|
|
|
|
|
Bastetthumb In Egyptian mythology, Bastet was a solar deity and a goddess of fertility and protector of pregnant women. She also has power over solar eclipses. Bast was represented as early as the Second Dynasty of the Old Kingdom as a woman with a feline head. Domestic cat-headed Bast, as she appears in the Middle Kingdom, is a content goddess; lioness-headed Bast is potentially dangerous. The addition of the "t" on the end of "Bas" indicates that she is a female goddess. Adding the "et" is just another feminization of an already feminine word. She is also considered by some to be another aspect of Sekhmet. Her cult was centered in Bubastis. After the period of Hellenistic civilization, Bast became a lunar deity whom the Greeks associated with their Artemis. She was considered the daughter of Isis and Osiris, and was associated with Hathor. She was the wife of Ptah, with whom she was the mother of Nefertum and Mihos. She was also the patron goddess of cats. Mummified cats were dedicated in her honor. Other names - Bast
- Ubasti
- Ba-en-Aset
- Ailuros (simply Greek for "cat")
Her name means “The Tearer” or “She Who Scratches.” Some of the many titles of Bast were “Mistress of the Sistrum,” “Lady of Flame,” “Perfumed Protector,” “Eye of Ra,” “The Feline One of Women,” and “She of the Bast” (ointment jar). The worship of Bast has been dated to at least the Second Dynasty (around 2890-2686 BCE), before the building of the great pyramids. Her name has existed for nearly five millennia, which makes “Bast” one of the oldest names in existence. Probably the most famous Egyptian goddess after Isis, Bast was a very popular goddess of joy, music, sensuality, dance, warmth, and protection. As a Moon goddess she personified the mystery of woman’s menstrual cycles. As a sun goddess she defended the pharaoh and gave the people warmth and light. The Egyptians also thought that Bast protected against snakes and illness. Being rare in Egypt, the black cat was especially sacred to Bast; Egyptian physicians used the black cat symbol in healing. Bast was thought to be the daughter-wife of Ra, the mother of Maahes, and the sister of Sekhmet. She was sometimes considered to be the daughter of Isis and Osiris or Amun and Mut, and the mother of Khons and Nefertem. Bast was pictured as a cat or as a woman with the head of a cat, often dressed in green. Sometimes she was shown holding a sistrum, the symbol of music (Bast and the sistrum are probably the source of the old rhyme “Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle”). Occasionally Bast was pictured as a lioness or as a desert wildcat, killing poisonous snakes with her claws. In some depictions Bast can be seen as a cat with the mask of a lioness in her hand, symbolizing her hidden ferociousness. She was sometimes depicted with kittens, which symbolized her role as a nurturing fertility deity. Mythologist Robert Briffault remarks on the cat’s great adaptivity to motherhood and her ability to love substitute kittens equally with her own. Typically cats who have lost a kitten will willingly adopt kittens of another litter. During the 2nd century C.E. Plutarch wrote, somewhat mysteriously, that the Egyptian Cat gives birth first to one kitten, then two, until the number seven is reached. He points out that this makes a total of twenty-eight, the same as the days of the lunar month. The ancient Egyptians revered cats more than any culture in history - cats usually held a higher position in the household than most humans. They wore gold and jewels and were allowed to eat from the same plates as their owners. Cats were by far the most popular pet in Egypt - nearly every household had at least one. “Little Cat” and “Pussy Cat” became terms of endearment, specific to young girls. To be told one had the eyes of a cat was considered a great compliment. A woman who wanted children would wear an amulet of a cat (representing Bast) with kittens. The number of kittens indicated the number of children she wished to have. To have “Bast” as part of a person's name became highly common. Some pharaohs even took Bast’s name in their king-names. Great and joyful festivals were periodically celebrated in her main temple, located in the city of Per-Bast (Bubastis) - the “House of Bast.” The Greek historian Herodotus tells us that her temple was one of the most beautiful in Egypt, and that Bast’s huge annual festival attracted an estimated more than 700,000 people each year. Herodotus said that “Other temples are greater and more costly, but none more pleasing to the eye than this.” During the “Procession of Bast” thousands of worshippers journeyed to the city on Nile barges, accompanied by drums and flutes, and everything was a pretext for pleasantry and masquerade. Lion hunts were forbidden during this time. On the appointed day a splendid procession wound through the town and festivities followed during which, it seems, more wine was drunk than during all the rest of the year. The reverence of cats in Egypt was legendary; Herodotus noted that when a house caught fire, people were more concerned to save their cats than to put the fire out. The ancient Persians exploited the Egyptians’ worship of cats by using them in an attack. They tied cats to their shields, then gathered up hundreds of cats and began to lob them off of a high wall to their deaths. The Egyptians couldn’t stand to see their sacred animals treated so sacrilegiously and immediately surrendered. When a pet cat died, the entire family shaved their eyebrows in mourning, and the cat was mummified and buried in a sacred temple dedicated to Bast. Cats lived in her temples, and were worshipped as demi-gods, the “Children of Bast.” Throughout Egypt thousands of statues and images of Bast were set up in the temples by priests so worshippers could place offerings of fish, flowers, and milk before them. Cats were so highly respected that to kill one, even by accident, was punishable by death. (One Roman visitor to Bubastis who unwisely killed a cat was lynched by the horrified citizens.) A similar twist of fate appears in H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Cats of Ulthar". External link
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|