Bastet was worshipped inBubastis inLower Egypt, originally as alioness goddess, a role shared by other deities such asSekhmet. Eventually Bastet and Sekhmet were characterized as two aspects of the same goddess, with Sekhmet representing the powerful warrior and protector aspect, and Bastet, who increasingly was depicted as acat, representing a gentler aspect.[4]
Bastet, which is the form of the name that is most commonly adopted byEgyptologists today because of its use in later dynasties, is a modern convention offering one possible reconstruction. In earlyEgyptian hieroglyphs, her name appears to have beenbꜣstt.James Peter Allen vocalizes the original form of the name asbuʔístit orbuʔístiat, with ʔ representing aglottal stop.[5] InMiddle Egyptian writing, the secondt marks a feminine ending but usually was not pronounced, and thealephꜣ () may have moved to a position before the accented syllable,ꜣbst.[6] By the first millennium, then,bꜣstt would have been something like*Ubaste (<*Ubastat) in Egyptian speech, later becomingCopticOubaste.[6] The name is rendered inPhoenician as 𐤀𐤁𐤎𐤕,[7]romanized: ’bst, or 𐤁𐤎𐤕,[8]romanized: bst.
Wadjet-Bastet, with a lioness head, the solar disk, and the cobra that representsWadjet
What the name of the goddess means remains uncertain.[6] Names of ancient Egyptian deities often were represented as references to associations or with euphemisms, being cult secrets. One recent suggestion byStephen Quirke (Ancient Egyptian Religion) explains Bastet as meaning, "She of the ointment jar".[9] This ties in with the observation that her name was written with the hieroglyph forointment jar (bꜣs) and that she was associated with protective ointments, among other things.[6] The name of the material known asalabaster might, through Greek, come from the name of the goddess. This association would have come about much later than when the goddess was a protective lioness goddess, however, and is useful only in deciphering the origin of the term, alabaster.[citation needed]
Bastet was originally a fierce lioness warrior goddess of thesun, worshipped throughout most of ancient Egyptian history. Later she became the cat goddess that is familiar today.[10] She was then depicted as the daughter ofRa andIsis, and the consort ofPtah, with whom she had a son,Maahes.[10]
As protector ofLower Egypt, she was seen as defender of theking, and consequently of the sun god, Ra. Along with other deities such asHathor, Sekhmet, and Isis, Bastet was associated with theEye of Ra.[11] She has been depicted as fighting the evil snake namedApep, an enemy of Ra.[12] In addition to her solar connections, she was also related toWadjet, one of the oldest Egyptian goddesses from theSouthern Delta who was dubbed "eye of the moon".[13]
Bastet was also a goddess of pregnancy and childbirth, possibly because of the fertility of the domestic cat.[14]
Images of Bastet were often created fromalabaster. The goddess was sometimes depicted holding a ceremonialsistrum in one hand and anaegis in the other—the aegis usually resembling a collar orgorget, embellished with a lioness head.
The native Egyptian rulers were replaced by Greeks during an occupation of Ancient Egypt in thePtolemaic Dynasty that lasted almost 300 years. The Greeks sometimes equated Bastet with one of their goddesses,Artemis.[14]
Bastet was depicted by Egyptians with the head of a cat and the slender body of a woman. Sometimes, Bastet was venerated as just a cat head.
Because domestic cats tend to be tender and protective of their offspring, Bastet was also regarded as a good mother and sometimes was depicted with numerouskittens.
Bastet was a local deity whose religious sect was centered in the city in theNile Delta later namedBubastis. It lay near what is known today asZagazig.[17][20] The town, known inEgyptian aspr-bꜣstt (transliterated asPer-Bastet), carries her name, literally meaningHouse of Bastet. It was known in Greek asBoubastis (Βούβαστις) and translated into Hebrew asPî-beset, spelled without the initialt sound of the last syllable.[6] In the biblicalBook of Ezekiel 30:17, the town appears in the Hebrew formPibeseth.[17]
Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian who traveled in Egypt in the fifth century BCE, describes Bastet'stemple at some length:[21]
Save for the entrance, it stands on an island; two separate channels approach it from the Nile, and after coming up to the entry of the temple, they run round it on opposite sides; each of them a hundred feet wide, and overshadowed by trees. The temple is in the midst of the city, the whole circuit of which commands a view down into it; for the city's level has been raised, but that of the temple has been left as it was from the first, so that it can be seen into from without. A stone wall, carven with figures, runs round it; within is a grove of very tall trees growing round a great shrine, wherein is the image of the goddess; the temple is a square, each side measuring afurlong. A road, paved with stone, of about three furlongs' length leads to the entrance, running eastward through the market place, towards the temple ofHermes; this road is about 400 feet wide, and bordered by trees reaching to heaven.
This description by Herodotus and several Egyptian texts suggest that water surrounded the temple on three (out of four) sides, forming a type of lake known asisheru, not too dissimilar from that surrounding the temple of the mother goddessMut inKarnak atThebes.[17] These lakes were typical components of temples devoted to a number of lioness goddesses (Bastet,Mut,Tefnut,Hathor,Sakhmet)[17] who are said to represent one original goddess and who came to be associated with sun gods such asHorus andRa, as well as theEye of Ra. Each of these goddesses had to be appeased by a specific set of rituals.[17] One myth relates that a lioness, fiery and wrathful, was cooled down by the water of the lake and thus was transformed into a gentle cat, settling down in the temple.[17]
At theBubastis temple, large numbers of cats were found to have beenmummified and buried, many next to their owners. More than 300,000 mummified cats were discovered when Bastet's temple wasexcavated. Turner and Bateson suggest that the status of the cat in Egypt was roughly equivalent to that of thecow in modern India. The death of a cat might leave a family in great mourning, and those who could afford the expense would have the cat embalmed or buried in pet cemeteries,[22] which demonstrates the great prevalence of the cult of Bastet. Extensive burials of cat remains have been found not only at Bubastis but also atSaqqara,[23][24] including the temple complex known as theBubasteum. In 1888, a farmer uncovered a burial site of many hundreds of thousands of cats inBeni Hasan.[4]
Herodotus relates that of the many solemn festivals held in Egypt, the most important and most popular one was that celebrated in Bubastis in honor of this goddess.[25][26] Each year on the day of her festival, the town was said to have attracted some 700,000 visitors, both men and women (but not children), who arrived in numerous crowded ships. The women engaged in music, song, and dance on their way to the place. Great sacrifices were made and prodigious amounts of wine were drunk—more than was the case throughout the year.[27] This accords well with Egyptian sources which prescribe that lioness goddesses are to be appeased with the "feasts of drunkenness".[6] A festival of Bastet was known to be celebrated during the New Kingdom at Bubastis. The block statue from the eighteenth dynasty (c. 1380 BCE) of Nefer-ka, the wab-priest of Sekhmet,[28] provides written evidence for this. The inscription suggests that the king,Amenhotep III, was present at the event and had great offerings made to the deity.
Herodotus, ed. H. Stein (et al.) and tr. AD Godley (1920),Herodotus 1. Books 1 and 2. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts
E. Bernhauer, "Block Statue of Nefer-ka", in: M. I. Bakr, H. Brandl, Faye Kalloniatis (eds.): Egyptian Antiquities from Kufur Nigm and Bubastis. Berlin 2010, pp. 176–179ISBN978-3-00-033509-9.
Velde, Herman te (1999). "Bastet". In Karel van der Toorn; Bob Becking; Pieter W. van der Horst (eds.).Dictionary of Demons and Deities in the Bible (2nd ed.). Leiden: Brill Academic. pp. 164–5.ISBN90-04-11119-0.
^abPinch, Geraldine (2002).Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 115.
^Pinch, Geraldine (2002).Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 130.
^Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003).The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 176
^abDelia, Diana (1999). "Isis, or the Moon". In W. Clarysse, A. Schoors, H. Willems.Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand Years. Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Jan Quaegebeur. Peeters. pp. 545–546
^Zivie, A. and Lichtenberg, R. (2005). "The Cats of the Goddess Bastet". In Ikram, S. (ed.).Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Malek, Jaromir (1993).The Cat in Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press.ISBN0812216326.
Otto, Eberhard (1972–1992). "Bastet". In W. Helck; et al. (eds.).Lexicon der Ägyptologie. Vol. 1. Wiesbaden. pp. 628–30.OL5376028M.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Quaegebeur, J. (1991). "Le culte de Boubastis - Bastet en Egypte gréco-romaine". In Delvaux, L.; Warmenbol, E. (eds.).Les divins chat d'Egypte. Leuven. pp. 117–27.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Bakr, Mohamed I. & Brandl, Helmut (2010). "Bubastis and the Temple of Bastet". In M. I. Bakr; H. Brandl & F. Kalloniatis (eds.).Egyptian Antiquities from Kufur Nigm and Bubastis. Cairo/Berlin. pp. 27–36.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)ISBN978-3-00-033509-9
