Bastet
Bast
Cat goddess of the home, protection and joy, who began as a fierce lioness.
Bastet's cult centre was the city of Bubastis in the Nile Delta, where the Greek historian Herodotus described a joyful festival with music, dancing and wine. Over time her fierce lioness form softened into the protective cat, and many thousands of mummified cats were offered at her temple.
Symbols
In the ancient sources
Herodotus, Histories (5th century BCE)
- Histories 2.60 Pilgrims sail to Bubastis singing, clapping and playing flutes; at the festival more wine is drunk than in all the rest of the year, and the locals say 700,000 people come.
- Histories 2.67 Dead cats are carried to sacred buildings in Bubastis, embalmed and buried.
- Histories 2.137–138 Her temple at Bubastis, set on an island ringed by canals and shaded by trees, is to him the most pleasing to see in Egypt.
- Histories 2.156 He equates the goddess Bubastis with the Greek Artemis.
Herodotus writes about her as 'Artemis'. Her early form in Egyptian texts is a lioness; the gentle cat goddess comes later.
Cross-checked against these texts and records, in public-domain or freely available versions where they exist. Line, section and chapter numbers follow the standard editions, so a particular translation may differ slightly.
Correspondences Explore all
These mix ancient attributes with modern associations from contemporary pagan and magical practice; the modern ones weren't part of her original worship.