Cats in Egyptian Society... I need your help!
Puck
to take Ancient Art of the Near East and Egypt as one of my upper
division GE classes. One of the projects of the class is to write a
7-10 page paper about any aspect of Mesopotamia or Egypt and
incorporate artwork into the paper. I decided to write my paper about
Cats in Egyptian Society and How They're Depicted in Artwork. I'm
currently researching in several local libraries and various online
sources. If anyone knows of any helpful links or any good books that
might be able to help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thank you in advance.
*Sara
paghat
puckgoo...@aol.com (Puck) wrote:
You will definitely find the library more rewarding than the net, unless
you just wanna write something common & superficial, in that case there's
certainly a lot of stuff about the Cat-goddess Bast (Ubastet) all over the
net, but much less about real cats in ancient Egypt beyond the
generalization that they were honored for reflecting the Great Mother
Bast.
The Egyptian Cat-goddess enters JudeoChristian lore on several occasions.
Ezekiel refers to the future destruction of Bast's chief city of Bubastis,
which he calls Pibeseth ("the house of Beseth" -- i.e, Bast's Hebrew name
is Beseth), indicating his desire for the destruction of Beseth's cult
[Ezek 30:17]. The cat-headed Goddess is referred to in the Letter of
Jeremiah, in which he counsels not to fear such "not-gods" [Let Jer 6:22]
whom women honored with offerings of grain [6:30] & among whose
priestesses were those who were menstruant or pregnant [6:29].
Ubastet was related to Cybele & Sekhmet, for like them, in her raging
aspect, Ubastet was a leopardess or Lion-goddess. "As a lion she shall be
sent among them, & as a leopard shall she mutilate them" [Sirach 28:23].
Ezekiel personified Judah as a lioness [Ezek 19:1-19], undoubtedly
alluding to just such a Lion-headed Mother Goddess as the Hebrews knew as
Baalah. "What a lioness was your mother among lions! She crouched in the
midst of young lions, rearing her welps" [19:2]. These biblical allusions
show that a feline goddess akin to Bast or Sekhmet was worshipped even
among the Jews, though not directly identified with the Egyptian form of
the Mother Goddess. The Hebrew Goddess Baalah sometimes had a lioness's
head like Sekhmet, & the "ancestral lioness" of the Jews was called
Kephirah or Laishah (the name of the lioness upon which Ashtoreth of
Siddon stood).
Kephirah occurs several times in scripture, sometimes mistranslated as
"lion" instead of "lioness." Israel, then Judah in the time of the two
kingdoms, were commonly personified as the Lioness. "Behold, a people
rises as a lioness!" [Nm 23:24] alludes to Israel as a War-goddess who
devours her enemies; "The whelps of Kephirah are scattered" [Job 4:11]
alludes to exiled Israel. Her numerous daughters were defenders of the
house of David, for he sang, "I lie in the midst of lionesses & greedily
devour the sons of men" [Ps 57:4]. An ancient lamentation for Israel
began, "What a lioness was your mother among lions" [Ezek 19:2]. Her
warlike propensity is painted in the verses, "The roaring is like
Kephirah" from whom none can be rescued [Isa 5:29]; "I will devour them
like Kephirah" [Hos 13:8]; or "Its teeth are Kephirah's teeth" [Joel 1:6].
She was one of the animal-divinities of the Negeb [Isa 30:6] probably
resembling Egyptian deities. Many of these verses also speak of the male
lion, so that a divine couple is implied, both God and Goddess having the
form of lions [Nah 2:11-12]; and of these two, "the Lioness is stronger"
[Zohar I:237b]. These definitively allude to a Goddess similar to
lion-headed Sekhmet, or to the Cat-goddess in her raging lion or panther
form.
The Gnostic Christians knew Bast as Boubastis, a female angelic being who
roams the five nations of the underworld restoring the punished. She is
apparently the positive aspect of one of the five demonic regents, Arioth
the Ethiopian (i.e., Black Aphrodite). The interventions of Boubastis
saves the spirits of tormented sinners from the wrath of Arioth, Hecate, &
the two lower male regents [Pistis Sophia 139-140]. These Gnostic
underworld divinities are derived in greatest part from Egyptian lore
which had many forms of Bast & Sekhmet that guarded the underworld.
Although the domestic cat was well known in Israel, it is never directly
referred to in the Bible, an odd oversight inexplicable unless there were
very strong taboos against them, as against those who "worship even the
most hateful animals" [Wisdom of Solomon 15:18]. By the Letter of Jeremiah
reference, it would seem cats were always associated only with idolatry &
were thought fearful omens. The Talmud says cats were indeed kept to help
keep a house clean, but many argued against them; they were believed to
eat the hands off babies, & some said it was sinful to keep a cat [b. Baba
Kamma 80a-b]. These ideas are almost certainly in reaction to the
forbidden Cat-goddess of Egypt.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Here dwell souls that did neither evil nor good."
-Inferno
Cat Protector
at least start. You might find books at the local library on the subject as
well.
--
Cat Galaxy- The Internet radio station for cats. Meow meow meow!!
http://www.live365.com/stations/231353
Real Player and Winamp: 66.28.48.193:10518
"Puck" <puckgoo...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:e4a334e2.01111...@posting.google.com...
Jepo
on the history of siamese... and found many conflicts between research in
books found at the library from what was found online. unless it is a site
dedicated to research (I am sure you know the difference) I would take info
found with a grain of salt and make sure to back it up with stuff found on
hard copy.
unfortunately my research was mainly history in siam, but it is to be sure
the egyptian traders spread cats. also unfortuate - I actually have a bfa
with a lot of art history, but never ran into the cats in my art research!
I will check some of my old links on art history, and hopefully can add some
links.
"Puck" <puckgoo...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:e4a334e2.01111...@posting.google.com...
Puck
in-depth information, but they're great for gathering images (which I plan to
incorporate into my paper). As I said before, I am including my university
library and my local library in my search. Thank you for your help!
*Sara
Sofia V. Hawn
How on earth did you get those extreme close-up's of yours cats??? Great
pictures!
-Sofia
"Jepo" <miss...@hotmail.comLITTER> wrote in message
news:4TJI7.43157$Ud.20...@news1.rdc1.bc.home.com...
Jepo
We have zoom attachments for the digital camera - pretty much the only way
we can get half decent pics close to the cats (the digital zoom isn't great
on our camera).
btw - the video is almost done... just working on getting a good compression
before send-off =)
"Sofia V. Hawn" <so...@anet.com> wrote in message
news:tv81ben...@corp.supernews.com...
Lyn
A good source:
Cat Catalog: The Ultimate Cat Book by Judy Fireman
ISBN 0-9111104-81-X or 0-9111104-82 pbk.
Workman Pub Co., Inc. (my ed is c.1976)
It starts with an entire section regarding cats in Egypt (written by
Jean Cantin), and has some photos of artwork. There is even a section
on cat mummies and Persian cat soup.
HTH,
L.