by Rowena Mills
Do you think cats are special? (They certainly think they are!) Felines have been immortalized in the legends and folklore of many cultures for thousands of years and have even been regarded as deities.
Bast — the ancient Egyptian goddess of fire, the sun, and war — was depicted with the head of a lioness and was regarded as a fierce protector of her worshipers and a defender of the pharaoh and the sun god, Ra. Bast evolved into a cat goddess and was shown with the head of a cat. Her prominence in Egypt’s Lower Kingdom diminished in favor of her counterpart in the Upper Kingdom, cat goddess Sekhmet.
When the two Egyptian kingdoms combined, Bast’s name was changed to Bastet. That made the name the same as the Egyptian word for an ointment jar such as those used for perfumes and embalming, and Bastet became associated with embalming. Hundreds of thousands of cats were mummified in Bastet’s name and buried next to their owners.
In addition to worshiping cat goddesses, Egyptians seem to have been the first people to accept cats into their homes and feed them on a regular basis. The felines earned their places as members of the household by keeping snakes, lizards, and rodents off the premises.
Fittingly, the first cat in history — real, not legendary — whose name is known to us is an Egyptian cat, Nedjem (the word means “star,” “sweet,” or “pleasant”). He belonged to Puire, a priest during the reign of pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 B.C.). Nedjem is depicted on a damaged sculptural relief from Puire’s tomb.
In about 500 B.C., the Persians found a unique way to defeat the Egyptians, who were forbidden to hurt or kill any cat. Each Persian warrior was issued a cat to carry into battle, and thus the Persians won the conflict easily — so the story goes.
Egyptians weren’t the only ancient people to associate cats with divinity. A Greek legend tells us that Diana, goddess of the hunt, turned herself into a cat and infuriated her fellow gods on Mount Olympus.
Farther north in Europe, Freya, the Norse goddess of love, chose the cat as her symbol. Two black cats pulled her chariot.
On the other side of the globe, several cultures have feline myths that still persist.
Ngariman is a cat-being in the legends of the aboriginal Karadjeri people of Australia.
In southern Peru, the Quechua-speaking Indians tell of a terrible catlike male demon called Ccoa who lives in the highest parts of the mountains and sends down rain, hail, and thunderbolts on the valleys below. In northern Ecuador, people believe that Ccoa sometimes descends to the valleys “in person.” Ccoa has a large head and dark stripes that run the length of his gray body. Despite his fierce reputation, he is only about three feet long.
Your own legends about your household feline deities might not be as mysterious or exciting as these, but who knows? They might be passed down to future generations as part of the world’s cat lore.
