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The Sacred Cat
Important both as a domestic pet and as a symbol of deities such as
Bastet and RA the "Great Cat of Heliopolis". There were two indigenous
feline species in ancient Egypt, the jungle cat and the African wild
cat, the former being found only in Egypt and southeastern Asia. The
earliest Egyptian remains of a cat were found in a tomb at the
Predynastic site of Mostagedda, near modern Asyut, suggesting that the
Egyptians were already keeping cats as pets in the late fourth
millennium BC.
The Egyptian word for cat was the onomatopoeic term miw, which,
although not mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, found its way into various
personal names from the Old Kingdom onwards, including 22nd Dynasty
pharaoh known as Pamiu or Pimay, literally "the tomcat" 773-767 BC. The
earliest Egyptian depiction of the cat took the form of three
hieroglyphic symbols, each representing seated cats. This formed part
of the phrase "Lord of the City of Cats" inscribed on a stone block
from El-Lisht, which may date as early as the reign of Pepy II
2278-2184 BC. From the 12th Dynasty onwards, cats were increasingly
depicted in the painted decoration of private tombs, either
participating in the scenes of hunting and fowling in the marshes or
seated beneath the chair of the owner.
It was in the funerary texts of the New Kingdom that the cat achieved
full apotheosis, in the Amuduat it is portrait as a demon decapitating
bound captives and in the Litany of RA it appears to be a
personification of the Sun-god himself, battling with the evil
serpent-god Apophis. Because of its connection with the Sun god, the
cat was depicted on a number of Rames side steles found in the Theban
region. From the Late Period onwards, large numbers of sacred cats were
mummified and deposited in underground galleries at such sites as
Bubastis and Speos Artemidos, and numerous bronze votive statuettes
have survived, including the "Gayer-Anderson cat" in the collection of
the British Museum.
The ancient Egyptians practiced a belief system that was par totemism,
part polytheism, and part ancestor worship. There were numerous gods,
but rather than living on an isolated mountain or in an unreachable
heaven, many of them lived invisibly in the mortal world, acting
through scared sites, animals or even chosen people. Furthermore, the
spirits of the deceased, if remembered and honored, could aid and guide
the living from the Afterlife.
Tags: Cat General Info Cats General The Sacred Cat Egyptian cats feline species African wild cat |
