Cats in Ancient Egypt

Current findings indicate that, contrary to prior consensus, the domestication of the cat did not originate in Egypt, but, instead, may have first occurred in the Fertile Crescent; however, while domestication may not have originated in Egypt, it is certain that the human-cat bond took on a new dimension in Egypt as the cat moved into the household and, later, became deified as an embodiment of one of the most popular Goddesses, Bastet٭ (also known as Bast, Pasht, Pash, Bash, Ubasti, and Bubastis).  This popularity led to the breeding of cats in temple catteries; hence, Egypt is perhaps better understood as the original foci of wo/man’s efforts to intentionally breed the domestic cat. 

Cat Goddess Bast

The discovery of 9500 year old cat remains next to a human grave in Cyprus indicate that cats were domesticated or at least tamed much earlier than their recorded history in Egypt and had a close bond with humans long before the emergence of the Cat Goddess Bast.  Because Cyprus is not the natural habitat of felines, their presence there suggests that they were introduced by humans, whether intentionally or accidentally by stow away cats on trade ships.  One can imagine grain stores on trade ships being accompanied by the vermin hunting cats who then remained on the island.   

It is unclear if tamed or domesticated cats entered Egypt via trade routes or if the same African wildcat ancestor (F.s.lybica), also present in Egypt, was tamed independently from those in the Fertile Crescent, albeit at a later time.  Scientists claim that the modern domestic cat arose from one domestication event which occurred in the Fertile Crescent; hence, it can be surmised that, although F.s.lybicus was present in Egypt, the domesticated cat may have come from trade routes from the Middle and/or Near East.  Egypt is said to be the inventor of the silo and, hence, the utility of cats as vermin hunters would have been appreciated.   

Cat Hieroglyph

Th earliest cat remains in Egypt are from 4000 BC, in the grave of a primitive craftsman who was apparently buried with his pet cat.  The Egyptians would leave behind a recorded history of sorts that helps modern man tentatively decipher the earliest link between humans and cats.  Hieroglyphs and tomb paintings are forms of historical documentation.  The oldest depiction of a cat is in hieroglyhs, with the earliest roughly dated 2236-2143 BC.  The standard hieroglyph for the cat is a profile of the cat resting on its haunches with its tail curled against its body where it turns upward.  One of the earliest artistic depictions of a cat is found in a tomb painting of Khnumhotep III at Beni Hasan.  This is dated around 1900 BC, which places it in the Middle Kingdom.  The scene is of the king on a fishing trip in which the cat, along with other predators, is hidden in the marshes, surrounded by wild fowl and fish—prey from above and below.  

Khnumhotep III tomb painting of hunter with cat in the marshes (upper left).  See below for detail.

 

Detail of the above tomb image: Cat in the Marshes by Howard Carter.

There is one of two possible interpretations for the inclusion of the cat in this scene.  The cat is hidden in the marshes with other predatory animals; this may indicate that these animals were to be found in nature, hidden in the marshes on their own independent hunting endeavors.  They were merely part of man’s experience while on the hunt.  A different interpretation is that the cat’s utility to man also included that of hunting partner; the cat in the image may be participating in the hunt, even scaring the birds out of the marshes perhaps to make them more accessible to the human hunter.  The inclusion of the cat in a tomb painting may be likened to a form of sympathetic magic, using images to create a reality in the otherworld for the deceased.  In this case, the deceased is being equipped with the tools and animals necessary to live an abundant life in the afterworld, and certainly that would mean needing cats to help hunt for food.  There is one glitch here: while the cat in the scene is fashioned after the already well-established hieroglyph for the cat, it does not appear to be F.s.lybica, the ancestor of the domestic cat, but an image of the other wildcat native to Egypt, F.s. chaus (the “swamp cat”).  By all evidence, F.s.chaus was not involved in the domestication of the cat.  In fact, depictions of a striped cat (F.s.lybica) in tomb paintings does not appear until around the New Kingdom (1540-1069 BC), such as in the 1390 BC tomb of Menna.  (Insert image of hieroglyph, image of 1700 tomb painting, and NK tomb painting).  There is a smattering of vessels, amulets, and statuettes of cats dated around 1980 BC and later.

Felis chaus from wikipedia

It seems that as cats wandered from village silos to the individual households where they continued to demonstrate their skills at eliminating vermin, they became welcomed members of the household.  Eventually, the cat could also be found in domestic scenes in tombs, generally sitting under the chair of the woman of the household, with the man of the house often accompanied by a dog; hence, the connection between cat and woman was forged early in the history of felines and humans and, as some have surmised, may have fertility and sexual associations. 

Note the cat under the chair of Neferrenpet's wife (lower right).

  Later, cats would figure in many “housewife” statuettes of the Goddess Bast, as cats became linked to the household as its protector; dogs were linked to men as hunting partners.  Hence, the cat and dog association to woman and man, respectively, indicates an early “separation of the sexes” as reflected in the roles of women and men. 

The earliest depiction of a cat in a domestic setting is from the Middle Kingdom, around 1950 BC in the tomb of Baket III at Ben Hasan.  The cat, displayed next to a house attendant, is shown in confrontation with a mouse.  However, the cat may not be a domesticated feline, but simply a tame one.  The Egyptians did not distinguish wild, tame, and domesticated cats from each other in their artistic depictions, nor in hieroglyphs.  Regardless, in this image, the cat is at the least a tamed, accepted member of the household whose duty was to destroy mice with perhaps one caveat: the freedom to come and go as pleases.  Later, cats, especially in dreams, would be omens of a good harvest, presumably because cats protect crops (the harvest) from pests. 

One can surmise that entrance into the household intensified the human-cat bond and, hence, their interaction.  Cats were provided milk, shelter, and food in return for protection from vermin, including mice and snakes.  Cats became deified as protectors of the household, and the Cat Goddess emerged as an archeypal figure embodied by all cats.  The function of “ridder of evils” (i.e. protector), especially from deadly cobras and vipers, is an important attribute of the cat that later became a more generalized function of the Goddess Bast as protector of the household.  The increased coupling of cats and people in art after 1950 BC tends to parallel the cat’s increased importance in religion.  Domestic scenes that included cats increased in frequency, especially in Thebes around 1450 BC.  Temple catteries were established and were the site of extensive breeding. 

The male cat eventually became associated with the sun-god, Ra, and was later depicted on tomb walls as His ally and protector during the nightly journeys to the Underworld.  In the Coffin Texts (ca. 2100 BC), the cat is shown killing the snake, the enemy of the sun-god; the cat’s victory over the snake was important for the re-emergence of the sun the next day. 

The first Egyptian Goddess represented as a wildcat may have been Mafdet, who first appears in the Egyptian pantheon in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts.  She has been associated with the lynx, lioness, cheetah, leopard, and panther, and is the first to be represented as a cat-headed Goddess with a human body.  Perhaps the first association of a “domestic” cat with the Goddess occurred in 1290 BC on a stela of a foreman.  The female cat, represented by the standard hieroglyph, was associated with the Goddess Mut.  The image of the cat began to figure prominently on items associated with the Goddess Hathor, who is more commonly depicted with a cow’s head, including the sistrum (an Egyptian rattle) and a beaded necklace known as the menat.  Hathor was connected with regeneration and sexuality, so Her association with cats may have been due to the cat’s rather promiscuous and fertile lifestyle. 

In the first millenium BC, the city of Bubastis, or the “city of Bast,” gained importance and the association with the female cat and the Goddess Bast was forged.  Originally a lion-headed Goddess, Bast shifted to the cat-Goddess as a complementary aspect to her leonine persona, the latter being more ferocious, while the former is more playful and affectionate.  Hence, the lion and the cat were two aspects of the same Goddess.  The lion-headed Goddess, Sekhmet, would become the alter ego of Bastet.  Henceforth, animal cults grew in popularity and the temple catteries bred embodiments of the Goddess.  The black cat, which originated in Egypt (although some authors do not agree), was considered particulary sacred to Bast, and Bast was often portrayed as black.  Beginning around 900 to 30 BC, statuettes of cats and the cat-headed Goddess were numerous and included depictions of full-bodied cats with nose-rings and body markings of gold; the cat-headed Bastet in various regala; and cats associated with the household god (a dwarf), Bes.  Cat statuettes were often left at temples of Bast as offerings by pilgrims.

An example of a Statue of Bast, the Cat Goddess

At the height of the cat-cults, the killing of cats was punishable by death, and those who accidentally killed cats did not fare much better.  When the household cat died, the family went into great mourning, ritualized by the shaving of their eyebrows and ceremonial burials for the beloved cat.

Cat cemeteries were found in Bubastis (Lower Egypt), Speos Artemidos (Middle Egypt), and Memphis; there, cats were mummified and some, particulary from Memphis, were exported to Europe where they were used as fertilizer.  Further studies of cat mummies in a cat cemetery at Saqqara indicate that only 1 out of 3 cats were adults at death, with the majority being juvenile cats who suffered violent deaths: most of them died of cranial fractures, and some by strangulation.  This, coupled with other evidence, led the researchers to conclude that cats were being raised solely to sell to pilgrims as offerings to the Goddess Bast.  The presence of fake cat mummies at the same site supports this theory.

In its heyday, the cat was so sacred in Egypt that there was a ban to export them for trade; however, the neighboring Phoenicians saw the economic value in the prized felines and took to smuggling cats and trading them abroad, especially the sacred black cats.  Around 2500 years ago, cats arrived in Greece.  From grain ships leaving Alexandria, cats were shipped to the Roman Empire.  From Rome around 2000 years ago, cats spread throughout Europe.  Around the same time, domestic cats made their way to Asia, including China and India, via trade routes originating from Greece.  Domesticated cats were first introduced in America by colonists who brought them from the European homeland.            

In 350 BC, Bubastis, the city of Bast, was destroyed by the Persians.  By 30 BC, Rome ruled Egypt, and the cat cults began to decline save for the practices of common citizens.  In 390 A.D., pagan practices were squashed and so too were all vestiges of the cult of the cat in Egypt.  The cat’s status returned to that of household pet and companion rather than the embodiment of deity.  Abroad, in Europe and Asia, the cat was an esteemed pet, until the Middle Ages and its superstitions led to the brutalization of cats and women alike.  As the Goddess declined in popularity, so too did the cat.

See the Bibliography page for sources used on this site.

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٭ At least one author claimed that the variations “Bastet” and “Bast” refer to the different forms the Goddess may assume: a cat-headed woman and a full-bodied cat.  I use the terms interchangeably here.