Egypt’s Divine Cats

 Cats held an extremely important place in Ancient Egypt, both in everyday life and in religion.

🐱 Cats as protectors

At first, Egyptians valued cats because they:

• protected grain stores from mice and rats;

• kept homes safe from snakes and scorpions.

Over time, cats became not just useful animals, but beloved members of the family.

 Sacred animals

Cats were considered sacred. They were associated with the goddess Bastet – the goddess of home, fertility, joy, and protection.
Bastet was often depicted as:

• a woman with a cat’s head, or

• a full cat.

Killing a cat (even accidentally) was punished very severely – sometimes even by death.

 

Mummified cats

The Egyptians:

• mummified their cats when they died;

• mourned for them – sometimes shaving their eyebrows as a sign of grief;

• left cat mummies as offerings in the temples of Bastet.

Thousands of cat mummies have been discovered, showing how deep this reverence was.

Influence on the world

Through trade and travel, Egyptians helped cats gradually spread to:

• the Mediterranean,

• Europe,

• and later the rest of the world.

🐾 Legacy today

Many modern domestic cats descend from the African wildcat – the same species that Egyptians domesticated more than 4,000 years ago.