Cat, god, and pet in ancient Egypt

Cats were very common pets in most Egyptian homes. As today, pets were identified by a family name chosen by their ownersalthough an onomatopoeia is used to denote the cat in general: I. Likewise, a very common female name from the Middle Kingdom was Tamit, which literally means “cat.”

The appreciation for these cats is evident in the numerous funeral scenes in which they are represented. together with their masters in daily activities. These domestic cats (felis libya) they kept houses and barns free from rats as well as small snakes and scorpions. His integration with home life was absolute in all areas.

a satirical figure

The presence of cats is common in the satirical drawings of Deir el-Medina workers on both papyrus and ostracons (inscribed pottery fragments). Some really brave scenesalmost on the edge of lèse majesté, hilariously, and of course behind closed doors, they identified the pharaoh with the mouse.… earn the respect of a big cat!

The presence of cats is common in the satirical drawings of Deir el-Medina workers on both papyrus and ostracons.

And several symbolic scenes, already ready for satire, resisted the ingenuity of these craftsmen of the king. On the pillars of New Kingdom temples, the presence of the pharaoh riding his chariot, destroying Asians and Nubians with his arrows, is common. Very repetitive scene Ramses IIThe supposed winner of Kadesh, who crushed the enemy, also got his answer in a certain version drawn by his own workers. shown as an archer mouse attacking a castle defended by cats. Who can assure us, without compromising Aesop’s virtues, that the great Greek fabulist, like other citizens, did not seek his inspiration in ancient Egypt?

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Pets in Ancient Egypt

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Honored by the pharaohs

Cats not only enjoyed interest among ordinary people, their popularity also reached real heights. This is confirmed by a piece of painting from the Metropolitan Museum of New York, in which a cat appears under the arm of Tiy, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III. In any case, there was nothing that could compare to the affection that a son of this king showed for his cat. An extraordinary limestone sarcophagus found in ancient Memphis is preserved in the Cairo Museum. Amenhotep III’s first child, Prince Thutmosis’s cat, belongs to Tamit, and should have taken his place if he hadn’t died early. Tamit is buried with all honor: the four sons of Isis, Nephthys and Horus appear in her sarcophagus. As if that weren’t enough, Tamit’s “Osiris” appears as “a just voice before the great god (Osiris)”. Many cats, in moderation, rest with their owners in cat-shaped wooden sarcophagi.

An extraordinary limestone sarcophagus found in ancient Memphis is preserved in the Cairo Museum. Prince Thutmose’s cat belongs to Tamit.

A drawing by Sir William Flinders Petrie, copied from an unidentified Theban tomb, shows a cat accompanying its owner on a ritual bird hunt in a canal. This repeated scene shows that The cat helped his master by blowing up the birds hit by the hunter’s boomerang. This activity also had an intrinsic religious component, as these scenes also represented the struggle against chaos, which was symbolized by ragged flocks of birds. Bird hunting was considered a restoration of history. mom, the order established “on the first day” by the god Atum. And daily life in Egypt is inseparable from its ubiquitous religious aspect.

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Animal mummies in ancient Egypt

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Cat Bastet, goddess of the people

One of the goddesses enjoying the most popular enthusiasm was the cat Bastet, who was especially revered in Bubastis in the Delta. Bastet was an aspect of another less sweet and kind goddess, the angry lioness Sekhmet, who was also a manifestation of Hathor, the goddess of love and music, the beautiful woman who could also take the form of a cow. All this apparent confusion becomes clear if we consider that there was “one” god for the Egyptians: Re, the Sun. These various forms were the gods and goddesses that made up the colorful Egyptian pantheon. This multiple divine unfolding should be understood as different aspects of a single whole. The gods formed thousands of different moods of Re.

Bastet was an aspect of another less sweet and gentle goddess, the angry lioness Sekhmet, who was also a manifestation of Hathor, the goddess of love and music.

The festive manifestation of Re incarnated in his daughter Hathor, a divine emanation of the “father of all gods.” Enraged, Hathor, once pacified, transformed into the lioness goddess Sekhmet, who became Bastet.docile cat So, we see that the mechanisms of popular religiosity towards a god or goddess are not all that difficult to understand.

The cult of Bastet dates back to late Tinite times. (2nd dynasty), and especially during the XXVI dynasty. to the hour, as the patron goddess of motherhood and the home. She was later represented as a cat protecting her cubs in beautiful bronze statues and small amulets. The goddess’s name was inscribed with a bottle of ointment; This may be related not only to a possible funeral cult, but also to the fact that one of the ingredients of ointments (perfumes) is cat oil.

But the cat Bastet wasn’t the only cat in the Egyptian pantheon. In the tombs of the New Kingdom, and especially at Deir el-Medina, we see the “Great Cat of Heliopolis” killing the serpent Apophis.This “friend of Re” symbolized the light that defeated the darkness.

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Sekhmet, bloodthirsty and healing lioness goddess

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cat cemetery

In the Late Period (8-4th century BC), the cult of Bastet led to the proliferation of its temples. Cats were bred in them, and apparently after sacrifice they were mummified and buried in cat-shaped sarcophagi or ceramic jars.

In the Bubastis necropolis, human tombs are found next to cat tombs, which are buried as a manifestation of the cat goddess Bastet.

The main necropolises are located at Saqqara and Bubastis. in Bubastis’s graves of people are found next to the graves of cats buried as a manifestation of Bastet. Although it was desecrated in ancient times Several bronze cat masks, some of them gold, were recovered. A recent example is the tomb of Tutankhamun’s nurse, Maia, found next to Bubasteion in Saqqara in 1996. Its beautiful interior was littered with cat mummies that had turned into a cat graveyard similar to those that already existed under the sands of the Saqqara desert.

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Treasure of the cat goddess of Bubastis

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