Why Ancient Egyptians Worshipped Cats

The bond between the Egyptians and cats is no joke. It dates back almost 6,000 years to the predynastic period. Cats appear among the earliest entries in Egypt’s archaeological record. So, that means their love affair preceded the pyramids by a long shot and continued virtually throughout their entire civilization.

Egyptians grew food, which brought rodents to the area, which in turn attracted wild cats that ate the rodents. People noticed that the cats were eating the vermin from their crops and stores and loved them for it.

The African wildcat was the first domesticated cat, and is the ancestor of Egypt’s domestic pets. It’s probable these cats were at first attracted by easy food sources in human settlements, but this initially wary relationship evolved over time into mutual benefit and genuine companionship for both.

It’s no surprise that cats were once held in such high esteem; they offered real protection from deadly creatures like snakes. I mean, who wouldn’t respect a pet who acted as a bodyguard from creepy crawlies? This is why I respect my cats — all six of them.

Next time you see a cat lazing about like it owns the place, and quite likely it does, think of how hard its Egyptian ancestors worked. Egyptian tomb art, such as scenes from the Tomb of Nebamun, shows cats helping bird hunters in the marshlands. So cats not only defended the household, they also protected the granaries, helped get the household food and killed snakes. They were hard working cats. And their progeny have inherited entitlement to lie about and do nothing for the rest of their lives.

The ancient Egyptian cat was kept as a house cat, probably feeding on fish heads and leftovers. Wealthy families treated their cats to special goodies from the table. Even so, it was still expected to catch rodents and pests.

Here’s one that might make you smile. The ancient Egyptians called the cat “miu”. That’s because it’s an onomatopoeia — it’s basically the ancient Egyptian equivalent of meow. The annoyingly persistent sound the cat makes. So they basically just named it after that.

Cats are known to enjoy lounging in sunbeams; it’s thought that this behavior is what caused Egyptians to link felines with the powerful sun god, Ra.

The Egyptians were very observant of animal behavior. The stealthy, silent, stalking, night vision prowess of cats would have appeared to them as almost supernatural abilities. This, along with their amazing grace and fluidity, helped their status move beyond that of just a beneficial pest controller to something more divine.

According to scholars, the Egyptians gradually began to attribute divine powers to cats over a long period of time. As their appreciation of cats and their skills grew, so did their devotion to them. I knew intuitively that cats are divine, long before I delved into this topic. I just love trying to pinpoint where this love began.

Bastet, or Bast as she was also known, was the most important cat goddess of Egypt. This goddess of protection, fertility and childbirth was both fierce and nurturing at once, just like cats. Her character was the perfect representation of all the qualities of cats that the Egyptians revered.

The Egyptian feline goddess Bastet was not originally depicted as a house cat. Bastet, along with other early feline goddesses, was depicted as a lion. She was only later, during the era of the great cat cemeteries, depicted as a domestic cat.

Bastet’s fierce counterpart was the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, who carried the dangerous, warlike side of feline nature. They were protectors of Lower and Upper Egypt respectively, and between them they covered the full range of what cats meant to Egyptians. Other feline-linked deities were Mafdet, a minor protective goddess, and Mut, one of Egypt’s major mother goddesses.

A huge cult of Bastet flourished at Bubastis for several centuries. It reached its peak around 945-715 B.C.E., when the city, located near modern Zagazig, was the royal capital of Egypt. Centuries later, in the 5th century B.C.E., the Greek historian Herodotus visited it. According to Herodotus, the huge temple to Bastet at Bubastis, the main center of Egyptian cat worship, drew hundreds of thousands of devotees.

People in ancient Egypt showed their love and devotion to Bastet through tangible objects. Small cat statues were left in her temple as offerings, and people wore cat amulets and kept them around their homes for protection. See? Me. Completely me. Did people really do that?! Yes they did! Did you hear that, folks?! People have been buying cat figurines and amulets for thousands of years!

In ancient Egypt, killing a cat — even by accident — could be punished by death. I think these are excellent laws, and in general the Egyptians were pretty strict on cat protection. If I lived in a country where I could be executed for killing a cat, even on accident, I would be loath even to yell at one.

When a family’s cat died, the owners were so stricken with grief that they would shave off their eyebrows. The period of mourning ended once their eyebrows had grown back. (Which would explain why they are so slow to regrow.)

Ancient Egyptians loved their cats so much, they would mummify them! The cat’s body would be dried, wrapped in multi-colored cloths and placed, in some cases, in a feline-shaped box. Some were buried alongside their owners, in tombs meant for people, complete with grave goods. Cats were considered a part of their family, forever.

In the centuries after Bubastis’s peak, gigantic cat cemeteries were built across Egypt. They were filled with tens of thousands of elaborately wrapped and decorated cats, some even buried with grave offerings. Most of these were votive offerings, left at temples by pilgrims rather than buried by grieving families.

Did you think mummification was limited to humans? Nope! Egyptians revered their cats, even after they died. You see, they believed cats could serve as vessels for a god, which made mummifying their pet cats feel entirely logical.

This content was created with the help of AI.