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Cat Worshippers of Ancient Egypt is a crash course in the culture of the Pharaoh's favorite feline friend! From the humble beginnings as incidental pest control to religious idols worshipped and protected by millions of believers, domestic cats left an indelible paw-print on Egyptian culture that helps inform how people in one of the world's earliest civilizations paved the path to modern pet ownership.
Cat Blog
Who's who: the Egyptian Cat Goddesses
BASTET:
Perhaps the most well-known of the feline deities, Bastet was the Egyptian goddess of fertility and warding evil. She first appeared in hieroglyphs dated around 3000 BCE as a woman with a lion head. By the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1070–712 BCE), Bastet become more associated with motherhood, and her relationship with cats was cemented. The city of Bubastis (the Greek adaptation for the Egyptian name Pr-Bast) was the headquarters of her cult and became a major religious center.
Videos
Fate & Fabled: Why Are Cats Mythology's Most Popular Creatures?
Egyptians weren't the only ancient civilization to worship cats! Explore how societies around the world revered and intertwined cats into their cultural tapestries in this short PBS documentary.
Why were Ancient Egyptians obsessed with cats?
The Brain Scoops' Emily Graslie visits the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures in Chicago to speak with experts about the latest findings in ancient Egyptian cat-culture.
CITATIONS
Armitage, P.L., et al. “Cats of the Pharaohs: Genetic Comparison of Egyptian Cat Mummies to Their Feline Contemporaries.” Journal of Archaeological Science, Academic Press, 19 May 2012, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440312001987?via%3Dihub.
Barbash, Yekaterina. “Cats, Bastet and the Worship of Feline Gods.” American Research Center in Egypt, Brooklyn Museum, 11 Feb. 2023, arce.org/resource/cats-bastet-and-worship-feline-gods/.
Bouquet, Ralph, et al. “How Ancient Egyptians Shaped the Modern Cat: Cat Tales.” PBS LearningMedia, NOVA, 4 May 2021, opb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvct-sci-egyptmoderncat/how-ancient-egyptians-shaped-the-modern-cat-cat-tales/.
Diesel, Alleyn. “Felines and female divinities: The association of cats with goddesses, ancient and contemporary.” Journal for the Study of Religion, vol. 21, no. 1, 12 Nov. 2009, pp. 71–94, https://doi.org/10.4314/jsr.v21i1.47781.
Graslie, Emily. “Why Were Ancient Egyptians Obsessed with Cats?” YouTube, 21 May 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=74yeRmR2orw.
Kurushima, Jennifer D., et al. “Cats of the Pharaohs: Genetic Comparison of Egyptian Cat Mummies to Their Feline Contemporaries.” Journal of Archaeological Science, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 19 May 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3426309/.
Mark, Joshua J. “Herodotus on Cats in Egypt.” World History Encyclopedia, https://www.worldhistory.org#organization, 27 Oct. 2022, www.worldhistory.org/article/88/herodotus-on-cats-in-egypt/.
McTier, Moiya, et al. “Why Are Cats Mythology’s Most Popular Creatures? | Fate & Fabled.” YouTube, PBS Digital Studios, 1 Feb. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XphVJIxOwd8.
Mills, Josie. “Why Did Ancient Egyptians Love Cats?” Researchers in Museums, University College London, 17 Apr. 2018, blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/2018/04/17/why-did-ancient-egyptians-love-cats/.
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