Bastet: The ancient Egyptian holy cat

The author: Professor Yasser Metwally

http://yassermetwally.com

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Cats are very useful animals in a country that depends on grain. The cat’s hunting instincts were honoured by the Ancient Egyptians, but so was the cat’s gentler side as a warm and loving mother to her kittens. Bastet can be shown as a woman with a feline head. There are disagreements among zoologists as to when these animals first began to live with humans along the Nile, and about which feline became the Egyptian pet. Cats do not appear as household pets during the Age of the Pyramids, though they were very popular animal companions in later times.

Figure 1. Bastet: The ancient Egyptian holy cat

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