Ad
related to: cats rule in ancient egypt
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Cat-headed deity Bastet. In ancient Egypt, cats were represented in social and religious scenes dating as early as 1980 BC. [2] Several ancient Egyptian deities were depicted and sculptured with cat-like heads such as Mafdet, Bastet and Sekhmet, representing justice, fertility, and power, respectively. [3]
The native Egyptian rulers were replaced by Greeks during an occupation of Ancient Egypt in the Ptolemaic Dynasty that lasted almost 300 years. The Greeks sometimes equated Bastet with one of their goddesses, Artemis. [14] Bastet was depicted by Egyptians with the head of a cat and the slender body of a woman.
Cats, known in ancient Egypt as the mau, played a large role in ancient Egyptian society.They were associated with the goddesses Isis and Bastet. [4] Cats were sacred animals and the goddess Bastet was often depicted in cat form, sometimes taking on the war-like aspect of a lioness.
The cat was the sacred and peculiar animal of Bast, who is represented with the head of a cat or a lioness and frequently accompanies the deity Ptah in monumental inscriptions. The tombs at Bubastis were accordingly the principal depository in Egypt of the mummies of the cat. [15] [16]
The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat, by John Reinhard Weguelin (1886). Ancient Egyptian religion was characterized by polytheism, the worship of multiple deities. [4] Prior to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, there were a tremendous number of these deities, each patron of a different element of the natural world. [5]
Ancient Egyptian deities were an integral part of ancient Egyptian religion and were worshiped for millennia. Many of them ruled over natural and social phenomena , as well as abstract concepts [ 1 ] These gods and goddesses appear in virtually every aspect of ancient Egyptian civilization, and more than 1,500 of them are known by name.
The period following creation, in which a series of gods rule as kings over the divine society, is the setting for most myths. The gods struggle against the forces of chaos and among each other before withdrawing from the human world and installing the historical kings of Egypt to rule in their place. [68]
The statue is a representation of the female cat deity Bastet. The cat wears jewellery and a protective Wadjet amulet. The earrings and nose ring on the statue may not have always belonged to the cat. [2] A scarab appears on the head and a winged scarab is shown on the chest. The statue is 42 cm high and 13 cm wide.