The Cat in Ancient Egypt

Tour Egypt ^ | FR Posts 1-30-2003 (April 1st, 2001) | By Ilene Springer

[vannrox]

The Cat in Ancient Egypt

By Ilene Springer

After the pyramids and the kohl painted eyes, almost nothing evokes more awe and mystery than the fascination ancient Egyptians had with cats.

They were not only the most popular pet in the house, but their status rose to that of the sacred animals and then on to the most esteemed deities like no other creature before them.

Cats domesticate the ancient Egyptians

Although no one can pinpoint the time exactly, we know that the cat was domesticated in Egypt, probably around 2000 B.C., and that most modern cats are descendants of the cats of ancient Egypt.  One reason it is difficult to say precisely when domestication occurred is that the ancient Egyptians did not distinguish between wild and tame cats in their descriptions of them. There was one word for cat-and that was miu or mii, meaning "he or she who mews."

So then how did domestication of the cat come about?  Dogs, associated with hunting, had actually been domesticated thousands of years before, according to archeologists.  But cats, being the aloof, aristocratic creatures they are admired for, apparently took their time in fully befriending the ancient Egyptians.

Modern Egyptian Wild Cat: The Sand Cat
Possibly one of the ancestors of the Modern Cat

There is a cat known as the African wild cat (Felis silvestris libyca)-one of the closest wild relatives of the modern cat.  It is larger than the average domesticated cat of today.  The feline's tawny, yellow-gray fur, long tapering tail and striped markings, affording it ideal camouflage among the rocks and sand of the desert.  This cat is known as a predator-a hunter of small game-rather than a scavenger.  The other cat native to Egypt is the swamp or jungle cat-(Felis chaus), but it is the wild cat which is believed to have been the cat to "domesticate the Egyptians."

In the villages, the greatest danger to Egyptian households were the

numerous poisonous snakes, rats and mice which attacked food supplies in the home and the village granaries.  The wild cat, it is assumed, strayed into the villages and hunted down the vermin, keeping them at bay.  It's easy to imagine the grateful Egyptians leaving out scraps of food to encourage the wild cats on their vigils.  A symbiotic relationship occurred between animal and human.  Next, the felines found their way into the Egyptian homes, spent some time there, allowed themselves to be tamed and raised their kittens in a human environment.  As soon as the Egyptians began supplying the cats with

food, thereby significantly changing their diet, and breeding them for certain characteristics, the cats were domesticated.   They were perfect pets-playful, intelligent, affectionate and helpful to the farmers who sustained life in ancient Egypt.

Tomb paintings with cats as part of family life began to show up during the New Kingdom-about 500 years after the first attempts at domestication.  But the most direct evidence for domestication comes from cemeteries of mummified cats.  These appear to be from around 1000 B.C. (the late Pharonic era).  And they were most likely domesticated cats from ordinary households or temple catteries; it wouldn't make sense to go to such trouble for wild animals who died.

 The lovable and helpful pet

During the New Kingdom (1540 to 1069 B.C.), there were many tomb scenes that started showing cats as part of everyday life.  The ancient Egyptians took their cats on hunting excursions, especially in the marshes where cats may have been trained to retrieve fowl and fish.  Another very common scene in tomb paintings was a cat seated under a woman's chair, showing that the cat had become an integral   part of the ancient Egyptian family life.

Modern Egyptian Mau

Many Egyptian parents named their children after cats, especially their daughters.  Some girls were called Mit or Miut.  The mummy of a five-year-old girl named Mirt was found at Deir el-Bahri in King Mentuhotep's temple.

Cats were also valued for their mysterious and superstitious qualities. There is a myth that the Egyptians once won a battle because of cats. They were fighting a foreign regiment and just at the time of attack by the foreigners, the Egyptian released thousands of cats at the front lines. Seeing the onslaught of these terrifying creatures, the foreign army retreated in panic.

Cats as sacred animals

"The progress of the cat in Egyptian religion was quite remarkable and in many respects unusual," writes Jaromir Malek, author of The Cat in Ancient Egypt.  "Unlike some other animals, the cat was not primarily associated with an important local deity at the beginning of Egyptian time.  It never attained a truly elected 'official' status which would have enabled it to become a full member of the divine community encountered on the walls of Egyptian temples.  But in spite of all this, the cat's popularity eventually surpassed that of any other animal and reached far beyond Egypt's boundaries."

The earliest feline cat goddess recorded was called Mafdet and is described in the Pyramid Texts as killing a serpent with her claws. But the most famous cat goddesses in the world, first revered by the ancient Egyptians were Bastet (also known as Bast, Pasch, Ubasti) and the lion-headed Sekhmet.

Bastet was often depicted as having the body of a woman and the head of a domestic cat.  She was associated with the Eye of Ra, acting within the sun god's power.  The Egyptians loved Bastet so much that she became a household goddess and protector of women, children and domestic cats.  She was also the goddess of sunrise, music, dance, pleasure, as well as family, fertility and birth.  

Her supposed evil counterpart was the goddess Sekhmet who represented the cat goddess' destructive force.  She is known as the goddess of war and pestilence.  But even she was tamed by Ra (who supposedly got her drunk) and she eventually became the powerful protector of humans.  Together, Bastet and Sekhmet represented the balance of the forces of nature.

Cats began to appear on objects of everyday life.  There were gold cats on intricate bracelets, small golden cat pendants, cats amulets made of soapstone for necklaces and rings.  Women made up their faces holding mirrors with cats on the wooden handles and on their cosmetic pots.  The best part was that ordinary people could enjoy the protection of the cat goddess through their amulets on their clothing or around their necks or in their earlobes. Cats even figured in dream interpretation.  In one book of ancient dreams, it was said that if a man sees a cat in a dream, it means he will have a good harvest.

In the late periods of Egyptian history, the popularity of the cat increased and a great many bronze cat statuettes were made; most were intended for shrines or funerary purposes.  Most had pierced ears and silver or gold earrings.  Their eyes were made of inlaid rock crystal or a similar opaque material.  The ancient Egyptians considered the female cat as a good mother, and there have been several statues of mother cats and kittens discovered.

Cats were held in such high esteem that at one point, the penalty for killing a cat-even accidentally-was death.

Feline festivities

Probably the greatest testimony to cats were the cults and celebrations the ancient Egyptians devoted to Bastet.  In northern Egypt, around 3200 B.C., the city Bubastis came into being.  This was the center of worship for the goddess Bastet, which simply means "she who comes from Bast."  Once a year around October 31, the festival of Bastet would occur with hundreds of thousands of people making pilgrimages to Bubastis and other ancient cities including Memphis.  There was singing and wine and wild behavior. And as the evening ended, there was also prayers to Bastet, accompanied by music and incense.

Bubastis was destroyed by the Persians in 350 B.C.  But her most famous residents live on-not only in the streets of Cairo and the villages of rural Egypt but all over the world.  Through the common domesticated cat, the ancient Egyptians achieved a most uncommon mission-immortality.

### Ilene Springer writes on ancient Egypt and archaeology and is a

student of museum studies at Harvard University.

Source:  The Cat in Ancient Egypt by Jaromir Malek  (British Museum

Press, 1993)

[AnAmericanMother]

Yep, Fan-T-Cee had a couple of really nice males and everybody bred to them WAY too much for awhile. Fortunately, my kits only have the Fan-T-Cee well back on the pedigree, and not the Obvious Suspect (Tee Cee who was a Seal) and it was outcrossed to other lines. (I did occasionally line-breed, but I don't like family trees that don't fork!)

Teriyaki was an incredibly beautiful cat, that's why everybody kept buying his kittens even though he was mean as a snake. I spent several two day shows in the same show hall with him, and you could tell when he was mad, he let the whole room know it! He always won big . . . if he didn't get sent down for attacking the judge.

My current boy with Thaibok behind him is not aggressive, but he IS a grouch if things don't go his way. What he will do that will startle somebody who isn't used to it -- if I am not paying him sufficient attention in the morning while getting dressed he will follow me around complaining loudly, and if I don't stop and pet him and scratch his ears he sits up on his hind legs and BITES me on the knee! Not hard enough to leave marks, but QUITE hard enough to get your attention! ("I TOLD you I wanted to speak with you!") He also will leap into my arms and onto my shoulder, and drape himself around my neck like a fur piece. For fourteen he is still very active and frisky, especially when egged on by the young Lilac. She will tag him, almost yell, "You're It!" and take off down the hall like a maniac. He comes lumbering along behind like a herd of elephants, but the other day he got excited enough that when she jumped from the back of a chair to the top of a bureau through a door onto a closet shelf 6 feet off the ground, he was right behind her and squashed her into the wall at the back of the closet! (I'm surprised he didn't have a heart attack from the sudden exertion.)

[Lady Jag]

You make Sam sound like show quality. She stays fit with her obsession with an odd wire toy that's attached to the front of the exercycle so it sticks out like a fishing pole.

She loves Bench & Field kibble and Fancy Feast, spaghetti sauce, rice, pizza. There isn't much she won't hunt down and inhale. She looks skinny and people guess she's 4 or 5 pounds when she weighs over 7 and is solid.

When I first took her to the vet I asked him if she was nuts and when he finished laughing, he gave me a brief explanation of the breed, but it continues to astound.

[Lady Jag]

Sam tracks the sun or burrows between the covers on the waterbed but you might have sold me on beds and hammocks. We have another cat that does closets.

[AnAmericanMother]

Here is a very learned article on Siamese color genetics:

What Makes a Cat Siamese?

I always kept my kittens a good long time, to make sure they had sufficient body fat to weather the adjustment to a new household (a lot of kittens will get a mild illness when adjusting to new food, water, germ pool, etc.) Since Siamese are so thin, they don't have much fat reserve in case of illness.

I never thought about a jacket or sweater because my cats had good clear body color in their younger (showing) years, but a warm jacket would probably lighten the body up -- of course, any Siamese worth her salt would have that jacket OFF and SHREDDED within ten minutes! Here's a funny story though:

This Siamese cat, raised in a cold environment in Moscow in the late 20s, developed a relatively dark coat. An area on his shoulder was shaved, and the cat wore a warm jacket while the fur was growing back. When the shaved hair grew back in, it was white, the same color as the cat's belly, due to the increased temperature under the jacket. This was not due to scarring, as the hair grew in normally colored later.

[AnAmericanMother]

I really like your tom - he is a handsome boy! Talk about the perfect wedge in that head - and ears to fly with!

Don't know much about Australian cats - the only imports I ever had dealings with were Laurentide and Doneraile, both English lines which are back of the Sand'n'Seas cats in my Rich-Hat lines.

If you go back far enough through the pedigrees, my kits have all sorts of famous old-time cats back of them. The gene pool was a lot more restricted in those days! :-D

[Merdoug]

[Lady Jag]

Who has the web page, you? How did I miss that?

That article on the white spotting gene in What Makes a Cat Siamese is a keeper. Fascinating about points and the temperature factor, mainly because sometimes I feel sorry for her looking for the warmest places. It's not cold in here, she just likes maximum heat. Our other cats are two longhaired black cats and a gray tabby, so we say Sam is trying to get a tan. Maybe I'll see if I can find a leg warmer and see how she reacts.

[AnAmericanMother]

Here's the article, it's on the Alaska Science Forum:

We Are Siamese If You Please

I am an old Boolean search expert, I used the first LEXIS/NEXIS stand-alone terminal in Atlanta GA (back in 1980 - when LEXIS was brand new) and have been searching databases for a living ever since! It's kind of a knack to put the words together in a way that locates the stuff you're looking for.

I used to take my old knitted dance leg warmers, cut them to length, put four holes in them, and "dress" my parents' extremely tolerant Lilac Point Siamese back in the 60s. She was a Blue Iris cat, owned by Mrs. R.J. Snelling of Decatur, GA, by Madali Mai Devotion of Blue Iris out of Blue Iris Bliss. Elo-Yse, Jen-Kins and Ventura breeding. She lived to be 22 years old and was quite a character. Just as a joke/present for my parents, I took her litter registration certificate and had her registered in C.F.A. at the age of 18. The folks at Headquarters were highly amused, and we corresponded for awhile and sent photos back and forth. She was sort of an "apple head" even with her very exalted breeding, because the Lilac gene pool was extremely limited in the 60s. At that time they were breeding for even color on the points and nose leather and clarity of body color (even at her death she still had the "glacial white" body color called for in the standard) at the expense of type.

[Lady Jag]

I found some leg warmers. Sam came to inspect the drawer. I folded one in half, looked down on her, she looked up and I chickened out - for the time being, anyway. She won't hurt me but it's been a long day and a busy week, and with those long legs of hers, I know she'd turn into a spastic octopus. It'd be fun but I think I'll try it tomorrow.

[AnAmericanMother]

"Spastic octopus!" I love it. My middle cat does a good imitation when I clip her claws. She can practically turn herself inside out as she wriggles to get away. She also screams at the top of her lungs the whole time I'm clipping them, and the other cats come and sit at my feet and look inquiringly up. "Are you torturing her? Why is she making so much noise?" The little Lilac wriggles in a determined way for awhile but usually gives up and goes limp after a few minutes. My Blue boy sits up on his hindquarters in the crook of my arm and says and does nothing - until I get to the third and fourth claw on his left forefoot. Then as I snip the clippers he hisses - once for each claw. No further comment. Maybe those two claws are exceptionally sensitive.

We almost lost Finny (the Blue boy) about four years ago to a mysterious virus and low grade fever. We wound up having to administer subcutaneous fluids at home once a day. My daughter would hold him on the kitchen counter while I popped the needle in to the slack of his flanks on each side. He stood perfectly still, but he would take my daughter's hand in his teeth, very gently, and look around at me as if to say, "Now don't make any sudden moves, and nobody will get hurt!" He never did chomp down on her, but I was VERY careful! (my daughter was steady as a rock, she'll make a good vet some day if she decides to go that route.)

[Lady Jag]

NONE of my girls will let me clip their claws. They're too spoiled and know they can make me stop. The groomer or vet does it and they just hang there like your Blue boy. They're all brats and it is amazing that all the strays who wandered in here are feisty females. Maybe if we had a male or two it wouldn't be so much of a zoo.

Two girls want to dominate, one is feral we got around 10 weeks old, and one is a loner who defends her two-room territory, which is okay because that's where I work and play.

[AnAmericanMother]

I'm afraid I run a pretty tight ship. The cats will fool around, but they know when I'm serious and they straighten right up. When I first started clipping the middle girl's claws she would get completely hysterical (now she's just pretending to be hysterical on purpose) so I wrapped her in a beach towel. I think it's in "All Creatures Great and Small" that somebody tells the vet, "Herriott, you have your limitations, but by God you can wrap a cat." I really CAN wrap a cat. Zip-zip-zip, and they look like an ancient Egyptian cat mummy from Bubastis before they can say meow. She finally decided that it was such a blow to her dignity to be trussed like a turkey that she would rather sit wriggling and complaining for the minute or two it takes to clip . . . ;-)

Siamese are easy to claw-clip because their nails are clear. Clipping my dog's nails makes me very nervous because she's a Chocolate Lab and her nails are jet black, so I can't see the quick and have to judge length by the angle of the claw. Fortunately she is a very energetic dog and wears her own nails down to a decent length.

Exactly how many cats do you have?

[Saundra Duffy]

We have two kitten/cats. We let them stay out all day last Saturday for the first time. When they came in that night their paws were filthy from all the dirt romping. We took them in the bathroom and washed their feet with washcloth and you should have seen them enjoying the foot wash. Sheeeesh! They even spread their toes so we could get in between. It was so funny! They haven't been interested in going outside since then. I love my kitties.

[Lady Jag]

Four stray cats looked us up and moved in when we were down to one who was 22 years old. So we have four unique females now who all showed up in less than a year. The first one actually came from the ASPCA to keep the 22 year-old company because she'd lost a buddy. Then the most emaciated cat in the world showed up and we just had to feed her. Then the poor helpless feral gray tabby tiny kitten - couldn't say no to her. Finally the most gorgeous cat in the world came into our lives, Sam "don't call me Samantha" Siames.

Never did get that wrap right though I always clipped my cats claws. Circumstances are different now and I need to have the vet do it.

[AnAmericanMother]

Wow! You must have a very attractive four star establishment for felines! Probably the Lab patrolling the yard discourages any applicants at our house -- although she would never hurt a cat. She doesn't even hurt birds that she finds in the yard (she once caught one and brought it to me alive and unhurt.) Now, as for squirrels . . . I wouldn't warrant a squirrel's safety at our house. :-D

[Lady Jag]

There are a lot of woods where we live, but we never had an onslaught like that year when four showed up within about 9 or 10 months. You turned on a lightbulb with your mention of dogs; dogs don't populate this neighborhood like they used to, although we do have fox.

We have found homes for strays in the past and we found the owners of a couple of them; one cat who went home to his owner had been missing six months and the other nearly a year, and seeing the reunions made it all worthwhile.

My cats have three birdseed feeders and two suet feeders which they observe through windows and sliding doors that open onto a deck. Squirrels like the cats and vice versa, and they play through the glass.

[Lady Jag]

And the feral tabby is the only hunter. She's a stocky tabby and, though she loves mice, we try to keep them away from her because she makes such a gawd awful mess with them. I'd hate to see her with a squirrel. She is so strong she throws shoes, heavy leather shoes, for fun.

[HetLoo]

Very interesting article. I liked this quote in particular: My personal theory is that Siamese with clear coats have the ticked tabby pattern in their genotype, which of course is invisible. Those with body markings and patches, to a greater or lesser degree, on shoulders, hips, flanks, stifle, belly, or groin, have mackerel or blotched tabby patterns. Fortunately we are given a clue, as kittens briefly show ghosting between 2-4 weeks and this is how I selected my Benwell Seal Points for good colour - they were well known for their cream coats.

Never heard that one before.

I can't say I agree that coat colors were better in the old days, when I look at the photos in books like Marge Naples book and Phyl Wade's book, I see quite a few seals with a nice clear cream-colored coat but I also see a LOT of body splotches, along the back and shoulder, which you rarely see today. One of the problems today (as I'm sure it was back then) is you don't see cats or photos of cats over 2 years of age. When I'm at shows I always try to sit through premier judging just because so often that is the only opportunity to see older cats from todays lines.

I do think that across the board profiles were much better 30 years ago. What did you think of Singa cats? Jeanne being the legend that she is, were they long-lived and healthy? Good temperments? Did they hold their color into old age? I don't think I've ever seen any but black and white photos and to the best of my knowledge there aren't any in active breeding anymore.

Sin-Chiang had a cat, Sin-Chiang Brandie of De Vegas that had a very unique look, very almond shaped eyes and huge ears for her time (though too closely set by todays standards). I'm always looking to find her in a pedigree.

[HetLoo]

My lilac Siamese purrs while I clip her claws :) 'Course she also purrs while you stick a thermometer up her butt, give her shots, manhandle her, pet her, talk to her, look at her... She loves attention. All her kits and the rest of our cat family (including the studs) tolerate claw clipping very nicely, though they prefer to be alone in the room while its done; I think they feel vulnerable while their claws are temporarily not under their control. And one boy had to be bribed with treats, but he soon figured out that claw trimming meant he got food so then it was good.

[AnAmericanMother]

The Singa and Thai-Bok lines are very intertwined. Chantara also had a lot of Singa back of it. So my "middle cat" has significant Singa breeding on both sides. She is healthy except for bad teeth and slightly reduced kidney function at age 12.

My other two current cats, my former kitties and the sires I bred them to do not have a lot of Singa blood, other than what was outcrossed into Thaibok 5 generations back in one of my late queens line. Really don't know much about Singa from personal experience, although Blue Minstrel was a handsome kitty. Hatcher had an extremely pretty Minstrel daughter, a sealpoint, Singa Waltz Time of Rich-Hat, and also a New Moon Eclipse grandson, but I was interested only in blues and lilacs so I stuck to her other two stud cats, Apache and Hot Shot. (My Blue queen so definitely preferred Apache that even while she was confined with Hot Shot she would languish against Apache's side of the stud cage and make eyes at him. This annoyed Hot Shot so much that he expressed his displeasure into Apache's water dish . . . :-D )

I have heard of In Lieu although that cattery doesn't crop up anywhere in my lines. I was prowling on a couple of pedigree websites, and In Lieu has a lot of Maloja as well as New Moon and Elo-Yse (for whom I have a soft spot on account of Hi-Soks, my parents' Lilac's grandsire).