Children of the Nile Heaven

Cats in Egypt part 4

The cat was at first a minor auxiliary figure on the edges of religious beliefs and had to prove itself at every stage of its rise to prominence. It appears first in the Pyramid Texts (2340 BC) as a cat-like goddess called Mafdet (perhaps "Runner") and is described as killing a serpent with her claws. Fortunately a representation of the animal, identified by an inscription, was found on a stone vase of c. 2950-2800 BC in a royal tomb at Abydos so we know it is a larger cat, probably the leopard or cheetah. The latter is probably the fastest land creature on earth and the Egyptian name of Runner would be appropriate. At the beginning of Egyptian history, these animals were tamed and kept in royal palaces for companionship, protection and prestige. The custom seems not to have been kept up and another big cat, the lion, became more prominent with royalty in the Old Kingdom (after 2647 BC). Later we have instances of lions kept as the king's pet shortly before and after the Rammeside period (from c. 1330 BC). Madfet continued to appear sporadically throughout Egyptian history manifesting herself in the body of a panther and embodying the qualities of big cats. She may have been the first goddess to have been represented as a cat-headed woman.

The earliest representations of the cat in a religious context seem to have been the so called magic knives that were important in Middle Kingdom tombs. They are curved, narrow and flat and made of hippo ivory, and vaguely resemble ceremonial flint knives. They are decorated with a variety of animals and curious creatures, demi-gods, including long necked animals resembling giraffes but initially based perhaps on the cheetah. These were nightmarish representations of the world of popular beliefs rather than the representation of the religion of temple walls.

The purpose of them was apotropaic (protective), to provide protection against everyday dangers of scorpions, poisonous snakes, and also illness, accidents and difficult births. Most belonged to women and children and the cat was doubtless included because of its ability to destroy snakes, in the role in the Pyramid Texts ascribed to Mafdet. Often the cat is shown, even in tomb paintings, wielding a knife, the traditional instrument to "cut off the heads of enemies". This is also echoed in the Coffin Texts, so called as they are written inside coffins from about 2100 BC, and they performed for ordinary people the same role as the Pyramid Texts did earlier for royalty. In spell 335 the deceased declares - "I am the Great Tomcat (miu oa) which split the ished-tree on its side in On" The ished tree was the sacred tree of the sun god at On/Heliopolis. The text continues - "Who is the Great Tomcat? He is the god Ra himself. He was called "cat" (miu) when Sia (personification of knowledge) spoke of him because he was mewing during what he was doing, and that is how we know his name of "cat" came into being."

Here we see two important things - the male cat is clearly linked to the sun god as his supporter and manifestation, and the etymological word for cat is given here. Apotropaic amulets of the cat would give round the clock protection to the wearer against the hazards of everyday life.

The cat now moves to the second stage of its rise. Royal tombs of the New Kingdom contained on their walls copies of the so-called underworld books. The tomb walls act as huge sheets of papyrus from which they were copied. The same motley crew of characters seen on the magic knives help the sun on its journey, include the cat headed beings. In the Book of the Caverns a cat headed demon called Miuty is shown watching the bound enemies of the sun god, and in the Book of Gates through which the sun god must pass, the porter, also called Miuty, who guards the last gate, is cat headed and holds two scepters, one of which is snake headed. After the end of the New Kingdom, these texts began to be copied into the coffins of ordinary people who hoped to participate in the daily regeneration of the sun god. These texts, during the New Kingdom, were called by Egyptologists, The Book of the Dead. The cat figures in spell 145, in an illustration accompanying spell 17, which is closely related to spell 335 of the Coffin Texts. He is shown killing the sun god's foes in the form of trampling on a serpent. Spell 125 has a reference to a conversation between an ass and a cat.

Rammeside stelae exist in the Theban area with mention of cats. They belong in the realm of personal piety, and most were commissioned by ordinary people, often the workmen of Deir el-Medina who could either make them themselves or have comrades make them. Small shrines, so-called contra-temples, were sometimes specially made at the back of large sanctuaries for ordinary people to worship at. A stela may have a representation of the deity to whom it was presented shown; in the registry below are the donor and possibly members of his family. Texts are usually short hymns in honor of the deity and include personal requests which are not too specific. One, dated 1250 BC has two rather plump hieroglyphic cats and underneath is an address from the donor to the "great cat" and the sun god.

Bastet was a goddess without a real name; hers means "She of the city of Bast." The lion god Mahes, Miysis or Mios was regarded as her son. The goddess soon became linked with other localities, particularly Memphis, perhaps through assimilation with another goddess represented as a lioness, Sekhmet, a companion of Ptah. She was also closely associated with Hathor, Mut and Isis. She's also associated with New Year wishes perhaps because those 5 epagomenal days left over in the year are associated with Sekhmet because they are considered dangerous days.

It is reasonably certain that the rise to greater prominence of the female cat coincided with the rise of Bubastis during the twenty-second dynasty (945-715 BC). Here we have the king named Pamiu - the Tomcat. The head of a lioness and a female cat are difficult to distinguish apart in Egyptian art. The lioness represented strength and ferocity, the household cat playful and affectionate. Child bearing and nurturing instincts featured prominently in the character of both Bastet and other goddesses who manifested themselves as lionesses and the king is often called their son. These aspects were now combined with a cat's fertility, apparently boundless nocturnal love life, and the old protective function. Now we see which areas Bastet was supplicated for help with human problems.

Now it is easy to see why extensive cat cemeteries formed wherever local goddesses manifested as lionesses. Ultimately they were all regarded as aspects of the same deity. One mustn't also forget the lioness Pakhet - She Who Scratches. There was a large cemetery of mummified cats in the vicinity of the temple. The probable answer to the mummified remains of young cats, possibly killed on purpose, is that in temple catteries, the cat was bred and the males culled when only a few months old, then again when about to reach maturity. Being practical, this gave the temples a source of income as they could sell the mummified bodies to worshippers to donate to the goddess. Nasty, perhaps, but a practical solution to being otherwise being overrun with cats if they were left to breed unchecked.

We can therefore see that the early protective nature of the cat and its skills at keeping the life-threatening rats, mice and poisonous snakes under control, was where its primary importance lay. From being a protective animal, it was just a short step to becoming worshipped alongside other feline gods and goddesses. Remember, too, that traditionally the enemies of the sun god, and pharaoh, were also seen as snakes.

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