Cats in Ancient Egyptian Culture: Religious, Social, and Cultural Significance

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Religious Aspects that Cats Played
Societal Aspects that Cats Played
Breeds of cats that originated from ancient Egypt
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Cats were among the greatest iconic creatures in ancient Egyptian art and culture. The Egyptians faced lions, panthers, and jungle cats in the woods. Earlier, smaller cats lived with people, hunting rodents in dwellings and grain stores. As the sleek feline was lauded for its hunting prowess, it attained celestial status and became an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. Luxurious for her hunting prowess, the tomb murals, towering sculptures, and elaborate jewelry demonstrate the Egyptians’ deep affection for cats. While ceremonial kills of the holy cats were permitted, unauthorized killing would be heavily punished with the death penalty (Littlechild 2022). Cats’ elevated status in ancient Egypt was documented in minute precision by historical sources for ages (Vedran Bileta 2021). In Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, cats continued to be revered. With the advent of Christianity, the cats lost their position of pre-eminence. However, with the advent of the modern era, the domination of social networking sites and increased communication have regained their prominence. This article will examine the religious, social, and cultural significance of cats in ancient Egypt. In addition, it will showcase the several cat breeds that evolved in Egypt during the Neolithic period.

Religious Aspects that Cats Played

Ancient Egyptian artwork used cats prominently, especially in decorative motifs. Thus, this signified the animal’s special position among the Egyptians. Early Egyptians first embraced the creatures as effective predators, but they ultimately became emblems of divinity and security (Yuko 2021). Egyptians worshipped cats as deities, which were vital to ancient Egyptian culture. Furthermore, the discovery of mummified cats in graves alongside people indicates the important role they played in the afterlife.

A number of gods and goddesses were strongly associated with cats. The early Egyptians claimed that their gods would adopt many forms, and it grew more popular for gods to assume the appearance of animals, especially cats. These gods may, for instance, not only manifest mainly with the head of a cat but also possess cats’ bodies. Hence, cats were mummified for this reason, and the ancient Egyptians built an entire business on raising and mummifying cats (Ottoni and Van Neer2020). In reality, ancient Egypt prohibited the slaughter of cats apart from in the case of mummification. These cats served as sacrifices and were mummified as a tribute to the Egyptian goddess Bastet (Graf 2021). One would sacrifice a mummified cat to Bastet to conceive a child or keep good health (Barbash 2022). Cats were not revered as gods but rather as receptacles that the gods opted to occupy and whose likenesses they chose to assume. Through their widespread involvement in ancient Egyptian art, fashion, and house decoration, cats served as a daily reminder of the divine might.

In Ancient Egypt, the domesticated cat was also regarded as a symbol of fertility, perhaps due to its numerous litter. Next to the cat-headed deity, the Egyptians occasionally sculpt kittens to represent the anticipation and hope for fertility (Zhu 2022). Due to the feline’s prestige in Ancient Egypt, several domestic cats were preserved and mummified for votive offerings, covered with spices, and put in unique coffins after their deaths. These cats appear to have been domesticated for this function and purposely murdered.

Societal Aspects that Cats Played

There is ample historical proof that cats served numerous functions, including killing rodents. As a mostly agricultural culture, the early Egyptians had a serious issue with mice, rodents, and vipers, all of which posed a danger to their grain storage (MacDonald 2018). It is believed that the Neolithic Egyptians discovered that cats preyed on these predators and, as a result, began leaving out food, including fish heads, to entice the cats to visit them frequently (Mills 2018). Ancient Egyptians depicted that cats protected homes from rodents (MacDonald 2018). In addition, cats would have battled dangerous creatures, including scorpions and venomous snakes. Since the latter prey on rats, they must have moved closer to human habitation to become pets.

The representation of cats as snake hunters in Egyptian imagery was directly related to cats’ function as agricultural aids in prehistoric times. Cats were admired for their almost supernatural humility, trickery, and night vision, which may have contributed to their transformation into truly divine animals in the sight of ancient Egyptians (Geigl and Grange 2018). The ancient Egyptians also hunted alongside their cats, showing teamwork.

Cultural aspects that cats played

In Ancient Egypt, cats were an embodiment of the sun god. During the New Kingdom, the male cat was considered a representation of Ra, the sun god (Zhu 2022). The work of art in early “Egypt’s Book of the Dead” depicted a cat, an incarnation of the sun deity representing light and truth, carrying a blade against Apep, the serpent demon representing darkness and evil (Zhu 2022). The reality that the sun god Ra was nearly always considered the most significant deity in old Egyptian culture for centuries demonstrates that the ancient Egyptians held the cat in high regard (Haikal 2022). This devotion to the cat can be seen in the truth that Ra was depicted as a cat.

Cats were considered mutually beneficial companions to the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians carried their close affinity with their cats into the afterlife, continuing the practice begun during their lifetimes of keeping cats as companion animals. The tomb was the afterlife’s dwelling place for eternity (Yuko 2021). The depiction of cats in human graves was not restricted to art; in some instances, the cats’ human companions mummified them and put them in the tomb with them (Johnston et al. 2020). One of the reasons for this practice was so that cats might be mummified and then used as burial items once they had been preserved (Johnston et al. 2020). This indicated that the departed individual had the potential to continue existing in the afterlife inside the body of the preserved cat.

Breeds of cats that originated from ancient Egypt

There were two major cat breeds indigenous to ancient Egypt. The African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) and the jungle cat (Felis chaus) (Mousavi et al. 2022). The African wildcat had a calmer disposition and was thus more often tamed than the jungle cat. Eventually, the two species mingled, generating a new breed roughly similar to the contemporary Egyptian Mau. As the cat became tamed, other behavioral and physical modifications were evident. Cats grew more colorful, their bodies shrunk and became less muscular due to changes in nutrition and exercise, their brains shrunk due to a loss in required survival instincts, and they acquired a greater tolerance for people.

Other varieties considered to be old include the Egyptian Mau, which was discovered mummified in graves alongside Pharaohs. As early as 1550 B.C., papyri and paintings portray spotted cats resembling modern-day Egyptian Maus (Gardner 2019). Their distinctive forehead patterns are even claimed to mimic scarabs, which Ancient Egyptians revered as holy (Gardner 2019). It is debatable if Egyptian Maus were among the earliest domesticated cat breeds. However, they are, by most, the few innately spotted cat varieties and one of the very few domestic cat breeds with spotted hair and skin.

The exact roots of the Abyssinian cat breed are the subject of conjecture and debate. The first Abyssinians were shown at cat exhibits in the 1800s. Their names were obtained from uncertainty regarding where they were brought since they were caught and domesticated during the late Abyssinian conflict (Licata 2022). Like the Egyptian Mau, most Abyssinian enthusiasts note the breed’s likeness to cats represented in ancient Egyptian art and sculptures as sleek and attractive.

Conclusion

It is commonly known that ancient Egyptians adored cats. Revered for her hunting prowess, the svelte cat attained the celestial status and became an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. Alongside obelisks, hieroglyphics, and geometric designs, cats were important figures in ancient Egyptian art, signifying the particular position of the animal among the Nile River-dwelling people. The ancient Egyptians were first intrigued by the animals because of their effectiveness as predators; nevertheless, through time, they evolved into symbols of divinity and were considered to provide protection. Cats were a vital component of ancient Egyptian culture, whether worshipped as deities or not. Based on the discovery of preserved cats in graves alongside people, they, too, played an essential role in the afterlife.

References

‌Barbash, Yekaterina. 2022. “Cats, Bastet and the Worship of Feline Gods.” Arce.org. Web.

Gardner, Lori. 2019. “The Egyptian Word for Cat and Its History: The Egyptian Mau | Litter-Robot.” Litter-Robot.com. Whisker (blog). Web.

Geigl, Eva-Maria, and Thierry Grange. 2018. “Of Cats and Men: Ancient DNA Reveals How the Cat Conquered the Ancient World.” Population Genomics, 307–324. Web.

Graf, Kimberly. 2021. “Mummified Animals: How Ancient Egypt Preserved Pets.” TheCollector. Web.

Haikal, Fayza. 2022. “Ra, the Creator God of Ancient Egypt.” Arce.org. Web.

Johnston, Richard, Richard Thomas, Rhys Jones, Carolyn Graves-Brown, Wendy Goodridge, and Laura North. 2020. “Evidence of Diet, Deification, and Death within Ancient Egyptian Mummified Animals.” Scientific Reports 10 (1). Web.

Licata, Cortney. 2022. “8 Ancient Cat Breeds Still in Existence Today.” Meowingtons (blog). Web.

Littlechild, Chris. 2022. “What Happened If You Killed a Cat in Ancient Egypt?” Grunge. Grunge. Web.

MacDonald, James. 2018. “Why Ancient Egyptians Loved Cats so Much – JSTOR Daily.” Web.

Mills, Josie. 2018. “Why Did Ancient Egyptians Love Cats? | UCL Researchers in Museums.” Ucl.ac.uk. 2018. Web.

Mousavi, Marzieh, Saeid Naderi, Hamid Reza Rezaei, and Mohammad Ali Adibi. 2022. “Evolutionary History and Distribution of African Wildcat, Felis Lybica in Iran.” Caspian Journal of Environmental Sciences 20 (3): 637–48. Web.

Ottoni, Claudio, and Wim Van Neer 2020. “The Dispersal of the Domestic Cat: Paleogenetic and Zooarcheological Evidence.” Near Eastern Archaeology 83, no.1: 38-45. Web.

Vedran Bileta. 2021. “Cats in Ancient Egypt: The Wild Companions Who Became Gods.” TheCollector. Web.

Yuko, Elizabeth. 2021. “How Cats Became Divine Symbols in Ancient Egypt.” HISTORY. Web.

Zhu, Yuhui. 2022. “An Exploration of Domestic Cats’ Domestication History in Ancient Egypt and China.” Advances in Humanities Research. Web.

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