Article By Elsa Smith
Why Did Egyptians Worship Cats?
Admiration for the cat well predates internet culture, but to the Egyptians, it was a matter of religion.
Across eons, and even today, cultures around the world revere cats. Perhaps, though, none is more notable than the love of cats shown by ancient Egyptians.
Humankind’s relationship with cats has varied roots. Farmers kept cats around to eliminate rodents and pests intent upon a meal of grain. Unknowingly to these cats, and probably to ancient civilizations, they helped to reduce the spread of plagues and diseases carried by rats and other vermin.
While most farmers were content to let cats roam their property, Egyptians used cats for pest control but held them in much higher regard and as part of the family. Some archaeologists believe Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats, but others think it was the Mesopotamians, thousands of years before.
In either case, the Egyptians exalted their cats more than other cultures. The penalty for killing a cat was death—and even the harming of a cat boded ill for the guilty person since it was believed the Goddess Bast would curse the offender with bad luck.
Cats of Egypt were often embalmed, mummified, and found buried with or near their owners. They were also painted, engraved, and honored on tomb walls and pottery. Cat gods and people with cat heads were significant characters in the Egyptian religion.
The Goddess Bast
Bast, also known as Bastet, was first worshipped in the form of a ferocious lioness but later as a cat. She is often depicted as a cat’s head on a woman’s body carrying a sistrum, a percussion instrument, in her right hand. She is frequently wearing an elaborate dress and aegis, or breastplate, and carrying a small bag over her left arm.
Bast was the protector of the Egyptian home and recognized as a goddess of fertility, domesticity, music, dance, and pleasure. The daughter of the sun god, Re, and the most well-known of the gods in cat form, Greeks of the ancient world called her Ailuros, directly translated as a cat.
According to Egyptologist Melinda Hartwig, curator of ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern art at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, Egyptians did not worship domestic cats. Instead, they believed the divine essence of Bastet existed within them. For that reason, cats were to be protected and celebrated.
The people across lower Egypt were Bast’s most notable followers, but she also had a cult following in Memphis and other places such as Bubastis during the Second Dynasty (2900 BCE). There is evidence in Rome, Ostia, Nemi, and Pompeii of Bast worship carried there by the Romans.
A temple in her honor was built in Bubastis (house of Bastet) on the banks of the Nile. The ruins of the city are near the modern-day city of Zagazig. During the Late and Ptolemaic periods, archaeologists found large cemeteries of mummified cats, bronze statuettes, and cat figurines worn as amulets.
Hartwig attributes a large number of surviving cat mummies to the penalties of ancient Egypt for destroying them. In deference, Egyptians stored their cats after death in pre-existing burial chambers and secondary catacombs.
Today’s Cats
Most cat owners today understand why Bast was revered as a goddess, and they treat their feline friends as the descendants of royalty they are. From custom beds to days at the spa—despite their seeming indifference to our existence as their caretakers—cats have secured a place as rulers of homes around the world.
Though no longer thought to be godlike, our furry companions do get first-rate treatment in the form of premium meals, regular cuddles, trips to the vet for check-ups, brushed fur, cleaned teeth, and trimmed nails. There’s no doubt their life of luxury rivals that of Bast and the other Egyptian cat gods but, fortunately for all concerned, there is no longer a penalty of death for accidental injuries.
Article By Elsa Smith
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