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In Egyptian mythology (or Egyptian religion) is the name for the succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt until the coming of Christianity and Islam. The timespan involved is nearly three thousand years, and beliefs varied considerably over time, so an article or, indeed, even one whole book, cannot... Egyptian mythology, Bastet was a A solar deity is a deity who represents the Sun. People have worshipped the Sun and solar deities for all of recorded history. Hence, many beliefs and legends have been formed around this worship. Although many sources contend that solar deities are generally male, and the brother, father, husband and... solar deity and a goddess of fertility and protector of pregnant women. She also has power over For Solar Eclipse, the alien friend of the rubber doll Betty Spaghetty, see Betty Spaghetty Photo taken by John Walker during the Zambia 2001 eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth are on a single line with the Moon in the middle. Seen from the Earth... solar eclipses. Bast was represented as early as the History of Ancient Egypt Second Dynasty The names of the actual rulers of the Second Dynasty are in dispute. For the first five kings, the sources are fairly close in agreement: Name Years Reigned Hotepsekhemwy 38 Raneb (also read Nebra) 39 Nynetier 23 Weneg 8 Senedj 20 However, the identity... Second Dynasty of the The Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to that period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization complexity and achievement - this was the first of three so-called Kingdom periods which mark the high points of civilisation in the Nile Valley (the... Old Kingdom as a woman with a feline head. Domestic cat-headed Bast, as she appears in the The term Middle Kingdom can refer to; the country, China a period in the History of Ancient Egypt, the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. If an article link referred you here... Middle Kingdom, is a content goddess; lioness-headed Bast is potentially dangerous. The addition of the "t" on the end of "Bas" indicates that she is a female goddess. Adding the "et" is just another feminization of an already feminine word.

Bast is strongly associated with the goddesses Categories: Stub | Egyptian goddesses | Health goddesses | War goddesses ... Sekhmet, ... Pakhet, Luxor Museum Hathor in hieroglyphs In Egyptian mythology, Hathor (the house of Horus) was an extremely popular fertility goddess, associated with the cow. Her name refers to her position as the celestial cow which encircles the sky and hawk god, Horus. She was also a goddess of royalty. Her cult... Hathor, and In Egyptian mythology, Mut (mother) is the patron goddess of Thebes. Some of Mut’s titles included “World-Mother,” “Eye of Ra,” “Lady of Heaven,” “Mother of the Gods,” and “She Who Gives Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of... Mut. Her This article does not discuss cult in its original sense of religious practice; for that usage see cult (religion). See also destructive cult and Cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term cult. In religion and sociology, a cult is a group of people devoted to beliefs and goals which... cult was centered in Bubastis is an Ancient Egyptian city, located along the River Nile in the Delta region of Lower Egypt. It was a center of worship for the cat-goddess Bastet (also called Bast or even Bubastis), and it served as the capital of the nome of Bubastites. It became a royal... Bubastis. After the period of Hellenistic civilization, Bast became a In the study of mythology, a lunar deity is a god or goddess associated with or symbolizing the Moon: see Moon (mythology). These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related to or an enemy of the solar deity. Lunar... lunar deity whom the Greeks associated with their This article is about the Greek goddess. For other meanings of the term, see Artemis (disambiguation). The Artemis of Versailles, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic marble sculpture, now at the Louvre Museum In Greek mythology Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo... Artemis. The Greeks also considered her the daughter of For other uses, see Isis (disambiguation). Isis in hieroglyphs Isis (Greek version; Egyptian is Aset) is the goddess of motherhood and fertility in ancient Egypt. She is a life-death-rebirth deity (see Legend of Osiris and Isis), as well as one of the Ennead. Later, she acquired the goddess... Isis and ... Osiris and sister of This page is about the Egyptian deity. For the fantasy character, see Horus (Warhammer 40,000). Horus (Also Heru-sa-Aset, Herur, Hrw, Hr, and Hor-Hekenu) is the falcon-headed god of ancient Egyptian mythology. He was the son of Osiris and Isis. (the river and land gods... Horus (who was associated with For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). Greek deities series Primordial deities Titans Aquatic deities Chthonic deities Personified concepts Other deities Olympians Zeus and Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn) is... Apollo and thus by their cosmology had to be Bast's brother). In Bubastis is an Ancient Egyptian city, located along the River Nile in the Delta region of Lower Egypt. It was a center of worship for the cat-goddess Bastet (also called Bast or even Bubastis), and it served as the capital of the nome of Bubastites. It became a royal... Bubastis, her son is the lion-god In Egyptian mythology, Maahes was a lion-god, possibly of foreign origin. His cult was centered in Leontopolis and Bubastis. He was a son of Bastet and Ptah. He punished liars. Alternative: Mihos, Miysis, Mahes Categories: Egyptian gods ... Maahes. She was also the patron goddess of Cat or CAT may have several different meanings: Animals Cat, the common name for the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus). Big cat, wild animals related to the domestic cat, such as lions, tigers, cheetahs, panthers, and jaguars. A generic term for any animal classfied in the cat family Felidae. Jargon... cats. Mummified cats were dedicated in her honor.

Other names

• Bast
• Ubasti
• Ba-en-Aset
• Ailuros (simply Greek for "cat")

Her name means “The Devouring Lady”. Some of the many titles of Bast were “Mistress of the Sistrum,” “Lady of Flame,” “Perfumed Protector,” “Eye of Ra,” “The Feline One of Women,” and “She of the Bast” (ointment jar). The worship of Bast has been dated to at least the Second Dynasty (around 2890-2686 BCE), before the building of the great pyramids. Her name has existed for nearly five millennia, which makes “Bast” one of the oldest Egyptian gods in existence.

Probably the most famous Egyptian goddess after Isis, Bast was a very popular goddess of joy, music, sensuality, dance, warmth, and protection. Though not traditionally associated with the Moon by the Egyptians, she would eventually become associated with the lunar goddess Artemis by the Greeks. Like most Egyptian goddesses, she was primarily a solar deity who defended the pharaoh and the people from disease and destruction. The Egyptians also thought that Bast protected against snakes and illness. In her city of Bubastis, Bast was worshipped in a triad with Tem and Maahes (Mihos). Other gods who are ascribed as her sons include Anubis, Horus of the Ointments, and Nefertem. She was also associated with numerous female goddesses, including: Hathor, Sekhmet, Mut, and Nit. In the Middle Kingdom, Bast and Isis were the goddesses who protected the Heliopolis Nome.

Bast was pictured as a cat or as a woman with the head of a cat, often dressed in green. Sometimes she was shown holding a sistrum, the symbol of music. Occasionally Bast was pictured as a lioness or as a desert wildcat, killing poisonous snakes with her claws. In some depictions Bast can be seen as a cat with the mask of a lioness in her hand, symbolizing her hidden ferociousness. She was sometimes depicted with kittens, which symbolized her role as a nurturing fertility deity. Mythologist Robert Briffault remarks on the cat’s great adaptivity to motherhood and her ability to love substitute kittens equally with her own. Typically cats who have lost a kitten will willingly adopt kittens of another litter. During the 2nd century C.E. Plutarch wrote, somewhat mysteriously, that the Egyptian Cat gives birth first to one kitten, then two, until the number seven is reached. He points out that this makes a total of twenty-eight, the same as the days of the lunar month.

The ancient Egyptians revered cats more than any culture in history - cats usually held a higher position in the household than most humans. They wore gold and jewels and were allowed to eat from the same plates as their owners. Cats were by far the most popular pet in Egypt - nearly every household had at least one. “Little Cat” and “Pussy Cat” became terms of endearment, specific to young girls. To be told one had the eyes of a cat was considered a great compliment. A woman who wanted children would wear an amulet of a cat (representing Bast) with kittens. The number of kittens indicated the number of children she wished to have. To have “Bast” as part of a person's name became highly common in the Late Period. Some pharaohs even took Bast’s name in their king-names.

Great and joyful festivals were periodically celebrated in her city of Per-Bast (Bubastis) - the “House of Bast.” The Greek historian Herodotus tells us that her temple was one of the most beautiful in Egypt, and that Bast’s huge annual festival attracted an estimated more than 700,000 people each year. Herodotus said that “Other temples are greater and more costly, but none more pleasing to the eye than this.” During the “Procession of Bast” thousands of worshippers journeyed to the city on Nile barges, accompanied by drums and flutes, and everything was a pretext for pleasantry and masquerade. Lion hunts were forbidden during this time. On the appointed day a splendid procession wound through the town and festivities followed during which, it seems, more wine was drunk than during all the rest of the year.

Herodotus writes much about Bast and the cats of Egypt. Though the events he speaks of are of interest to historians, one should always bear in mind that Herodotus was the equivalent of an ancient tourist, often writing down things that he heard whether or not they were true.

In particular, Herodotus made notes about the reverence of cats in Egypt; he noted that when a house caught fire, people were more concerned to save their cats than to put the fire out.

Other fantastic stories tell of how the ancient Persians exploited the Egyptians’ worship of cats by using them in an attack. They tied cats to their shields, then gathered up hundreds of cats and began to lob them off of a high wall to their deaths. The Egyptians couldn’t stand to see their sacred animals treated so sacrilegiously and immediately surrendered.

When a pet cat died, the entire family shaved their eyebrows in mourning, and the cat was mummified and buried in a sacred temple dedicated to Bast. Cats lived in her temples, and were worshipped as demi-gods, the “Children of Bast.” Throughout Egypt thousands of statues and images of Bast were set up in the temples by priests so worshippers could place offerings of fish, flowers, and milk before them. Cats were so highly respected that to kill one, even by accident, was punishable by death. (One Roman visitor to Bubastis who unwisely killed a cat was lynched by the horrified citizens.) A similar twist of fate appears in H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890–March 15, 1937) was an American author of fantasy and horror fiction, noted for giving horror stories a science fiction framework. Lovecrafts readership was limited during his life, but his works have become quite important and influential among writers... H.P. Lovecraft's short story " The Cats of Ulthar is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, written June 15, 1920 . Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Cats of Ulthar ... The Cats of Ulthar".

External link

• Encyclopedia Mythica: (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/b/bastet.html) Bast
• Per-Bast.org: (http://www.per-bast.org/) The Domain of Bast