Bastet

“When a cat dies in a private house by a natural death, all those who dwell in the house shave their eyebrows.” — Herodotus, Histories 2.66

Originally depicted as a fierce lioness (and partly conflated with Sekhmet in early dynasties), Bastet softened over time into the domestic cat — the goddess Egyptians invited into their houses rather than feared. Her cult center at Bubastis hosted what Herodotus called the most joyous festival in Egypt: hundreds of thousands of pilgrims drinking wine on barges, women lifting their skirts and singing obscenities to the goddess (Histories 2.59-60). Mummified cats by the millions have been excavated near her temples. She protected the home from snakes, plague, and evil spirits, and was the patroness of mothers and children.

Cross-tradition parallels: Hestia (Greek goddess of the hearth and household); Sekhmet (her own ferocious sister-aspect); the Hindu cat-vehicle of Shashthi (goddess of children and childbirth); the Norse Freyja, whose chariot is drawn by cats.