Revered and Reviled

by L A Vocelle

  The next notable cat fossil record is of Pseudaelurus, which appeared during the middle of the Miocene period around 20 million years ago. Pseudaelurus, regarded as the ancient ancestor of all modern cats, originated in the area of South East Asia and crossed over the Bering land bridge, which connected Siberia and Alaska, at around the same time as the cat’s appearance on the evolutionary timeline. Throughout this period, crossing the world to inhabit all continents except Antarctica and Australia, cats migrated back and forth from Asia to the Americas not less than 10 times, evolving into a variety of species and lineages. Some species, such as the cheetah and lynx, migrated from the New World back to the Old, where we find them today. Amazingly, fossils of cats dating back to 12 million years ago resemble our small house cats.

  The 37 species of cats living today belong to the family Felidae and are divided into three main subfamilies: Panthera, Acinonychinae and Felinae. The cat subfamily Panthera originated around 5 million years ago and includes cats that roar: lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars; while the subfamily Acinonychinae only includes cheetahs. The final subfamily, Felinae, comprises the majority of cats, including the domestic, and appeared about 1 million years ago. Each cat has two names: the first for the genus and the second its own. For example, in the name Felis catus, Felis is for the group genus and catus is the individual’s name, meaning Domestic.

  Just as the ancestors of humans have been traced to just seven women through their mitochondrial DNA (DNA passed from mother to child), all the world’s small cats belonging to the genus Felis have been found to be descended from just five females (Driscoll, 2007). The five subspecies descended from the original five matriarchs are: the Chinese Desert cat, European, South African, Central Asian, and Near Eastern Wildcats. However, it is the Near Eastern Wildcat, also known as the African Wildcat or Felis sylvestris libyca, from which all of the world’s 600 million domesticated cats belonging to over 40 different breeds are descended.

  Felis sylvestris libyca (figure 1.3) is still found roaming wild today around the Nile Delta valley in Egypt where it is quite common. These ancestors of the domestic cat have characteristics similar to those of our modern day house cats. They are nocturnal and feed upon mice, rats, birds, reptiles and insects. Larger than everyday house cats, they typically grow to a length of between 61 and 93.5 cms, with their tail measuring 23.7 to 39 cms. They have longer legs and bodies than domestic cats, but have similar tabby markings.

  Figure 1.3. Felis Sylvestris Libyca, Edward Howe Forbush (1858-1929)

  CHARACTERISTICS OF DOMESTIC CATS

  Through the millennia cats have developed into lean carnivorous predators that have adapted to varying environments across the world. With domestication, cats’ physical characteristics changed. Both body size and brain size shrank and the size of their jaws was affected as well. “By the Middle Ages, the European cat brain was 10 percent smaller still, the same as the average cat brain of today---except for Siamese cats whose brains are yet another 5-to-10 percent smaller” (Hubbell, 2001, p. 92). Skull and jawbone sizes are the most notable difference between a domestic cat and a wild cat (American Genetic Association, 1917).

  Cats’ bodies are designed for agility, stalking, hunting, and killing. With about 250 bones and 500 muscles in their bodies and no collar bones, they perform the amazing feats of balance, jumping and landing on their feet as well as manipulating their bodies through tiny openings that we as cat owners observe every day. Both males and females tend to be very similar, though tomcats tend to be physically bigger.

  Cats have five toes on the front feet and four toes on the back feet. Sometimes cats are born with more than 5 toes and are called polydactyl. The descendants of Hemingway’s cats are famous for this abnormal inherited trait. Cats walk on their toes and have extremely sensitive soft pads that help them camouflage any noise they might make while stalking prey. All cats except the cheetah have retractable claws that are embedded into the last joint of the toe. It is important to note that when people want to declaw a cat, it is like cutting off the last joint of a finger where the nail lies.

  Feline dental traits are similar to those of all carnivores. Cats have four large canine teeth at the front of the mouth which are used to clutch and kill prey. These fangs fit neatly between the vertebrae of small rodents enabling cats to easily severe their spinal cords. The molars in the backs of their mouths are used to gnaw and tear apart meat to swallow rather than chew.

  With a sense of smell 14 times more acute than that of humans, cats obviously have a highly keen sense of smell. They use the Jacobson's organ, or vomeronasal organ, located at the top of their mouths just behind their front teeth to filter interesting scents. This is why the cat will often open its mouth after smelling a particularly tantalizing aroma.

  Cats’ sense of hearing is far superior to that of humans and dogs. Cats’ ears contain 32 muscles and can be rotated up to 180 degrees allowing them to locate the source of a sound 10 times faster than a dog. They can hear frequencies of 45,000 Hz to 64,000 Hz, while dogs can hear only to 45,000 Hz, and humans hear from just 64,000 Hz to 23,000 Hz.

  Compared to their body size, cats have the largest eyes of any carnivore. In bright light the cat’s eye is seen as just a slit, but in the dark it opens wide so that the pupil is totally round. The tapetum lucidum, the reflective part of the eye located behind the retina, enables cats to see six times better than a human at night and also makes cats’ eyes look like glowing orbs, which have for centuries conjured up emotions of fear and superstition. The inner eyelid, also called the third eyelid or nictitating membrane, protects the eye from dryness and damage. Even though they can only see the colors blue and green, cats are very sensitive to movement, and their peripheral vision gives them a field of sight of about 285 degrees.

  Because of their desert origins, cats are able to endure high temperatures of up to 56C/ 133F. Their normal body temperature is from 100.5F/38C to 102.F/38.8C and they have no sweat glands. Their hearts beat from 140 to 220 times a minute. Their kidneys are able to concentrate urine more than any other domestic species; therefore, they do not need as much water and can retain water for long periods of deprivation.

  MAN’S EARLIEST RELATIONSHIP WITH CATS, DOMESTICATION

  The major force behind any type of domestication or relationship between man and animal is that there be some sort of benefit to both. As Neolithic man turned away from a nomadic hunter gatherer lifestyle and began to settle in small villages, agriculture became important. With the knowledge that certain crops such as wheat, rye, and barley could be stockpiled, early man constructed granaries. Naturally, these stockpiles of grains attracted rats and mice, and in turn these vermin prey attracted cats. This working partnership of sorts was of benefit to both man and feline, and so the first relationship between man and cat began as a mutual, symbiotic one.

  Based on evidence of terracotta and clay cat figurines found in Syria, Turkey and Israel, some scholars believe that this relationship between man and cat, if not domestication, began in the Fertile Crescent, the cradle of civilization, some 10,000 years ago. Other proof dating back 7,000 years gives evidence of the cat’s domestication in Haçilar, Turkey, where archeologists found 22 figurines of women in various poses playing with cats. In addition, in Haçilar and Jericho the bones of small cats have been found among the archeological sites of early farming villages dating back to 6,000 and 5,000 BC (Yurco, 1990).

  Other noted scholars, however, disagree on the exact location of the first domestication of the cat. They believe that it was Felis sylvestris libyca which was first domesticated in Egypt rather than the Fertile Crescent. It is believed that from Egypt the cat spread to other surrounding Mediterranean countries on board Phoenician trading ships undoubtedly laden with cargoes of grain. French archeologists suspect that this was how the first cat landed in the stone age village of Shillourokambos, Cyprus where they found a grave of a cat and its master dating to 9,500 years ago (Rincon, 2004). The eight-month old cat h
ad been killed and then buried only 40 cms away from its human companion aged around 30 years. What was this person’s relationship to the cat? Could it have been religious? Was the cat simply a pet? Because the grave also included the highest number of ceremonial ornaments and shells, more than any other grave found as of yet for the whole Preceramic and Aceramic Neolithic ages in Cyprus, the person was most probably of important social status (Vigne, Guilaine, Debue, Haye, & Gerard, 2004). Both the head of the cat and that of the person were facing West with their backs to the South indicating some sort of special or perhaps religious relationship between them. In addition, there are no cat species native to Cyprus; hence, cats had to have been brought via ships from a nearby Mediterranean country. However, another theory is that domesticated cats were brought from Turkey by farmers; thus, strengthening the theory that cats had already been domesticated in the Fertile Crescent (Wade, 2007).

  Recently, however, an African wildcat, Felis sylvestris libyca, was discovered in an Egyptian Pre-Dynastic burial pit dating to around 3,700 BC or to approximately 5,700 years ago. The cat had been buried along with a man curled into a fetal position, and wrapped in cloth surrounded with items of jewelry and pots not unlike the Cyprus find. The Mostagedda tomb at Hierakonpolis, near modern day Asyut, was the capital of Upper Egypt from approximately 5000-3100 BC (Linseele, Van Neer, & Hendrickx, 2007). Evidence from this tomb refutes claims that the cat had not been domesticated prior to the 11th Dynasty, a theory based on the fact that there had not been any representations of cats found in the Pre-Dynastic periods.

  Because of the cat’s importance in protecting food stores and its ability to ingratiate itself with its human keepers, it began to be more widely domesticated by the ancient Egyptians sometime during the 5th Dynasty (2750-2625 BC). A frieze of a cat sitting under a chair with a collar around its neck is depicted on a tomb wall in Saqqara dating from the 5th Dynasty. Once the cat established its rightful place as protector of the granaries, farmers and villagers must have welcomed it into private homes in order to rid them not only of the usual vermin of rats and mice, but also of the more deadly threats of snakes and scorpions. Therefore, in the beginning, cats established themselves as protectors of food stores and subsequently became pets as well.

  In all probability cats were domesticated more than once and in various locations at differing times (Mott, 2006). New evidence even indicates that cats had been domesticated earlier than 3,000 BC in China. This would not be unlikely since Felis sylvestris libyca, the ancestor of all domesticated cats, ranged from Arabia and the Near East to Southern USSR east to China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern and central India; Sardinia, Corsica and Majorca; North Africa, as well as savannah regions south of the Sahara (Ewer, 1997). However, as archeologists continue to unearth more ancient villages, a more exact date and place for the first domestic relationship between cat and man may be discovered and proven. What is indisputable is that man’s bond with cats has been a long one.

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE CAT AS GODDESS

  “Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy circle; thou art indeed the Great Cat.”

  Inscription on a royal tomb in Thebes

  BEGINNINGS OF THE CULT OF THE CAT

  It took hundreds of years from the first evidence of the cat’s domestication for it to become worshipped as a goddess during the Middle Kingdom reign of Mentuhotep III. Being a pet and being worshipped were not mutually exclusive. The ancient Egyptians had cats as household pets, and at the same time kept sacred temple cats for worship and sacrifice. Observing their behavior in their households, the Egyptians saw what they perceived to be the divine characteristics of God within the cat. Thus, the cat rose from an ordinary pet to become the goddess Bast. Ancient Egyptians, however, did not believe that God was literally a cat. Instead, they worshipped the characteristics of God that they believed to be manifested in the cat. Humans, animals and even plants had equal status and were a part of the great all, spirit, or God Amun. Animals were the earthly representations of the Gods because animals had powers that man lacked: flight, speed, and a keen sense of sight, smell and hearing.

  It is easy to see why the ancient Egyptians considered cats to be godlike. With five more senses than humans have, cats, by their very nature, are much more sensitive to their surroundings than man. As mentioned in Chapter One, cats’ acute sense of smell allows them to sense pheromones in their environment through the vomeronasal organ located at the top of their mouths. In addition, all cats seem to have a certain homing sense. How many stories have we all heard about cats traveling great distances to find their lost families? Their ability to predict the weather through an organ located in their ears was creatively mentioned in folklore, suggesting that every time a cat moves its paw up and over its ear there is likely to be rain. Also well documented, is their ability to predict imminent earthquakes based on numerous stories of cats behaving in an agitated manner right before the tremors started. And last but not least, cats have an uncanny way of predicting death. The case of Oscar, a Rhode Island nursing home feline companion that curls up next to people who are about to die, has been widely reported. Oscar has been so correct in his predictions, 50 to date, that nursing home personnel call relatives when Oscar indicates that someone’s time is near, as usually only a few hours remain. Because of these uncanny abilities, the ancient Egyptians, understandably awed, deemed the enigmatic cat a goddess.

  The cult of the cat did not spread throughout ancient Egypt quickly or at an even pace. Because of the diversity of tribes and their differing beliefs, and primarily due to geographical location and social status, new religious ideas traveled slowly through Pre-Dynastic Egypt. With the gradual unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3150 BC, ideas and beliefs were exchanged more readily. Due to this unification, the cult centers for the goddess Bast spread from Lower Egypt to Upper Egypt. Even though ancient Egypt was animist and pantheistic, not all cities had temples erected to all gods. Instead, citizens of some cities worshipped specific gods such as Neith, the goddess of war in Sais; Hathor, the goddess of childbirth and dance in Serabit; Mut, the goddess of all in Thebes; and eventually Bast, the cat goddess in Bubastis. This did not mean that these goddesses were not worshipped elsewhere, but that they were the primary goddesses in the cities mentioned above.

  THE GODDESS BAST’S EVOLUTION AND RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER MATERNAL GODDESSES

  The evolution of the goddess Bast took place gradually over the entire span of the ancient Egyptian kingdom. The gods and goddesses were continually changing, sharing and combining attributes. Because of the complexity of the Egyptian pantheon, various theories of the origin of the goddess Bast have emerged. Archeologists believe that in the Old Kingdom Bast was first combined with the goddesses Nut and Hathor; in the Middle Kingdom Bast merged with Mut, the mother and creator of all; in Memphis, Bast was blended with her evil sister Sekhmet, the lion goddess; in Heliopolis, Bast was identified with Tefnut, daughter of Atum; and at Edfu she was called the “Ba,” or soul of Isis (Redford, 2003).

  NUT AND HATHOR

  Some archeologists and researchers think that Bast merged into the sky goddess Nut, as well as into the deities Bes and Neith. “At the ancient shrine of Denderea she (the Sky Goddess Nut) was the cow-goddess Hathor; at Sais she was the joyous Neit; at Bubastis in the form of a cat, she appeared as Bast, while at Memphis her genial aspects disappeared and she became a lioness, Sekhmet, the goddess of storm and terror” (Breasted, 1908, p. 60).

  The sky goddess Nut was one of the oldest deities of Egypt. Originally the goddess of the night sky, she also appeared as a cow; and thus, a crossover to Hathor, and hence like Hathor, a protector of children and childbirth. Hathor was the cow goddess whose horns contained stars linking her to the sky. She was also a goddess protector of motherhood, childbirth, children, music, dance and fertility. She and Bes were two of the few deities that in stat
uary looked straight forward, which was symbolic of their ability to be all-seeing protectors. Flinders Petrie, a renowned ancient Egyptian archeologist, noticed that “The cat seems to have been specifically related to the worship of Hathor at Serabit. We find ….also flat tablets with figurines of cats” (Petrie & Currelly, 1906, p. 148). “The cats are sometimes on pedestals...Hence it seems as if it were treated as a sacred animal.” In addition, the cat is also evident on faience plaques at the temple of Hathor at Serabit El-Khadim in Sinai. A glazed ring stand shows the head of Hathor with two cats posed as guardians at each side (Petrie & Currelly, 1906, p. 10).

  SEKHMET

  Sekhmet the lion goddess (figure 2.1), who had her own cult, was Bast’s evil sister or alter ego. She is often portrayed as a woman with the head of a lion above which a solar disk with a uraeus sits. Sometimes she holds a scepter and sometimes a knife.

  Figure 2.1. Sekhmet, Author’s Photograph

  Likewise, Bast often has the head of a cat and the body of a woman (figure 2.2). She is the sweet, nurturing smaller feline, while Sekhmet is the fierce bloodthirsty lion imbued with all the warlike destructive powers of the sun god Ra. Translated, the goddess Sekhmet’s name means: Powerful One, Evil Trembles before Me, Dread, and Queen of Death and Destruction. Ra, the sun god, in a myth about an annually celebrated festival in honor of Sekhmet, created the lion goddess for the purpose of destroying those people who rebelled against him. Sekhmet set about her task with such enthusiasm that she destroyed almost all of mankind. To stop her bloodthirsty killing, Ra had to devise a plan to trick her. So, he turned the Nile the color of blood in order to have her drink it. Ra did not actually turn the Nile into blood, but instead made it into a mix of pomegranate juice and beer which made her drunk and unable to continue her slaughter of humanity. Needless to say, Sekhmet’s formidable nature was well known amongst the ancient Egyptians and mindfully celebrated in order to placate her terrorizing ways.