Revered and Reviled

by L A Vocelle

  In addition to the tomb paintings, many small pieces of limestone, called ostraca, have been found with comic portrayals of cats serving mice. In one, a spotted cat, tail wrapped to the right, holding a fan and a dead goose, makes an offering to a seated rat. The rat looks like he is holding a cocktail in his right hand and a fish bone in his left (figure 2.13).

  Another shows a sword-bearing cat holding a criminal to face a rat judge leaning on a staff. In the figure on the next page, a spotted cat holding a stick is herding six geese (figure 2.14).

  One rather comical papyrus shows cats guarding a fortress against rats. The rats are propping ladders against the ramparts and are preparing to climb them. A more senior rat, riding in a chariot drawn by dogs, shoots arrows at the cats in a Ramses-like fashion. Such a scene easily brings to mind a 4,000 year old rendition of the cartoon Tom and Jerry. The ancient Egyptians clearly had senses of humor and adeptly used anthropomorphism.

  Surprisingly, there were no sanctuaries or temples built to Bast at Thebes. Instead, Thebes was built in honor of Amun, Mut and Khonsu. Amun, the Father of all, Mut the Mother of all and Khonsu their son, were a trinity so to speak. This is the reason that fewer cat mummies have been found at Thebes than at other sites. Even so, the son of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1386-1348), Prince Thutmose, brother to Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton) was so grieved by his cat, Ta Mit’s death that he had her mummified and commissioned a sarcophagus (figure 2.15), now in the Cairo Museum, which was engraved with funerary texts that were meant to protect her in the after-life just like any person (Yurco, 1990).

  Figure 2.13. Painted Ostracon of Cat and Mouse, Deir El Medina, 1150 BC, Brooklyn Museum

  Figure 2.14. Drawing on limestone of a scene from a fable, 19th Dynasty, 1120 BC, Cairo Museum

  Figure 2.15. Prince Thutmose’s Cat Ta Mit’s Sarcophagus, Photograph by Larazoni

  Ironically, however, during the Armana period (1353-1335) reign of Akhenaton, representations of cats do not appear in the royal tombs, most probably due to the monotheism that he promoted.

  THE GODDESS BAST MENTIONED ON STELE AND PAPYRI

  Many more references to the cat goddess Bast are present on steles, papyri and inscriptions from the 18th through the 26th Dynasties at Thebes. On a stela in Miramar a man says: “I gave bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked; I gave food to the ibis, the hawk, the cat, and the jackal”… “And I have buried them according to the ritual, anointing them with oil and wrapping them in cloth” (Breasted, 1906, p. 327). An inscription by Sehetepibre refers to Amenemhet III as “He is Bast protecting the two lands.” In a dedication tablet stele found at Elephantine Island, Amenhotep II states: “There is none among them that escapes from the overthrow, like the foes of Bastet on the road of IR-Amon” (Breasted, 1906, Vol. 2, p. 311). A Karnak relief equates Mut, the goddess of all and Bast stating: “Mut, the Great Bast, ruler of Karnak, mistress of amiability and love” (Breasted, 1906, Vol. 3, p. 74). On The Book of the Dead papyrus of Ani (18th Dynasty), the longest known papyrus at 78 feet, 1 foot, 3 inches, now located in the British Museum, there is this statement:

  I am the Cat which fought near the Persea tree† in Anu on the night when the foes of Neb-er-Tcher were destroyed.

  Who is this Cat? This male Cat is Ra himself, and he was called ‘Mau’ because of the speech of the god Sa, who said concerning him: ‘He is like (Mau) unto that which he hath made; therefore, did the name of Ra become ‘Mau.’

  (Budge, 1895, p. 287)(figure 2.16)

  Figure 2.16. Ra as a Cat Slaying Apophis, Author’s drawing

  Mau or Miu was the ancient Egyptian name for cat, obviously named after the meowing sound that they make. Children were even named Mit or Miut. In Mentuhotep’s 11th Dynasty temple at Deir El Bahri there is a mummy of a five year old girl with the name Miut.

  Besides the various references to cats during the 18th thru 26th dynasties, records indicate that the goddess Bast received many gifts. On the papyrus Harris, it records the gift of a herd of cattle to Bast stating, “The Herd of Ramses Ruler of Heliopolis, L.P.H. Doer of Benefactions for his Mother Bast” (Breasted, 1906, Vol. 4, p. 184). A list of gifts given to Bast during the 22nd Dynasty includes a “gold and silver vessel presented before Bast, mistress of Bubastis” (Breasted, 1906, Vol. 4, p. 364). Another inscription of Mentemhet states, “I fashioned the august image of Bast residing in Thebes; with staves of electrum and every ….costly stone” (Breasted, 1906, Vol. 4, p. 463). And finally, in the 26th Dynasty Psamtik I records that “I brought out Bast in procession to her barge, at her beautiful feast of the fourth month of the second season (eighth month), the fifth day …” (Breasted, 1906, Vol. 4, p. 496). Finally, in a letter regarding Nubian tribute, cats from Miw (a district of Nubia) were listed as gifts (1295-1069 BC) (Petrie & Currelly, 1906). Could a whole district in Nubia have possibly been named after the cat since Miw was the name for cat in ancient Egyptian?

  Bast was deeply ingrained in the ancient Egyptian culture and religion at Thebes. The cat was loved, cherished and respected as reflected in the art-work on the tombs, ostraca, steles, papyri, and inscriptions commissioned by both nobles and pharaohs. Reverence for Bast, however, was not just apparent at Thebes, as her worship had spread throughout both Upper and Lower Egypt.

  BENI HASAN

  Large numbers of cat mummies and tomb paintings have been found near a small village called Beni Hasan, located 23 kilometers south of Minya, between Asyut and Memphis. With its necropolis located high in the limestone cliffs on the eastern side of the Nile, it was here that the famous archeologist, Flinders Petrie, found a small tomb dating to 1950 BC that contained 17 cats with little bowls that presumably held milk to sustain them on their journey to the afterlife. One of the earliest paintings of a cat is also found at Beni Hasan, on the north wall of the tomb of Bakhet III, a governor of the Oryx Nome (province) during the early Middle Kingdom, 11th Dynasty. In the painting, a cat facing right confronts a rat of equal size. In another tomb, that of Khnumhotep, a governor of the Oryx Nome during the reign of Amenemhat III (12th Dynasty), cats are also present (figure 2.17).

  The most surprising and notable find at this site was the discovery in 1888 of 80,000 mummified cats and kittens dating back to 1,000-2,000 BC. An eyewitness account by William Martin Conway, the Baron of Allington (1856-1937) states, “The plundering of the cemetery was a sight to see, but one had to stand well windward. The village children came…and provided themselves with the most attractive mummies they could find. These they took down the river bank to sell for the smallest coin to passing travelers. The path became strewn with mummy cloth and bits of cats’ skulls and bones and fur in horrid positions, and the wind blew the fragments about and carried the stink afar” (Tabor, 1991, p. 26). Egyptian fellahin had un-wrapped a great majority of the mummies looking for gold amulets. The cat mummies’ linen wrappings were then sold and exported to the United States and turned into linen-based paper during the American Civil War (1861-1865) (Yurco, 1990). The remains of the 20 tons of unwrapped cat mummies were then sold by Egyptian farmers to a British entrepreneur who had them shipped to Liverpool where he then sold them for fertilizer for four pounds a ton, a sad end to a once revered goddess (Mery, 2006).

  Not far from Beni Hasan is Speos Artemidos, as named by the Greeks, or cave of Artemis. Artemis was the equivalent Greek goddess to Bastet. The cave is located near the small village, which is today called Istabl Antar. Here, during the Middle Kingdom, Hatshepsut built two temples dedicated to Pakhet (figure 2.18), a cat goddess who had the combined attributes of both Bast and Sekhmet.

  Figure 2.17. Cat in the Marshes, Howard Carter, 1891-1893

  Detail from scene on tomb of Khnumhotep II, Beni Hasan, 1900 BC

  Figure 2.18. Temple of Pakhet, Speos Artemidos,18th Dynasty, Photograph by Einsamer Schütze

  Near the temples, large numbers of mummified cats filled the vast catacombs. Those Egyptians dedicated to the goddess Pakhet traveled great distances to bury t
heir cats in devotional ceremonies there. However, it was at Bubastis that the true importance of the cat was to reach its peak.

  BUBASTIS

  Bubastis, a city that had flourished for more than 4,000 years, is today nothing more than piles of scattered red granite blocks and a few empty graves and tombs overgrown by grass. Bubastis now lies within a fenced area near the modern day city of Zagazig, where 20th century apartments look down in sharp contrast to man’s unsuccessful attempts to challenge time and decay (figure 2.19). With its grandeur almost nonexistent and forgotten, we can only imagine the great city as it once was. Located in Lower Egypt in the eastern Delta, southwest of Tanis, its placement was strategic. Throughout history, Syrian and Persian invaders, with dreams of conquest, made their way through the Delta area, and Bubastis, to enter the heart of Egypt.

  Bubastis, Tell Basta (house of Bastet) or Per-Bastet (the domain of Bastet), located in the ancient Egyptian nome of Am-Khent (Petrie, 1906), was known as a thriving city dedicated to the cat goddess Bast from at least the 4th dynasty (2613 BC), if not earlier, until the Roman period (AD 395). In fact, Manetho (305-285 BC), a priest and the earliest Egyptian historian to document the pharaohs of Egypt, noted that there had been civil unrest in Bubastis during the 2nd Dynasty rule of King Boethos, but no artifacts dating to that time have been found. However, the names of the 4thdynasty pharaohs Cheops and Chefren, who built the great pyramids at Giza, are clearly written on several of the blocks, proving that the city at least dates back to that time.

  Figure 2.19. Bubastis Today, Photograph by Einsamer Schütze

  Bubastis reached its zenith during the 22nd dynasty of Osorkon I (924-889 BC) Sheshonk I’s eldest son. But it was his father, Sheshonk, a mercenary commander of Libyan Berber decent who proclaimed himself pharaoh in 945 BC and went on to rule Egypt from Bubastis for 21 years, bringing the city to the forefront of the ancient Egyptian empire. Even though his son, Osorkon I, was to initiate many building projects in the city during his own reign, Sheshonk too “….beautified Bubastis, his Delta residence and at Thebes undertook a vast enlargement of the Karnak Temple” (Breasted, 1909, p. 531).

  During the late period, Bubastis was visited by several important Greeks such as Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo. The writings of these men offer the best descriptions of Bubastis and the cult of the cat. Herodotus (484-425 BC) gives us a wonderful eyewitness description of the Temple of Bubastis. He writes, “In this city there is a temple very well worthy of mention, for though there are other temples which are larger and built with more cost, none more than this is a pleasure to the eyes” (Herodotus, trans., 1890, 2, 137). “Except the entrance it is completely surrounded by water; for channels come in from the Nile, not joining one another, but each extending as far as the entrance of the temple, one flowing round on the one side and the other on the other side, each a hundred feet broad and shaded over with trees; and the gateway has a height of ten fathoms, and it is adorned with figures six cubits high, very noteworthy. This temple is in the middle of the city and is looked down upon from all sides as one goes round, for since the city has been banked up to a height, while the temple has not been moved from the place where it was at the first built, it is possible to look down into it; and round it runs a stone wall with figures carved upon it, while within it there is a grove of very large trees planted round a large temple-house, with which is the image of the goddess; and the breadth and length of the temple is a furlong every way. Opposite the entrance there is a road paved with stone for about three furlongs, which leads through the market-place towards the East, with a breadth of about four hundred feet; and on this side and on that grow trees of height reaching to heaven: and the road leads to the temple of Hermes” (Herodotus, trans., 1890, 2, 138).

  When Gaston Maspero visited Bubastis in the early 19th century, he noted that the city had been destroyed and rebuilt many times, thus making the debris of the previous cities compound and rise up higher than the site of the temple just as Herodotus had noted (Maspero, 1914). A Frenchman who was part of Napoleon’s research campaign in the late 1700’s wrote, “This city, like all others, was raised on great masses of bricks. The extent of Bubastis in all directions is from twelve to fourteen hundred meters. In the interior is a great depression, in the middle of which are the monuments…” (as cited in Naville, 1891, p. 2). “According to Aristotle, Strabo and Pliny, Sesostris was the first to conceive and carry out the idea of a water connection between the two seas, by means of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile from Avaris to Bubastis, and by rendering navigable the irrigation canal which already existed between Bubastis and Herolopolis” (Maspero, Rappoport, King, & Hall, 1903, p. 250). Thus the temple to Bast stood on high ground surrounded on all sides with canals filled with water.

  ANNUAL FESTIVAL TO BAST

  Within the temple, priests cared for cats with donations from pilgrims, and eventually killed and mummified them to be sold as votive offerings to Bast. Cat amulets and statues made of bronze and gold were also sold to enthusiastic pilgrims especially during the annual festival of Bast. The Decree of Canopus, a stele written during the Ptolemaic era in two languages and three scripts, provides us with information regarding the festival of Bast. “All Egypt on the day on which the star (the Dog Star) riseth, which is called the beginning of the year in the writings of the House of Life, which shall be celebrated in the 9th year of the 1st day of the second month of the season of Shemu (summer)…on which are celebrated the festival of the goddess Bast and the great festival procession of Bast, which is the period when the crops are gathered in, and the inundation of the Nile taketh place…And the festival shall be celebrated for a period of 5 days, during which the people shall wear garlands and libations shall be made, and burnt offerings shall be offered up” (Budge, 1929, p. 272). Herodotus gives us a first-hand account of the festival: “Now, when they are coming to the city of Bubastis they do as follows: they sail men and women together, and a great multitude of each sex in every boat; and some of the women have rattles (sistrums) and rattle them, while some of the men play the flute during the whole time of the voyage, and the rest, both women and men, sing and clap their hands; and when as they sail they come opposite to any city on the way they bring the boat to land, and some of the women continue to do as I have said, others cry aloud and jeer at the women in that city, some dance, and some stand up and pull up their garments. This they do by every city along the river-bank; and when they come to Bubastis they hold a festival celebrating great sacrifices, and more wine of grapes is consumed upon that festival than during the whole of the rest of the year. To this place (so say the natives) they come together year by year even to the number of seventy myriads (700,000) of men and women, besides children” (Herodotus, trans., 1890, 2, 60). As described by Herodotus, the festival devoted to the cat goddess Bast was one of the largest celebrations held in all of ancient Egypt.

  KILLING A CAT IS A CRIME

  During the years 1887-1889, Edouard Naville excavated Bubastis and found huge pits filled with the remains of cremated cats near brick ovens that were blackened from use. In one pit he found 720 cubic feet of bones, but he noted that in many cases ichneumons (mongoose) were buried along with the cats. Naville’s find is troubling since Herodotus recounts an instance whereby cats are swallowed up by fire. “...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” (Herodotus, trans., 1890, 2, 66). This is a very strange observation that contradicts the very essence of the ancient Egyptian religion according to which the Ka (soul) should never be destroyed. How is it that the same Egyptians that forbid the killing of a cat could systematically incinerate hundreds? Killing a cat was a crime punishable by death as Diodorus Siculus states, “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. And because of their fear of such a punishment any who have caught sight of one of these animals lying dead withdraw to a great distance and shout with lamentations and protestations that they found the animal already dead. 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 honour 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 favour of the embassy from Italy which was then visiting Egypt and, in their fear, were intent upon given 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” (Siculus, trans., 1933, 83). In addition, Herodotus noted that if a cat dies in a house all the people living in that house must shave off their eyebrows in a show of mourning.

  EXCAVATION AT BUBASTIS

  Naville never did find any evidence of cats having been embalmed at Bubastis (Naville, 1891) even though Herodotus’ wrote that cats were brought from miles around to be mummified there. Later excavations in the area, however, revealed hundreds of mummified cats and rats buried in holes in the walls overlooking the human tombs. Naville instead was only able to find many bronze cat statuettes, “We discovered a few of them sitting cats, heads, the inner part of which is empty; a good specimen representing Bast standing under the form of a woman with a slender body and a cat’s head, wearing a long dress and holding in her hands a sistrum and a basket, and having at her feet four crouching kittens” (Naville, 1891, p. 53).