Egyptian Goddess Bastet
The Egyptian goddess Bastet means “Devouring Lady” (from bas, to devour, with feminine ending), also called Bast (Bastet, Pasch, Ubasti, Ba en Aset).
Goddess Bastet
Daughter of the sun god Ra, wife of Ptah, and mother of Mihos. The Goddess Bastet is a goddess who is still greatly revered by many today. Her worship began around the year 3200 BCE during the second dynasty in northern Egypt and her city is Bubastis. There, and in many other ancient cities, Egyptians celebrated the Goddess Bastet feast day. October 31st was celebrated with great joy and enthusiasm honoring their goddess and protector. Related to Neith, the Night Goddess, Bastet symbolized the moon in its function of making a woman fruitful, with swelling womb. She was also the Egyptian Goddess of pleasure, music, dancing and joy. She was associated with the Eye of Ra, acting as the instrument of the Sun God’s vengeance.
The Goddess Bastet was a solar goddess. The idea of Egyptian goddess and domestic cats is a modern one, and leads to many misconceptions of Bast’s nature and role. Feline gods and goddesses were often given the role of protector or avenger. Presumably this was due to the typical contact ancient Egyptians had with lions and feral desert wildcats. Thus, Bastet is linked to the Pharaoh as his protector. In some accounts, Bast would supposedly become a flame of the sun and burn a dead soul that failed one of the tests to enter the afterlife. It has also been suggested the Bast is specifically a goddess of the sunrise, or of gentle sunlight. However, very few sources can adequately prove these theories were widespread.
The statue of the Goddess Bastet is perhaps most well known as a protector of cats, women (particularly mothers) and children. Cats were sacred in ancient Egypt, seen as a symbol of motherhood and creation. So Bast’s role was seen as very important. Often, cats were seen as manifestations of the goddess herself. In her role of mother, Ubasti was further connected (through the Book of Going Forth by Day and later art and statues) with the Pharaoh by serving as his nurse.
As her popularity grew, the statue of the Goddess Bastet became associated with Het-Hert due to their links to fertility and, possibly, Sekhmet. Inevitably, Bast took on some of Het-Hert’s roles and became known as a goddess of music, dance and pleasure as more emphasis was placed on her being a goddess of mothers and fertility. The vengeful, vicious protector and avenger were, in essence, tamed. She was regarded as a much softer, gentler goddess in later periods of Egyptian civilization. This was sometimes alluded to the sensuality of a cat.
In addition to her major symbol, the sistrum, the goddess Bastet was also allotted one of the Divine Eyes in the form of the Uraeus, or Serpent of Wisdom. According to one version, she acquired this from her brother Horus, but the popular belief was that she was given charge of it by Ra for defending him against Apep. Although the Uraeus is considered to be the right Eye and the Horus Eye the left, there is obviously some confusion here as Eyes were depicted under the Horus banner facing either way. This rather suggests that the ancient Egyptians themselves were, perhaps, a little unsure as to which was which.
The Goddess Bastet’s main center of worship was in Per-Bast where there are ruins of what appears to be the largest temple to the goddess was. No temples or shrines have remained intact. She was initially a local goddess of the Delta, but her cult eventually spread throughout Lower Egypt. The was due to her connections with Ra and the Pharaoh, and later because of her popularity as a goddess of pleasure. The Goddess Bastet’s cult absorbed other cults that were similar to her own, including those of ancient divinities such as Mafdet, a protector against wild animals. Bast, like many other popular deities, had several feast days. They were often celebrated with wild, orgiastic parties which were full of noisy music and dance. One festival of Bast is famously described as such:
When the people are on their way to Bubastis, they go by river, a great number in every boat, men and women together. Some of the women make a noise with rattles, others play flutes all the way. The rest of the women, and the men, sing and clap their hands. As they travel by river to Bubastis, whenever they come near any other town they bring their boat near the bank. Then some of the women do as I have said, while some shout mockery of the women of the town. Others dance while still others stand up and lift their skirts. They do this whenever they come alongside any riverside town. But when they have reached Bubastis, they make a festival with great sacrifices, and more wine is drunk at this feast than in the whole year besides. It is customary for men and women (but not children) to assemble there to the number of seven hundred thousand, as the people of the place say
Bast is first and foremost a protector, specifically of the royal house and the Two Lands. Later she got the life-preserving goddess of joy and protector of women. However, the Goddess Bastet’s original role did not include the “cat as sex symbol” archetype. Worshiped in the Delta city of Bubastis and usually depicted as a cat or in human form with the head of a cat, ancient goddess statue Bastet was seen as a protector of cats and those who cared for them.