Hitchhiker's Guide to Religion
Egyptian

Bastet

The Cat Goddess of Joy and Protection

Egyptian Cats, fertility, protection of the household, music, dance, joy, motherhood
Portrait of Bastet
Attribute Value
Combat
ATK 75
DEF 80
SPR 78
SPD 95
INT 80
Rank Daughter of Ra / Patroness of Lower Egypt / Guardian of the Home
Domain Cats, fertility, protection of the household, music, dance, joy, motherhood
Alignment Egyptian Sacred
Key Act Defends Ra from Apophis each night by becoming the Eye of Ra in cat form; in her later cult, presides over the joyous festival at Bubastis
Source Pyramid Texts; Coffin Texts; Herodotus, *Histories* 2.59-60; Bubastis temple inscriptions

“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.


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