Today we have Friday, May 26, 2017, and the next episode of the capital show Field of Miracles is on the air, and today the guests are spinning the drum in the studio again! And of course, we have prepared for you the correct answers to rather difficult questions that the participants of the show answer today. What were cats considered a symbol of the ancient Egyptians?
The correct answer to the question is PROFITABILITY
The Egyptians believed that one cat could bring them 28 kittens in 7 years. Even if you do not mention its "holiness", a prolific cat had a high material value. She was a symbol of the prosperity of the Egyptian.
This love of cats once turned against the Egyptians. Knowing that no Egyptian could kill a cat, the cunning Persians used this in the war with Egypt. They covered themselves with cats as shields, thanks to which they won.
Some scholars argue that even before the heyday of the culture of Ancient Egypt, there was a civilization whose scientific and technological achievements surpassed even the modern level.
Ancient Egypt was one of the first great civilizations on earth, beginning at the dawn of human history. And the ideas of the ancient Egyptians about the world around us were significantly different from the ideas of modern people. The ancient Egyptian pantheon consisted of a huge number of gods, who were most often depicted with a human body and an animal head. Therefore, the Egyptians treated animals with great respect, the worship of animals was elevated to a cult.
1. Harem of the sacred bull
As part of the ancient cult of animals, the Egyptians revered the bull. They considered a deity descended to earth. Of all the bulls, according to special signs, one was chosen, which later played the role of a sacred bull named Apis. It had to be black with special white markings.
This bull lived in Memphis, in a special "sacred barn" at the temple. He was provided with such care that many people could not even dream of dreaming about, fed and revered like a god, even kept a harem of cows for him. On the birthday of Apis, holidays were held, bulls were sacrificed to him. When Apis died, he was buried with honors and began to search for a new sacred bull.
2. Pet - hyena
Before settling on dogs and cats, mankind experimented with the domestication of some rather strange animals. 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians kept hyenas as pets. The drawings left on the tombs of the pharaohs show that they were used for hunting.
However, the Egyptians did not feel much love for them, often they were kept and fattened only for food. Yet giggling hyenas as pets did not take root among the Egyptians, especially since there were many cats and dogs loitering nearby, which turned out to be more suitable.
3 Cause Of Death - Hippo
Pharaoh Menes lived around 3000 BC and left a big mark on Egyptian history. He managed to unite the warring kingdoms of Egypt, which he later ruled for about 60 years. According to the ancient Egyptian historian Manetho, Menes died from wounds received while hunting for a hippopotamus. However, no further mention of this tragedy has survived. The only confirmation can be a drawing on a stone depicting a king asking for life from a hippopotamus.
4. Sacred mongooses
The Egyptians adored mongooses and considered them one of the most sacred animals. They marveled at the courage of these small furry animals, who bravely fought with huge cobras. The Egyptians erected bronze statues of mongooses, wore amulets with their images, and kept them as beloved pets.
Some Egyptians were even buried with the mummified remains of their beloved mongooses. Mongooses even entered Egyptian mythology. According to one of the stories, the sun god Ra turned into a mongoose to fight evil.
5. Killing a cat was punishable by death.
In Egypt, a cat was considered a sacred animal, and for her murder, even involuntarily, death was supposed. No exceptions were allowed. Once, even the king of Egypt himself tried to save a Roman who accidentally killed a cat, but he did not succeed. Even under the threat of war with Rome, the Egyptians lynched him and left the corpse in the street. One of the legends tells how cats caused the Egyptians to lose the war.
In 525 BC The king of the Persians Cambyses, before the offensive, ordered his soldiers to catch cats and attach them to shields. The Egyptians, seeing the frightened cats, surrendered without a fight, because. could not hurt their sacred animals.
6. Mourning for a cat
The death of a cat for the Egyptians was a tragedy, no less than the loss of a family member. On this occasion, mourning was declared in the family, during which everyone had to shave off their eyebrows.
The dead cat's body was embalmed, scented and buried, with mice, rats and milk placed in her grave for her later afterlife. The cat burials were huge. In one of them, about 80,000 embalmed cats were found.
7. Hunting with cheetahs
Big cats such as lions were allowed to be hunted. At the same time, the cheetah, by Egyptian standards, was considered a small, safe enough cat that you could even keep at home. Ordinary residents, of course, did not have cheetahs in their homes, but kings, in particular Ramses II, had many tamed cheetahs in their palace, and even lions, and he was not the only one. Drawings on ancient tombs often depict Egyptian kings hunting with tamed cheetahs.
8. City of the sacred crocodile
The Egyptian city of Crocodilopolis was the religious center of a cult dedicated to the god Sobek, depicted as a man with the head of a crocodile. In this city the Egyptians kept a sacred crocodile. People from all over came to see him. The crocodile was adorned with gold and jewels and served by a group of priests.
People brought food as gifts, and the priests, opening the crocodile's mouth, forced him to eat it. They even poured wine into his open mouth. When a crocodile died, its body was wrapped in a thin cloth, mummified and buried with great honors. After that, another crocodile was chosen as a sacred animal.
9. The birth of scarab beetles
The Egyptians believed that scarab beetles were magically born in excrement. The Egyptians believed that scarab beetles had magical powers. And all of them, from the rich to the poor, wore these beetles as amulets. The Egyptians saw how scarabs roll excrement into balls and hide them in holes. But they did not see how later the females lay their eggs in them, and therefore they believed that scarabs appeared from excrement. miraculously and endowed them with magical powers.
10. War over the love of hippos
The reason for one of the most big wars Egypt was the love of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao II for hippos. He kept a pool of hippos in his palace. Egypt then consisted of several kingdoms. One day, Pharaoh Apopi, the ruler of a stronger kingdom, ordered Seqenenre Tao II to get rid of the hippos, because they make a lot of noise and interfere with his sleep.
This, of course, was a mocking reason, since Apopee lived 750 km from the hippos. Sekenenra, who for a long time endured tyranny from Apopi, this time could not stand it and declared war on him. And although he himself died, his son and other pharaohs continued the war. And it ended with the unification of Egypt.
Source: listverse.com
In the ancient world, representatives of many peoples tamed cats and kept them as pets. However, the Egyptians undoubtedly admired them more than others, declaring them sacred animals.
BAST, GODDESS WITH THE CAT'S HEAD
The goddess Baet, whose name literally means "tearing", was most often depicted as a woman with a cat's head. Like Hathor, Maat or Sekhmet, Byet was the daughter of the sun.
She held an honorary position, serving as the eye of Ra, the solar god, and thus participated in the act of creation, shedding light on the earth and fighting twilight. The Egyptians often associated her with the lioness Sekhmet, the goddess of war, and both of them, being the daughters of the sun, paradoxically embodied both meekness and gays.
As a result of archaeological excavations carried out at the site of Jericho in Palestine, bones of cats dating back to the Neolithic were discovered. Skeleton of a cat dating back to the 6th millennium BC. e., was found in Cyprus.
However, scientists cannot agree on the origin of the domestic cat. Some researchers claim that it descended from a wild African cat (Felis sylvestris libyca) and was domesticated by the ancient Egyptians about two and a half thousand years BC, while others believe that its ancestor was a wild Asian cat (Felis sylvestris manul). Be that as it may, apparently, the cat was domesticated about two thousand years BC, and this happened in Ancient Egypt. Before that, cats were found exclusively in the wild.
Of course, the ancient Egyptians tamed cats not only and not so much because of their beautiful appearance, but primarily because they hunted rats and mice, effectively exterminating these plague carriers, a real disaster for grain crops.
The role of the cat in daily life
Starting around the second millennium BC, wild cats, the ancestors of the domestic cat, pursued their prey, rodents, all the way to human habitation in the Nile Valley, attracted by the smell of food and the warmth of hearths. At that time, this region achieved particular prosperity, mainly due to the development of agriculture and grain granaries.
Starting from 1600 BC. e. Egyptian sailors began to take cats with them on board to protect their goods and supplies from the ubiquitous rodents, thus violating the harsh Egyptian law, according to which it was forbidden to take them out of the country on pain of death. In addition, cats were clandestinely transported by sailors to be traded under the counter like jewels wherever maritime trade exchanges developed.
That is how cats gradually settled along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea. But the Egyptians used cats not only for catching rodents, but also for hunting. Indeed, these small predators were indispensable helpers in hunting birds. They were kept on a leash while the hunter killed the birds with a boomerang, and then, when the prey fell to the ground, they were lowered to bring the bird to their owner.
And finally, cats were credited with the ability to protect people from fire. The ancient Greek writer Herodotus said that the Egyptians did not fight fire, arguing that if a strong fire suddenly starts, cats will run to the scene and throw themselves into the flames, giving their lives to save people caught in the fire. Everyone present at the same time mourns the cat, and the fire goes out without anyone's intervention. In a word, cats not only played a crucial role in economic life Ancient Egypt, but were also real positive symbols worshiped by a whole nation.
revered animal
The ancient Egyptians believed that all animals should be treated with respect. However, cats seem to have been revered much more than others, because Egyptian law, under pain of death, forbade scolding cats, mistreating them, and even more so killing them. After all, Egyptian cats were not just everyone's favorite pets, but above all sacred creatures.
Starting from 1567 BC. e. the cat was a symbol of the sun, and the cat was a symbol of the moon, so the Egyptians revered these animals as gods. Egyptian cats, incarnations of Bait, the goddess of womanhood and fertility, or the radiant cat who ensures the return of the sun after night, occupied an enviable position both in the world of the living and in the afterlife realm of Osiris.
The goddess Bait was considered the embodiment of meekness, but she, like a real cat, could well release her claws. The Egyptians had undisguised admiration for this cat-headed goddess, who was invariably accompanied by a brood of her kittens. Every year, in honor of Baet, sacrifices were made by prisoners. Every household had at least one cat, and when a cat died, family members would shave off their eyebrows as a sign of mourning and mourn for seventy days. The inconsolable head of the family wrapped the deceased pet in a linen and took it to the embalmers, and then buried it.
Since embalming was very expensive, the head of the family had seventy days to collect the necessary amount. One of the clearest evidence of such worship on the part of the Egyptians is in the city of Beni Hasan, where archaeologists have discovered a whole cemetery of cats. Thousands of mummies of these sacred animals were buried here! Cats lived at every temple, and the position of cat keeper was very enviable; it was passed down from father to son.
Only very successful Egyptians could keep a cat at home, because caring for it was expensive. They didn't just eat mice! Indeed, these animals were so revered that they were fed first, and they got the best pieces of meat or fish. In addition, when the Egyptian sought to ingratiate himself with the goddess Bayt so that she would fulfill his request, he would take the best fish as a gift to her earthly incarnations - cats.
The ancient Egyptians firmly believed that every animal was endowed with the greatest power, so their attitude towards them was filled with respect and sacred awe - as if they were carefully kept relics. However, the Egyptian cat-goddess was considered the most revered animal.
The rise of the cat cult
Now it is difficult to explain the full depth of the worship of the cat, which is described by the Egyptian. If reduced to the simplest, then we can say that the people who lived in those days associated it with their home, love, marriage and, of course, a kind of protection from the devil.
The first hieroglyphs, meaning the words "cat" and "cat", are deciphered as "mint" and "miu", respectively. In Russian, the transcription of these words is similar to the usual “meow” for our hearing.
A lot of figurines and drawings of cats have been preserved. On many of them you can see how a scarab beetle is placed on the chest of a sacred animal. This is another symbol revered in Egypt, with which the concept of life was associated.
As described in the documentary "Cats of Egypt: from deity to squalor", these animals were brought from Nubia. Before becoming ordinary domesticated animals, adored by people for their kindness, gentleness and grace, cats were protectors. They hunted small rodents and thus saved the provisions stored in barns. Cats are carriers of infection, such as plague, and this prevented epidemics.
When Egypt became a powerful state, the basis of its well-being was granaries. Filled to the top with wheat, they served as a guarantee of well-being. For four whole months, when the Nile flooded, one could not be afraid of hunger. To ensure the safety of grain, cats were required, ruthlessly exterminating rats and mice.
Thus began the deification of these animals as creatures embodying specific gods in their images. Is it for this reason that the supreme god of the sun Ra was called the “great cat”? The cat-god Ra defeated the serpent of darkness - Apep, and often the supreme god was depicted in the form of an animal holding a knife with one paw, and pressing the serpent's head with the other.
The Egyptians associated the cat's pupils, which grow under the influence of light, with the movement of the god of cats Ra on a chariot along the heavenly rivers, and the animal's eyes burning in the dark with the sign of a fiery chariot. When the sun rises - the cat's eyes become smaller, when it goes down - they increase.
The Egyptians compared the organ of vision of this unique animal with two reduced suns. For people, they were mystical windows to another world, access to which mere mortals did not have.
In the days of Ancient Egypt, cats were considered aliens from the afterlife, so the dwelling in which this animal lived would never be disturbed by a dark entity. Why? Because cats feel them and see them even in the dark, they will never let anyone into the house that they protect from the devil.
Pay attention to how the Egyptian sphinx seems to freeze and gaze at one point, perhaps at this moment he is in contact with someone who came from a world invisible to man.
Goddess Bastet and her sacred black cats
The most significant in ancient Egypt was the cult of the cat goddess Bastet, which lasted until 1 BC. e.
Quote message
"O wonderful cat, bestowed forever."
Inscription on an obelisk in Nebra, Ancient Egypt.
The Egyptians, throughout the history of their existence, treated animals with reverent reverence, revering some of them as shrines. Cats in ancient Egypt occupied the first places in the hierarchy of such shrines.
Nowhere is the cat revered as in Egypt. complex metaphorical meaning world mythology endowed the image of this beautiful intelligent animal, the Egyptians reduced it to positive, pleasant concepts for human consciousness - such as goodness, hearth, fun, love, motherhood, fertility, protective forces.
In ancient Egypt, there was a very significant cult of the goddess - the cat Bastet (Bast), who was also considered the personification of sunlight and moonlight. The goddess was depicted as a maiden with a cat's head or as a lioness. Bastet was considered the daughter of Osiris and Isis.
Prayers were dedicated to this goddess: “She can bestow life and strength, all the health and joy of the heart” or “I am a cat, the mother of life.” In her honor, cats were worshiped, they were mummified, a mouse was placed nearby so that the cats had something to have fun and eat in the afterlife.
The cult of the cat appeared in the most ancient period of Egyptian history (Second Dynasty) and continued until the 1st century BC. The religious center of worship was the city of Bubastis, where, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, there was the most beautiful temple in Egypt, dedicated to Bastet. In the main sanctuary stood a huge statue of the goddess.
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Statue of the goddess Bastet (Bast) in the Temple of Bubastis
The great historians of antiquity Herodotus and Diodorus wrote in their writings, as every year, seven times a year, with
then thousands of priests gathered in the temple in Bubastis for a great commemoration
divine cat. During the annual spring festivities, the statue was taken out of the temple and solemnly transported on a boat along the banks of the Nile. These sacred animals were also bred there, and it was there that a large number of mummies of cats.
Bast (Bastet)
Goddess cat. Goddess of the sun, joy and fun. She personified warmth. It was considered all-seeing and took the place of a guard under the sun god Ra. Embodied feminine and maternal qualities:
elegance, beauty and grace...
Often the goddess was depicted as a woman with a cat's head, in right hand she had a musical instrument - a sistrum, and in the left - a mirror, and four kittens were located at her feet.
Tas the goddess of fertility was personified by the Egyptians.
Bastet (Bast), as a rule, was dressed in a green robe in the images. Traditionally associated with the sun, fertility and successful childbirth in women. The Egyptians raised the goddess of fertility to the rank of a national deity.
Bast was the goddess of fire, the moon, childbirth, fertility, pleasure, benevolence, fun, sexual rites, music, dance, protection from disease and evil spirits, intuition, healing, marriage, and all animals (especially cats).
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Bast has two incarnations - a woman with a cat's head (good essence) and a lion (aggressive).
According to other sources in Egypt, the cat was associated with both Bast and Pasht (Moon). Pasht was the dark aspect of Bast, Lady of the East, mother of all cats, wife of the god Ptah. Although she was considered the embodiment of the life-giving energy and gentle warmth of the Sun, she was also connected to the Moon through her sacred cats.
Bast was also the patroness of children and the guardian of the harvest. Her figurines were kept in the houses, which drove away evil spirits.
The beginning of the cult
Bastet
- Second Dynasty. Worshiped until the 1st century. AD
Genealogy:
Daughter and wife of the sun god Ra, wife of Ptah, mother of Mahes and Khensu.
Iconography:
Depicted as a woman with a cat's head.
Attribute
: Musical instrument systr.
Sacred animal - a cat, reflecting the agility and strength of the goddess.
Sacred cats Bast herself had black cats; The image of a black cat was placed on their homes by Egyptian doctors as a symbol of their profession. The image of a cat adorned the sistrum and, sometimes, the mirror of Hathor. This animal represented the moon.
This cat personified divinity, inaccessible to a mere mortal. Even the supreme sun god Ra was called the "great cat". The influence of lighting on the size of the cat's pupil was associated by the ancient Egyptians with the movement of the sun god on a chariot along the heavenly rivers. And the cat's eyes burning in the dark, according to the beliefs of the Egyptians, radiate daylight - the light of a fiery chariot.
The first hieroglyphs that were used to represent the word "cat" and "cat" belong to the fifth and sixth dynasties of the Egyptian pharaohs (about 2300 BC). Today they are deciphered as "mint" and "miu". Transcription of the hieroglyphs "miw" for the masculine and "miwt" for the feminine (in Russian there is a similar onomatopoeia in the verb "meow").
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Numerous drawings and figurines depicting cats have come down to us. The rising sun was personified by the scarab beetle, which was always present on the chest of animals.
In the Heliopolis sanctuary, the symbol of the supreme god was a statue of a giant cat, the pupils of which changed depending on the direction of the sun's rays. The statue, releasing a water jet every hour, also served to tell the time. According to legend, the statue of a cat depicted an animal that died in a fight with the evil serpent Apep.
Presumably, the domestication of the cat took place in Egypt during the III millennium BC. e. Before becoming a pet valued for its softness, grace and carelessness, the cat, first of all, became a protective animal. Hunting small rodents, they guarded the barns where the Egyptians kept their provisions (primarily wheat), vital for this agricultural people.
By hunting rats, cats eliminated the source of serious diseases (such as plague). Finally, by hunting snakes (usually horned vipers), they made the surrounding area safer.
At the beginning of the historical period called the Middle Kingdom, Egypt grew into a mighty power. Grain storages were the basis of this power. As long as they were filled, the country could calmly survive a possible flood of the Nile. This was the finest hour of the cat - the exterminator of rodents.
The practical importance of the cat in ancient Egypt was so great that it was during this period that the cat was considered a sacred animal. The Egyptians deified cats, seeing in them creatures capable of embodying the images of specific gods. The form of a huge cat was assumed by the great sun god Ra, who defeated Apophis, the snake of darkness. Sometimes Ra was called the Great Cat. The artists depicted his duel with the snake of darkness as follows: with one paw the cat presses the head of the snake, and in the other he holds a knife.
But the lion-headed Bastet became the true goddess of cats. The Egyptians considered the cat a sacred animal of the goddess Bastet, personifying joy, fun, health and love of life. Here is what the famous philosopher H. P. Blavatsky (1831-1891) writes about the attitude of the Egyptians to the cult of the cat in the book "The Evolution of Symbolism": "They noticed the simple fact that the cat sees in the dark and that its pupils become completely round and especially luminous at night.
The moon was the beholder in the night skies, and the cat was her equivalent on earth…. And from this it followed that the sun, looking down into the underworld during the night, could also be called a cat, as it was, for it also saw in the darkness. The cat was called in Egyptian "mau", which means sighted, from the verb mau - to see .... The moon, like a cat, was the eye of the sun, for it reflects sunlight and because the eye reflects the image in its mirror."
The cult of the cat reached its peak during the 12th and 13th dynasties of the Egyptian pharaohs (circa 1800 BC). The temple of the goddess Bastet in the eastern part of the Nile Delta has become a place of pilgrimage. The main center of the Egyptians was a huge necropolis near the temple. Here they buried the embalmed dead cats, placing in decorated sarcophagi along with toys and food (for example, mummified mice) for a long journey to the afterlife. Near Beni Hasan, 180,000 cat mummies were discovered. As a sign of mourning, people mourning for cats shaved their eyebrows.
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Egyptians from all parts of the kingdom brought gifts of devotion to the goddess in the form of small cat figurines made of ceramics and bronze. Bronze figurines of cats are distinguished by the finest surface modeling.
Soft contours emphasize the plasticity of the body, an elegant silhouette. Masterfully conveyed the naturalness and grace of the beast...
Made with love, these figurines are exquisite and at the same time they are restrainedly aloof, even strict... as if reminding everyone that Bastet is a merciful hypostasis of the formidable lion-headed goddess Sokhmet, daughter of the sun god Ra, supporting Maat - universal harmony - and punishing those who violate it.
Figurines of cats, as a rule, were richly decorated by the Egyptians. The figurines from the Hermitage have necklaces around their necks, scarabs on their heads and eyes inlaid with gold.
The study of mummies from the cat tombs in Bubastit, Siut and Beni Hassan showed that the cats of the Middle Kingdom were subjected to selection (artificial selection): the skeleton, teeth and pigmentation of the coat already differed significantly from those of the original steppe cat.
Egyptian cats were deified. Luxurious temples were built for them, their bodies were mummified, thousands of pilgrims rushed to them from all over the country.
Egyptian cats from time immemorial have been surrounded by a mystical halo. Their eyes were considered windows to another world, and, due to their variability, animals were often compared to the Sun.
Egyptian priests found many analogies between the nature of the cat and the sun. First of all, these are the eyes of the Cat.
The sun rises, the pupils of the cat's eyes become smaller. The sun is setting in the evening, the cat's eyes widen.
When the Sun has disappeared, the cat looks at the world with wide pupils, round and luminous. The cat's eyes are two miniature suns. Cat's eyes are magical windows to other worlds where you can see a lot.
Cats are guests of the world of the dead in our manifested world.
It is believed that a vampire or other dark entity will never set foot in a house where cats live. The thing is, cats see them...
Often you can notice the "strangeness" of the cat's behavior when it suddenly freezes and stares at some point. So she communicates with the world invisible to us.
In Bubastis, the main center of the Bast cult in Lower Egypt, sacred cats lived in the temple courtyard. Caring for them was considered a special honor, this right was transferred from son to father.
In order to take care of the welfare of the cats living in the temple, a caste of priests was organized. Bastet's servants held the highest government positions. A priest accused of unacceptable treatment of sacred cats was severely punished.
The priests carefully watched the cats, trying not to miss the slightest sign they gave... the message of the goddess Bast, in order to interpret this message later.
A believer who sought the help of the goddess or wished to take a vow would shave part of his child's head and take it to the temple. Hair was placed on a scale and balanced with silver. Then the believer gave this silver to the caretaker of the sacred cats, who cut off the appropriate portion from the fish that served them as food and gave it to the cats.
In the families of ordinary Egyptians, cats were also revered as sacred, they were surrounded by care and attention.
The Egyptians loved their domestic cats, which were depicted lying on the lap of the owner or under his seat. Plutarch describes how carefully the Egyptians were engaged in breeding cats, selecting pairs that were suitable for their character.
Sacred cats were fed with milk and bread; for them, fish that did not have scales were specially bred in tanks. Those who encroached on the life of cats were severely punished. The cat was protected by law and the one who dared to raise a hand against her was threatened with the death penalty.
Cats were called "good house spirits". People everywhere gave way to these graceful animals. Cats in Egypt were the first to be taken out of houses during fires, and the owners rescued them, often at the risk of their own lives.
If the cat died, then her funeral was held with great honors.
After the death of cats, they were buried according to a ritual reminiscent of a human burial: the owners of the cat and their relatives shaved their eyebrows as a sign of mourning, and the cat's body was embalmed. The Egyptians believed that the soul of the mistress of the house after death moves into a cat.
The body of the dead cat was wrapped in linen, anointed with herbs and mummified using a balm. To prevent cats from starving in the afterlife, mummified mice and shrews were placed with them in the sarcophagus.
The cats of the rich were wrapped in colored linen with intricate designs. A mask with ears made from palm leaf stalks was superimposed on her muzzle. The mummy was placed in a wooden or straw-woven box, sometimes decorated with gold, crystal or obsidian. Even kittens were buried in small bronze coffins.
The most revered cats were those that lived in temples. Their funerals were sometimes so pompous and expensive that special duties were levied from the population in order to pay for them.
The sarcophagus with the mummy was placed in one of the countless necropolises specially designed for cats and lined along the banks of the Nile. Mourning lasted seventy days - the time of the entire mummification. Sometimes a cat accompanies its owner to the afterlife under the guise of a figurine (or carved design on coffins). Images of a cat can also be found on numerous vases, jewelry and dishes, as well as in drawings (under the place of a woman, as a protective symbol).
During excavations in the city of Beni Hassan, archaeologists discovered a whole cat cemetery, where one hundred and eighty thousand cats rested.
However, the large number of cat mummies found may also be due to their small size (it is easier to bury a cat than a bull).
The veneration of the cat did not end at the family level. It was universal. State laws protected cats as best they could.
For example, it was strictly forbidden to take cats out of the country. Probably, the Egyptians wanted to be a monopoly in the field of breeding cats. :) However, forbidden fruit is always sweet. And the stricter the laws were, the more hunters were to take the cat out of Egypt. For the Phoenicians, it even became a matter of honor. Thanks to the desire to piss off the Egyptians, cats soon spread throughout the Mediterranean.
The Egyptians believed that one cat could bring them 28 kittens in 7 years. Even if you do not mention its "holiness", a prolific cat had a high material value. She was a symbol of the prosperity of the Egyptian.
This love of cats once turned against the Egyptians. Knowing that no Egyptian could kill a cat, the cunning Persians used this in the war with Egypt. They covered themselves with cats as shields, thanks to which they won.
Some scholars argue that even before the heyday of the culture of Ancient Egypt, there was a civilization whose scientific and technological achievements surpassed even the modern level.
However, after natural disasters wiped out a great civilization from the face of the earth, only legends, myths and prejudices remained from it...
Perhaps many, like me, are interested in the question of the origin of cats. Where did they come from? Where is their home? The answer to this question may be here in our memories of the past...
...945 BC. A small boat floats along the calm Nile...
Two figures in white are visible in the boat, they stand side by side: a mature man, tall, fit. With one hand, he holds on to the high prow of the boat, placing the other hand on the shoulder of his son, still a boy. They are slowly approaching the magnificent city.
"Father, tell me about this city and why do we and thousands of other people swim here?" - "My son! We are sailing to the beautiful city of Bubastis - our capital, for the annual festival of the cat goddess Bast ... Soft-hearted Bast is known for her miracles of healing. She is revered as a cheerful goddess of healing, music, happiness and joy. Thousands of pilgrims rush to the Bubasis festival. A huge temple was erected in her honor, next to the temple there is a water channel, all the streets intersect at this holy place. I will teach you a prayer: "Oh, Bast, moon-faced, mighty healer, beloved by millions. Clear in your temple, open your doors before me, illuminate my soul with your light, penetrate deep into my spirit, heal all my ailments ..." Well , so we sailed, let's hurry to the temple.
The boy is deeply shocked by the extraordinary spectacle that opened up to him. The magnificent temple sparkles in the sun, everyone admires its snow-white columns, beautiful details. Laughter and joyful exclamations are heard throughout the district. With songs and clapping, the pilgrims rise to the temple, shaking their rattles - a symbol of fertility.
The spouse of the goddess in Bubastis was Atum, the son was the formidable Mahes, the god of storms and fury, revered in the guise, again, of a lion. The goddess was revered in other significant cities of Lower Egypt - first of all, in Memphis, where she was identified with Sekhmet, and in Yunu, where she was the daughter of Atum, the solar creator. It is known that the festival of the cat-goddess took place not only in Lower Egypt, but also in the south - in Thebes and Esna.
At the main entrance is a statue of the cat goddess, a goddess who possessed the power of the Sun and the Moon, bringing mental health. Bast is depicted as a woman with a cat's head, with kittens at her feet...
Cat figurines are sold around, and many cats live in the temple. In order to take care of their well-being, an almost paramilitary caste of priests is organized. Bast's servants hold public office.
The duties of the priests include healing, worship, mummification of dead cats. Priests could be both men and women.
One of the main points of attraction is the colossal necropolis near the temple. The embalmed deceased beloved cats were buried here, placed in decorated sarcophagi along with toys and food, which, according to the ancient Egyptians, is necessary in the other world.
The pharaoh himself attended ceremonies in honor of the cat goddess. Ancient Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century. BC. visited the temple at Bubastis, about which he wrote: "There is no temple so pleasing to the eye as this one at Bubastis."
The very first mention of cats we find in the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptians. Lions and cats already had their own symbols with the designation "miu" or "mau". About 2.5 thousand years BC. in the inscriptions of the pyramids of the 5th and 6th dynasties of the pharaohs, there are symbols denoting cats - this was the heyday of their cult.
The cult of cats was so great that it lasted more than 2 thousand years and was canceled only in 390 AD. Each city of Ancient Egypt had its own totem, i.e. guardian deity.
The cat had several cities where she was revered above other gods. Forgive me, dog lovers, but although the dog was one of the favorite animals of the Egyptians, it was never considered a deity.
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And the Egyptian god Anubis - the conductor of the souls of the dead - in a detailed study, still had the head of a jackal. As for the cat, it was and is the real protector of man from invisible forces.
The ancient Egyptians, Tibetans, Tahitians and other peoples of the past, who possessed wisdom and knowledge, were well aware of this fact.
Anyone who wants to look into the history of ancient Egypt will immediately notice the special attention to animals from the cat family.
ancient legend says: "Shining Ra (the risen Sun) sailed on his solar boat through the heavens from east to west, making sure to avoid meeting with the serpent Apep (darkness of ignorance), subsequently defeated by the daughter of Ra - the cat goddess Bast." From all of the above, it follows that in the thinking of the Egyptians, the cat gods, and, in particular, Bast, had a very special meaning.
The Egyptians looked at the cat not only as a beloved creature, but as a representative of the deity. And so they treated her with respect and reverence ...
God Anubis
. ..then what they received from her had a different quality, carried more purity and light, she became a transmitter of divine energies for them.
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At the same time, these goddesses were considered as guardians of the area, property, and the carved figurines had a deep symbolic meaning. The Greeks called these sculptures "sphinxes". That is what they called the immortal cat, which appeared in 1966 in the state of Ontario, in Canada, for its resemblance to the ancient Egyptian figurines and those cats that in those distant times "guarded" the pyramids and pharaohs.
The cat, associated with femininity and mystery, became a favorite inhabitant of temples and houses for the Egyptians.
The cat was so popular with the Egyptians that among the populations of the Nile coast, theophoric names were widespread, which included the name of the goddess Bastet, for example Padibast - “The one whom Bastet gave”, Tashenubast - “Bastet's daughter”, Nakhtbastetru - “Bastet is strong against them ”, Ankhbastet - “Long live Bastet”.
The oldest images of a cat in a religious context (amulets made of bone or faience) were found in the Badari necropolis and date back to the end of the Old Kingdom. Wearing them on the body provided constant protection from any dangers ...
Later, cats appear on the so-called. magic wands of the era of the Middle Kingdom, which were made from the bone of a hippo and were intended to protect the premises and, especially, the pregnant mistress of the house. On their surface, images of strange demonic creatures, spirits and animals have been preserved, among which a cat sometimes appears - the destroyer of evil, personified in the form of snakes. In its front paws, the cat often holds a knife designed to cut off the heads of enemies, just like the great sun cat in Yunu.
Throughout the history of Egypt of the pharaohs, the cat has never exhausted its symbolic image of a protector, sometimes also associated with healing...
In these cases, the cat is depicted with some lion-like features, which clearly speaks of its formidable role and that, as a peaceful inhabitant of the house and a universal favorite, she coexisted in the guise of the goddess Bastet with the furious lion-headed patroness of the king, whose name was first mentioned on a stone vessel from Sakkara, who retained the name of the king of the II dynasty Hetepsehmui. The symbolic connection between the cat and its formidable counterpart - the lion, is present, centuries later, on the false doors in the Theban tombs of the nobles of the XVIII dynasty of Kenamon and Amenemhet Surer, who are guarded by cats symmetrically depicted above the doorway to another world, the guards of the boundary of two spaces. This role in Egyptian art was more often occupied by lions or hybrid creatures with a lion's body - sphinxes.
The consonance between the verbal designation of a cat (miit) and the name of Maat, the goddess of truth, may have led to the fact that in a number of late bronze statuettes of sacred cats, the image of the goddess becomes part of the animal’s necklace, and her sacred feather is a symbol, in the form of which the fine wool inside was stylized. cat ears.
Images of cats are often found on ritual objects associated with various forms of Hathor, in particular, on sistra, where she appears as the incarnation of the Heliopolis goddess Nebetthetepet, associated with the sexual energy of the creator god, transformed into a goddess. In this context, the cat clearly appears as a symbol of fertility, sexuality and attractiveness.
The connection between the cat and the lioness - two aspects of the formidable and predictable nature of the female deity - was emphasized in every possible way.
So, one of the statuettes depicts the lion-headed Sekhmet sitting on the throne and putting her feet on the prostrate figures of captive foreigners, while the cat Bastet sat on their feet. The childbearing functions of Bastet, often surrounded by kittens, and her sexual power were the keys through which the goddess became the peaceful and affectionate mother of the king, the protector of those lost in the night and, in general, the “reverse” side of Sekhmet, echoing the words of the famous “Teachings of Ankhsheshonk”:
“When a man smells of myrrh, the wife in front of him is like a cat. When a man is in pain, the wife in front of him is like a lioness.
The same Ankhshehonk, probably hinting at the fact that the nature of the cat is unpredictable and its transformation into Sekhmet is very fast, recalls:
"Don't laugh at the cat."
The cult of cats that existed in Egypt also affected other countries. So, traces of his influence can be found in Gaul, in particular in Toulouse, where amulets, figurines, musical instruments - sistra - with the image of cats were found (local archaeological finds most likely date back to the 1st century BC), and in the UK: in Badbury, Gassed, the All Saints and Danbury, archaeologists have unearthed mass graves of cats.
Egyptian artists depicted hundreds of cats on tombstones and papyrus. They sculpted them from bronze, gold, stone and wood, made them from clay, and carved them from ivory. Young Egyptian women wore amulets with images of cats, which were called "utchat" and were a symbol of fertility. The girls prayed to the gods for the fulfillment of their desire to have as many children as the kittens depicted on their amulet.
The cat is an amazing creature. There is no animal with a more complex character and such a controversial and rich history. At first she was worshiped as a deity, then they saw her as a servant of the devil, and now she is again an idol.
In terms of numbers, the cat will soon become the most popular pet on Earth.
Even the laziest domestic cat is a born hunter. "I am a cat that walks by itself." With these words, Kipling immortalized the cat's inherent spirit of independence. Let her live in our house, accept our way of life, but she allowed herself to be tamed only on her own terms. And was the domestic cat truly tamed?
Egyptian Mau (Mao) is considered the oldest natural breed in nature. She has every right to be considered a direct descendant of the first domesticated cats of ancient Egypt.
In Egypt, a long-standing bond binds a man and a cat. She was revered as a goddess even before she was domesticated. For more than a millennium, she has been a national deity. The worship of cats goes back to an era even more distant than the time of the sphinxes with their human head and the body of a lion.
P.S.: Since I just adore cats and I really like everything related to the culture of Ancient Egypt, as one of the most mysterious countries ancient world, I decided that in my diary there will be a lot of cats, various, for every taste and a lot of Egyptian themes. So do not blame me, for some monotony of topics ... But this is for now ... since my interests are not limited to cats and Egypt. But, unfortunately, there is not enough time for everything you want ...
