Legend has it that the first cats were brought to Egypt from Abyssinia five thousand years ago. The Egyptians considered these fluffy tetrapods to be an earthly manifestation of the sun god Ra. No wonder the inscription on the tombs of the kings of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties was preserved: "Great Cat, avenger of the gods." This praise referred to the sun god Ra, who, in the guise of a cat, valiantly defeated the ancient Serpent in a bloody battle.
Mustached servants of the goddess Bastet
The Egyptians called the cat "mau" which means "to see." They compared the constriction and dilation of a cat's pupils with the onset of darkness in the evening and sunrise in the morning. For them, this was proof of the cat's blood relationship with the moon and sun and served as a good reason to honor them as gods. Such a cult was extremely important for a country that lived by agriculture and had large grain storage facilities that abounded in rats and mice. These places were a paradise for a cat-hunter, and people surrounded him with an aura of holiness, which for many years accompanied and kept the cats of Egypt, however, the Egyptians used the cat not only for catching rats and mice, but also trained it for hunting game birds.
Soon, little predators began to be perceived not only as the world's best grain storage guards, but also as true healers. There is a legend about how a kitten with healing powers was brought to the dying pharaoh and put on his chest. Pharaoh stroked him and closed his eyes. None of the retinue even moved - everyone was sure that the sacred animal was performing a magical action: it was preparing the Pharaoh for the last journey to the land of the dead. But when the sun god Ra came into his own, the pharaoh suddenly got out of bed and ordered breakfast to be served, after which he went about his daily affairs. He lived for several more years. And from that time the cat slept only on the ruler's chest until his death. The retinue was not surprised that Pharaoh rose from the dead. Everyone believed in the mystical power of cats. Cat,represented in ancient Egyptian mythology by the goddess Bastet, was a symbol of wealth and fertility, the patroness of lovers and the protector of mothers. In the city of Bubastis, east of the Nile Delta, a huge temple was built in her honor in the form of a giant square building made of red granite. Many Egyptians wore amulets with her image. It was believed that they are able to protect the owner from any adversity and disfavor of the gods.
In this temple lived cats, which were looked after by a special priest. They were fed milk with bread, fish that did not have scales were specially bred for them in tanks.
First in the house
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Not only in temples, but also in every self-respecting Egyptian house, there lived a cat that was cared for and cherished, and in the event of a fire, they were rescued first, even if there were children in the house. If the animal died, then the whole family wore mourning and mourned her as the dearest and dearest creature: the owners and their relatives shaved their eyebrows as a sign of mourning.
Cats were buried in specially built tombs, which in their decoration were not inferior to the tombs of the pharaohs. The body was previously embalmed. The finished mummy was sewn into a linen shroud or enclosed in a sarcophagus and placed in one of the countless necropolises along the banks of the Nile. The Egyptians believed that they were sending furry magicians to the goddess Bastet in the holy city of Bubastis, which is inhabited only by cats, from where their pets would send them help. There is also a historical description of the temple in the city of Bubastis. Pilgrims from all corners flocked to it and brought gifts - images of cats made of gold, silver and bronze. At the same time, priests “worked” in the temples, who made their predictions by the meowing of these animals.
At the end of the last century, several tens of thousands of cat mummies were found near the village of Beni Hasan in Lower Egypt.
Needless to say, even for the accidental murder of a cat, a person was simply executed as a grave crime. The ancient historian Herodotus (484-424 BC) tells of an unfortunate Greek with whom just such an incident happened.
In 525 BC. the Persian king Cambyses decided to seize the Nile Valley. The Persians did not know how to storm the fortified cities and were forced to stop at the walls of the city of Pelusia. And then Kambizu came up with a brilliant idea: by his order, each soldier secured a live cat on his chest so that it was clearly visible. The army moved forward, protected by human shields. The Egyptians were afraid to wound or kill the sacred animals and surrendered.
With the last pharaoh, religion ceased to exist, which basically had the worship of the sun god Ra. The cult of the cat, which has been going on for 2 millennia, has come to an end. Egypt fell under the influence of Islam, and there was no such veneration for cats or any other animal in any other country in the Mediterranean.
Magazine: Mysteries of History No. 8, Irina Stepkina
