known cat-headed deity in ancient Egypt. The deity Bastet is known from at least the Second Dynasty onwards. At the time, she was depicted with a lion (Panthera leo) head.
A tomb at the necropolis Umm El Qa'ab contained 17 cat skeletons dating to the early 20th century BC. Next to the skeletons stood small pots that are thought to have contained milk for the cats.
Several tomb murals in the Theban Necropolis show cats in domestic scenes. These tombs belonged to nobles and high-ranking officials of the 18th Dynasty and were built in the 15th and 14th centuries BC. The murals show a cat sitting under a chair during a buffet, eating meat or fish; some show it in the company of a goose or a monkey.
The first known indication for the mummification of a cat was found in an elaborately carved limestone sarcophagus dated to about 1350 BC.
From the 22nd Dynasty at around the mid 950s BC onwards, the deity Bastet and her temple in the city of Bubastis grew in popularity. She was later shown only with a small cat head.
Domestic cats (Felis catus) were increasingly worshipped and considered sacred. Mummifying animals grew in popularity during the Late Period of ancient Egypt from 664 BC onwards.
During the Hellenistic period between 323 and 30 BC, the goddess Isis became associated with Bastet and cats, as indicated by an inscription at the Temple of Edfu: “Isis is the soul of Bastet”.
As described by Diodorus Siculus, killing a cat was regarded as a serious crime.
Cats and religion began to be disassociated after Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC.
A series of decrees and edicts issued by Roman Emperors in the 4th and 5th centuries AD gradually curtailed the practice of paganism and pagan rituals in Egypt. Pagan temples were impounded and sacrifices prohibited by 380 AD. Three edicts issued between 391 and 392 prohibited pagan rituals and burial ceremonies at all cult sites. Death penalty for offenders was introduced in 395, and the destruction of pagan temples decreed in 399. By 415, the Christian church received all property that was formerly dedicated to paganism.
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