Sunday, 10 February 2008
How cats populated in Ancient Egypt
Vermin such as rats, mice and snakes were becoming an abomination in Egypt, bringing diseases into households. This attracted cats as the vermin was their food supply. The Egyptians started to notice that the cats were starting to kill off the rats, mice etc and were becoming less scared of approaching the human settlement, they started seeing this as a sign from Mafdet - The Goddess of Justice and Execution because she had the head of a lioness which depicted a cat. Mafdet was also viewed as the protector goddess of Lower Egypt and the Pharaoh's Protector. Seeing the resemblence between the goddess and the cat they started to believe that she wasn't just the Goddess of Justice and Execution and began changing her appearence, giving her a more mothering look because Egyptians saw cats as mothering objects. The cat goddess Bast, eventually replaced the cult of mafdet and through time completely changed her image and identity, completly transforming her from Mafdet the Goddess of Justice and Execution into Bast the Goddess of Protection, Fertility and Motherhood.
Cats were eventually domesticated and used as household pets for the purpose of killing off the vermin, this is where the idea of owning household cats originated.
Transformed:
You can see how the appearence of the two have altered, bast has a softer looking image, also having the body of a woman to symbolise motherhood, whereas Mafdet has a more fierce look although i do think that she has rather sad looking eyes.
