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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]
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 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]
The Cats of Ancient Egypt". The Dawn of Art in the Ancient World: An Archaeological Sketch. New York: Macmillan and Co. pp. 172−185. Cooper, JC (1992). Symbolic and Mythological Animals. London: Aquarian Press. ISBN 1-85538-118-4. Engels, D.W. (2001). Classical Cats. The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415 ...
At the Bubastis temple, some cats were found to have been mummified and buried, many next to their owners. More than 300,000 mummified cats were discovered when Bastet's temple was excavated. Turner and Bateson suggest that the status of the cat was roughly equivalent to that of the cow in modern India. The death of a cat might leave a family ...
The commonly used name "Sphinx" was given to it in classical antiquity, around 2,000 years after the commonly accepted date of its construction by reference to a Greek mythological beast with the head of a woman, a falcon, a cat, or a sheep and the body of a lion with the wings of an eagle (although, like most Egyptian sphinxes, the Great ...
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Apep (Ancient Egyptian: ꜥꜣpp), also known as Aphoph (/ ə. ˈ f ɒ f /, Coptic: Ⲁⲫⲱⲫ, romanized: Aphōph) [1] or Apophis (/ ə. ˈ p ɒ. f ɪ s /; Ancient Greek: Ἄποφις, romanized: Ápophis), is the ancient Egyptian deity who embodied darkness and disorder, and was thus the opponent of light and Maat (order/truth).