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	brown Bastet brown Bastet Brown Bastet goddess brown Bastet

Cats in ancient Egypt

Cat was worshipped as a sacred animal, as manifestations of Deity; they protected the grain from mice and rats. Cat has two names Bast and Bastet. Bastet was the goddess of fire, cats, of the home and pregnant women. According to one myth, she was the personification of the soul of Isis. She was also called the "Lady of the East". As such, her counterpart as "Lady of the West" was Sekhmet.



Bastet seemed to have two sides to her personality, docile and aggressive. Her docile and gentle side was displayed in her duties as a protector of the home, and pregnant women. Her aggressive and vicious nature was exposed in the accounts of battles in which the pharaoh was said to have slaughtered the enemy as Bastet slaughtered her victims.

Popular form of Bast, is her Earthly form, as a seated cat. When in this form her name changes to Bastet.

In Egypt all cats were considered property of the Pharaohs.

	Black Bastet Black Bastet Black Bastet

	canopus jar Canopic Jar (Imseti) canopus jar Canopic Jar (Imseti)

The four Canopic Jars



Imsety the human-headed god looks after the liver.


Hapy the baboon-headed god looks after the lungs.


Duamutef the jackal-headed god looks after the stomach


Qebehsenuef the falcon-headed god looks after the intestines.

	Horus Horus Udjat eye ring - Horus Eye ring Horus Eye ring       A passage from the Coffin Texts (148) "I'm Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon...I have gone further than the gods of old. ...I have brought the ways of eternity to the twillight of the morning..." Horus Horus

Winged Nut goddess Winged Nut - 16x8cm

Nut, Sky Goddess, Mother of the Gods...

To the ancient Egyptians Nut (Nuit) was the personification of the sky (originally she was a goddess of just the sky at day, where the clouds formed) and the heavens.

In one myth Nut gives birth to the Sun-god daily and he passes over her body until he reaches her mouth at sunset. He then passed into her mouth and through her body and is reborn the next morning. Another myth described the sun as sailing up her legs and back in the Atet (Matet) boat until noon, when he entered the Sektet boat and continued his travels until sunset.

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