Egyptian Cat Goddess

Skeletal remains of cats were found.

Egyptian cat goddess. Several ancient egyptian deities were depicted and sculptured with cat like heads such as mafdet bastet and sekhmet representing justice fertility and power. As bastet was the goddess of cats she was usually depicted with a cat head and an ankh the egyptian symbol of life. Bastet was worshipped as the protector goddess of lower egypt and guardian of the pharaoh. Bastet was also defender of the chief male deity ra a solar deity.

Bastet also called bast ancient egyptian goddess worshiped in the form of a lioness and later a cat. Bast the egyptian cat goddess had numerous areas of influence that developed over time. However she was also a goddess of war known for her wrathful vengeance. She was native to bubastis in the nile river delta but also had an important cult at memphis.

Greek mythology tells of how the goddess hecate assumed the form of a cat in order to escape the monster typhon. In egyptian mythology bastet bast is the goddess of protection cats pregnancy fertility music warfare and ointments. Bastet the egyptian feline goddess. The daughter of re the sun god bastet was an ancient deity whose ferocious nature was ameliorated after the domestication of the cat around 1500 bce.

She was generally revered as the daughter of ra the creator god and king of the egyptian gods. She was a goddess of cats the sun of the east of fire of love intoxication music and dancing joy celebration. In the early days she was the fierce lion headed goddess of the lower nile who protected the pharaoh and the sun god ra. Bastet is the egyptian goddess of the home domesticity women s secrets cats fertility and childbirth.

Bast the egyptian cat goddess areas of influence. Malcapone adobe stock. The goddess cat was named bastet also known as bast. Afterwards she extended special treatment to all cats.

Bastet was originally a fierce lioness warrior goddess of the sun worshiped throughout most of ancient egyptian history but later she was changed into the cat goddess that is familiar today becoming bastet. She became both a nurturing mother figure and a terrifying avenger. Cats were praised for killing venomous snakes and protecting the pharaoh since at least the first dynasty of egypt. Cats in ancient egypt were represented in social and religious practices of ancient egypt for more than 3 000 years.

She then was depicted as the daughter of ra and isis and the consort of ptah with whom she had a son maahes. From the cradle of egypt the earliest form of bastet in ancient egyptian mythology bastet was one of the several deities that held the title of the eye of ra. She protected the home from evil spirits and disease especially diseases associated with women and children.