by L A Vocelle
Figure 2.2. Statue of Bast, 400-250 BC, Permission of Walters Museum
Because of the cat’s reputation for being a good mother, the primary goddesses and gods, excluding Sekhmet of course, that associated with Bast also protected motherhood, children, fertility and the home. Hence, Tefnut, goddess of water and fertility and the mother of Nut; Neith, the goddess of war and also the protector of women and marriage at Thebes; and the god Bes, the protector of homes, were all associated with protecting motherhood, children and fertility. Since the average age of death was around 35, the need to increase the birth rate was of great importance. The focus on fertility, motherhood and the protection of the home was a constant priority, and thus, the cat, as a symbol of fertility and motherhood, became an essential deity.
THE GOD BES
Prior to Bast’s association with Hathor, the cat goddess might have originated from the god Bes, whose name in Nubian means cat. Bes, a short dwarf-like figure with a cat face, sometimes wearing a cat skin with a tail hanging down to his feet, came from ancient Nubia and perhaps represents a Sudanese dancer from the Dinka tribe. Bes, known as the god of dance, also protected infants from evil. Perhaps the fact that Bes was a champion of children and dance crossed over to the cat goddess Bast. Bast, the ultimate mother figure, is often represented holding a sistrum, a musical instrument based on the form of the ankh.
The sistrum (figure 2.3), a type of rattle called a “shaker” made of bronze, gold or silver, was most probably of African origin. It was held in the hand and shaken to emit a loud shrill sound during dances, music festivals and rituals for Isis/Hathor. However, according to Virgil in the Aeneid, the army used it much as a trumpet is used to sound reveille today, to call troops together (Virgil, trans. 1910, 8: 696). The rounded top represents a woman’s womb, while the bottom handle symbolizes of the male phallus. The rounded loop has four bars representing the four elements of nature: fire, water, air, and earth that shake when moved upon the bend of the sistrum. According to Plutarch, the body of a cat with a human face often decorated sistrums.
Figure 2.3. Egyptian Sistrum with cat on top, Encyclopaedia Biblica, 1903
Sometimes one side of the sistrum had the face of Isis, symbolic of birth, and on the other side, the face of Nephthys, symbolic of death (Oldfield, 2003, p. 28). Both represented man’s eternal journey from birth to death. Isis, herself, would later be depicted holding a sistrum (figure 2.4).
Figure 2.4. Isis holding a sistrum, Musei Capitolini, Italy
THE GODDESS MUT
Bast continued to be associated with other goddesses that were protectors of motherhood and children, such as the ancient Egyptian mother or creator goddess Mut. “In the temple of Koptos the goddess Mut of Thebes was called onetime Bast...”(Erman, 1907, p. 59). Mut’s sacred animal was the cat, as jars and vases used in rituals for Mut found at the temple of Luxor at Thebes were decorated with cats (Lesko, 1999). Mut was at one point assimilated into Hathor when the power of Thebes was in decline. Then Mut, Hathor and Isis merged. However, during the reign of Hatshepsut in the 18th dynasty, Mut once again found her rightful place amongst the gods and goddesses. During this dynasty, Hatshepsut identified herself with Mut and thus rebuilt her temples, only later to have the worship of Mut banned by Akhenaton. However, under the reign of Tutankhamen the creator goddess was brought to life once again and worshipped until the end of the 3rd century AD. Farther down the Nile from Thebes at Beni Hasan, Hatshepsut also built temples to Pakhet, meaning she who scratches, another minor cat goddess.
THE GODDESS ISIS
The relationship between Bast and Isis, the goddess of sun and moon, is a pivotal one that reaches far into the future history of the cat, influencing the symbolism of the black cat and other important aspects, which will be explored later. However, some of the first evidence of this Bast/Isis connection is on the walls of the New Kingdom Temple of Isis at Philae where the sun and moon goddess is summoned as Bast (figure 2.5).
In addition, word of the city Bubastis had traveled as far as the Greek Isles where an inscription there states that the city of Bubastis, the city that we all believe was dedicated to the cat goddess Bast, was actually built in honor of Isis. The inscription, referring to Isis, states, “…I am she who is called the goddess of women. The town of Bubastis was built in my honour” (Erman, 1907, p. 244).
Another example of Isis/Bast merging is a small figure of Bast under the throne of Isis in The Turin Table, also known as The Bembine Table of Isis (figure 2.6).
Figure 2.5. Temple of Isis at Philae
Figure 2.6. Cat under Isis’s Chair, Bembine Table of Isis, Reprint from Manly P. Hall's, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928
Named after Cardinal Bembo, who bought the table from a Roman in 1527, it is a fine example of metallurgy, as it comprises gold, silver, bronze, tin and copper. Even though thought to have been made in Rome, its style is quite Egyptian.
Furthermore, there are many terracotta statuettes of Bast with an Isaic knot (Clarysse, 1998). The Isaic knot, known in the Egyptian language as Tyet, resembles an ankh and like the ankh represents eternal life.
The cult of Isis continued on the Egyptian island of Philae even after paganism was outlawed. It was the Emperor Justinian, in an effort to completely eradicate the cult, who ordered the destruction and defacement of the sculptures at the large temple of Isis. Despite Justinian’s efforts to end the cult once and for all, due to the ever persistent onslaught of Christianity, the cult of Isis survived and still exists today as The Fellowship of Isis, with its center located in Clonegal Castle in Northern Ireland.
THE GODDESS BAST IS WORSHIPPED
The cat goddess was a very important deity to the ancient Egyptians, confirmed by their unfailing devotion to her not only in one part of the kingdom, but also at various locations in both Upper and Lower Egypt. Saqqara, Thebes, Beni Hasan and finally Bubastis are sites that provide us with ample evidence of the worship of Bast and the cult of the cat.
SAQQARA (MEMPHIS)
Saqqara, located not far from the pyramids of Giza, is famous as the home of the great step pyramid of Zozer, and it is at Saqqara that one of the earliest tomb paintings of a domesticated cat with a collar around its neck dates to the 5th dynasty (2500-2350 BC). Though Pre-Dynastic Saqqara was originally a burial place for royalty, it slowly became a burial site for high officials of the royal court when the kings and queens abandoned it for Thebes and Fayoum during the Middle Kingdom. Later, however, Saqqara again served as a burial site for royalty equaled to that of the Valley of the Kings in Thebes (Zivie, 2008).
The Saqqara plateau is not only the last resting place of important officials and viziers of the royal court, but it is also home to two main animal burial grounds.The first site, located north of the step pyramid has burial evidence of cows and ibises as well as falcons and baboons nearby. The second site, east of the pyramids of Teti and Weserkaf (Bard & Schubert, 1999), has cats, dogs and jackals dating back to the 5th dynasty (2750-2625 BC)(figure 2.7). The entrance to the necropolis of cats is called the Bubasteion (Door of Cats), in Egyptian Arabic Bab el Quttat, or the Greek name for this area, temenos, meaning an area dedicated to a God or a place of worship.
Figure 2.7. Animal Necropolis at Saqqara,
Photograph by Hajor, December 2002
These cat burials are among the tombs of officials from other dynasties. Some New Kingdom tombs were even reused for cats; an example is that Vizier Aper-El’s tomb contained remains of cats dating back to 730-160 BC (Zivie & Chapuis, 2008). Remarking on his finds in 1815, Giovanni Belzoni wrote, “I must not omit that among these tombs we saw some which contained the mummies of animals intermixed with human bodies….and one tomb was filled with nothing but cats, carefully folded in red and white linen, the head covered by a mask representing the cat, and made of the same linen” (Belzoni, 1890, p. 168) (figure 2.8).
Figure 2.8. Giovanni Belzoni, From Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries Within the Pyramids, Temples, To
mbs and Excavations in Egypt and Nubia by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, London, 1820
Most of the cats at Saqqara were young, about 4 months old, and were killed by head trauma which was sometimes so violent that the skull split in two. Other cats, based on evidence of dislocated vertebrae, were killed by strangulation. The bodies of the cat mummies were in differing stages of decay and in one of two positions. In the first form of mummification, the front legs are placed downward in front of the body and the back legs, often purposely broken, are folded up in front of the stomach with the tail placed through them, thus making the cat a tubular shape (figure 2.9).
Figure 2.9. Cat Mummy, Rosecrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California
The second type of mummy has the head, legs and body individually wrapped (figure 2.10). Some, but not all of these cat mummies, have painted faces that show the facial features such as the ears, nose and eyes. Some cats, depending upon the wealth of their owners, have their own mummy cases. The bodies of the cases were usually made of wood and the heads either bronze or gilded. Others, especially those during the late period, had quite opulent sarcophagi. We know from Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian, that “When one of these animals dies they wrap it in fine linen and then, wailing and beating their breasts, carry it off to be embalmed; and after it has been treated with cedar oil and such spices as have the quality of imparting a pleasant odour and of preserving the body for a long time, they lay it away in a consecrated tomb” (Siculus, trans., 1933, p. 285). He continues by adding, “When any animal dies they mourn for it as deeply as do those who have lost a beloved child, and bury it in a manner not in keeping with their ability but going far beyond the value of their estates”(Siculus, trans., 1933, p. 291).
Figure 2.10. Cat Mummy, 332 BC, Antiquité égyptienne, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Most of the mummified cats were raised in the sacred temples to be sold to pilgrims as votive offerings to Bast. Thus, this reinforces the fact that they were domesticated. According to Dr. Ikram, the founder and co-director of the animal mummy project at the Egyptian museum, “….the existence of vast quantities of cats fed in the precinct of the temple (before being ritually killed and eventually buried in dedicated catacombs) tends to prove that the majority of these cats were domestic animals, with the wild cats being an anomaly” (Ikram, 2005, p. 118).
Mummification of a variety of animals, not just cats, was widespread from the earliest dynasties and was carried out for three reasons. Firstly, owners wanted to assure their beloved pets’ immortality. Secondly, animals were mummified as a source of food for a deceased human of high status during his or her journey into the afterlife. And finally, the most important reason was simply that of religious belief. Offering a votive mummy to the goddess Bast, for example, was done to receive blessings for fertility, safe childbirth, and healthy children. Because of the importance of garnering favors with the goddess Bast, a whole industry sprung up around the cult. Cats were raised at the temples for the specific purpose of being sold to pilgrims for mummification (Dodson, 2009). Thus, there had to be animal keepers, embalmers and most importantly priests. Here Herodotus writes in his History, “…persons have been appointed of the Egyptians, both men and women, to provide the food for each kind of beast separately, and their office goes down from father to son; and those who dwell in the various cities perform vows to them thus, that is, when they make a vow to the god to whom the animal belongs, they shave the head of their children either the whole or the half or the third part of it, and then set the hair in the balance against silver, and whatever it weighs, this the man gives to the person who provides for the animals, and she cuts up fish of equal value and gives it for food to the animals. Thus food for their support has been appointed” (Herodotus, trans., 1890, 2, 65). The pharaohs, ever ready to fill their coffers, encouraged the activity to increase tax revenues, and offered incentives to those who wanted to avoid serving as common laborers or in other less noble endeavors.
THE PROCESS OF MUMMIFICATION
The process of mummifying a cat started with first removing all its internal organs and then stuffing the empty body cavity with sand or straw. Once this was accomplished, the body was arranged into a sitting or tubular position. The cat’s body was then anointed with fats/oils as well as beeswax, sugar gum and various spices such as cinnamon and marjoram. Afterwards the body would then be wrapped tightly in white or other colored linen. In the Roman period, cat mummies were wrapped in linen with various geometrical designs and colors. Their faces were then modeled in linen and plaster. Sometimes small gold amulets were placed in between the wrapping layers (Malek, 1993). Once completely wrapped and sealed with various resins and bitumen, the cat would be ready to have its facial features drawn and painted in black ink.
PYRAMID TEXTS
Saqqara has not only offered archeologists a treasure trove of tombs and mummies, but also the pyramid texts: texts written in limestone which contain thousands of lines of hieroglyphs describing myths and religious rituals. Gaston Maspero, in 1894, was the first to discover and then translate these texts in which we find a reference to the cat goddess Bast.
“28. Litany of Ascension, Utterances 539
When he ascends and lifts himself to the sky,
The heart of Nefekare is like that of Bastet”
(Mercer, 1952).
Bast is again mentioned on The Metternich Stele found at Heliopolis, not far from Saqqara. The Metternich Stele or Magical Stele (figure 2.11), dates to the 30th dynasty around 380-342 BC during the reign of Nectunebo II and was later taken to Alexandria by Alexander the Great. In 1828, Mohammed Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt, gave it to Prince Metternich, a well-known German-Austrian diplomatic strategist. The main purpose of the stele is to give magical remedies for healing poisoning, mostly caused by scorpions. Below is an example of one of the spells used to cure Bast of the sting of a scorpion by invoking Ra.
O Re! Come to thy daughter (Bast), whom a scorpion has bitten on a lonely Road!
- Her cry reaches even to heaven…..poison oppresses her limbs, and Flows in her flesh, and she turns her mouth to it, (i.e. She attempts to suck the injured part) Re answers her: Do not fear, do not fear, my splendid daughter; Behold, I stand behind thee. It is I who destroy the poison, that is in all the Limbs of this cat (Erman, 1907, p. 150).
Even though much of the necropolis of cats at Saqqara has been desecrated throughout the ages, and the sanctity of the spot has long been lost, the memory of the power of the cat in ancient Egypt cannot help but live on there and in Thebes to which we now turn.
Figure 2.11. The Metternich Stele, From The Gods of The Egyptians, E. A. Budge, 1904
THEBES
Thebes was known in the ancient Egyptian language as Waset, and also as “No Amun.” The Bible refers to it as the City of Amun, and to the Greeks, it was Diospolis meaning “Heavenly City”. The Theban tombs are located in the mountains on the western side of the Nile. A short boat ride across from the city of Luxor, the temple of Luxor and the temple of Karnak border the eastern side of the great river. Tombs with depictions of cats are centered in four major burial sites: Deir el Medina, Sheikh Abd el Qurna, Dra Abu el Naga, and El Khokha.†
Theban mostaba tombs date back as far as the 3rd and 4th dynasties, but nothing remains of the Old Kingdom settlement today. During that time, the main area for burials of nobles and royalty was Saqqara. However, there is a tomb dating to the 11th dynasty in which a statue of a person named King of Hana, a Babylonian title, was found. Imperiously sitting at the king’s feet is a cat named Bouhaki (Simpson, 1903, p. 5). The name roughly translated means the house of the divine healer. “Bou” meaning house and “hak” the symbol of the divine healer, form the first cat name to appear in history.
THE GODDESS BAST IN ART
It was only during the Middle Kingdom 18th Dynasty through the late period that Thebes became an important site for nobles’ tombs where depictions of scenes from everyday life decorate their walls. In contrast, the wal
l paintings in the tombs of the pharaohs tend to concentrate more on religious scenes. Consequently, it is from these nobles’ tombs that we are able to understand more about ancient Egyptians’ every day activities such as hunting and fishing, as well as their pastimes of dancing and attending banquets. Of significance, however, is the fact that on these tomb walls are various depictions of cats that obviously played an integral role in everyday life.
Of all the depictions of the ancient Egyptian cat, those found on the walls of the tombs at Thebes are among the most fantastic and illuminating. These tombs contain the greatest number of cats in hunting and domestic scenes. Cats are hunting birds and fish, as well as posed in domestic scenes where they are sitting under or tied to chairs usually occupied by women or the mother goddess Mut. They also appear gnawing on bones or sitting with other animals such as geese and monkeys.
Found in the tomb of Puimre dating to about 1450 BC is another cat named, Nedjem or translated the Pleasant One. From this date, wall paintings became even more prevalent amongst the tombs’ of the nobles. One of the most famous wall paintings comes from the tomb of Nebamun, now in the British Museum, and shows a cat helping a young noble catch wild fowl (figure 2.12).
Figure 2.12. Tomb of Nebamun, 18th Dynasty, 1350 BC, British Museum, Photograph by Marcus Cryon
Additionally, on a wall painting in the tomb of Pharaoh Siptah (19th Dynasty) the cat is so revered that it is included among the 75 manifestations of Ra.