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[3] [12] Domestic cats (Felis catus) were increasingly worshipped and considered sacred. When they died, they were embalmed, coffined and buried in cat cemeteries. [ 19 ] The domestic cat was regarded as living incarnation of Bastet who protects the household against granivores , whereas the lion-headed deity Sekhmet was worshipped as protector ...
Cat mummies were used as votive offerings to the goddess, mostly during festivals and by pilgrims. [51] Hundreds of thousands of cat mummies were excavated at cat cemeteries in Bubastis, Saqqara, Speos Artemidos and Gizeh. [52] [53] [54] There was a lion god at Baalbek. The pre-Islamic Arabs worshipped the lion god Yaghuth.
Cats of royalty were, in some instances, known to be dressed in golden jewelry and were allowed to eat from the plates of their owners. Dennis C. Turner and Patrick Bateson estimate that during the Twenty-second Dynasty ( c. 945–715 BC ), Bastet worship changed from being a lioness deity into being predominantly a major cat deity. [ 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. [ 5 ] : 220 Killing a cat was absolutely forbidden [ 3 ] and the Greek historian Herodotus reports that, whenever a household cat died, the entire family would mourn and shave their eyebrows. [ 3 ]
Animals were seen as mediators between the gods and humans. Many gods took anthropomorphic forms and had close associations with animals. For example, Zeus turned into a swan and was associated with eagles. Numerous animals also appeared in Greco-Roman mythology, such as the Hydra and the Chimera. [158]
Egyptians were well aware of both the snakes's usefulness in eating all vermin and the powers posed by its poisons. Texts like the Brooklyn Papyrus include remedies and magical spells to cure the bitten. Snake deities were worshipped to prevent potential fights with humans by their earthly houses which are snakes and it happened always for them ...
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But few pharaohs were worshipped as gods long after their lifetimes, and non-official texts portray kings in a human light. For these reasons, scholars disagree about how genuinely most Egyptians believed the king to be a god. He may only have been considered divine when he was performing ceremonies. [180]