Editing Bastet (section)

==Name==
Bastet, which is the form of the name that is most commonly adopted by [[Egyptologists]] today because of its use in later dynasties, is a modern convention offering one possible reconstruction. In early [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]], her name appears to have been ''bꜣstt''. [[James Peter Allen]] vocalizes the original form of the name as ''buʔístit'' or ''buʔístiat'', with ʔ representing a [[glottal stop]].<ref name="language-allen">{{cite book| author=James P. Allen |title=The Ancient Egyptian Language: A Historical Study |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013|page=74}}</ref> In [[Middle Egyptian]] writing, the second ''t'' marks a feminine ending but usually was not pronounced, and the [[Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian#Egyptological alef, ayin, and yod|aleph]] ''ꜣ'' ([[File:Latin small letter egyptological Alef.svg|10px]]) may have moved to a position before the accented syllable, ''ꜣbst''.<ref name=Velde165>Te Velde, "Bastet", p. 165.</ref> By the first millennium, then, ''bꜣstt'' would have been something like ''*Ubaste'' (< ''*Ubastat'') in Egyptian speech, later becoming [[Coptic language|Coptic]] ''Oubaste''.<ref name=Velde165 /> The name is rendered in [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] as 𐤀𐤁𐤎𐤕,<ref>[[Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften|KAI]] 17, 37, 49 (34), 49 (37); [[Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum|CIS]] I 1988; [[RÉS]] 367</ref> <small>romanized:</small> ’bst, or 𐤁𐤎𐤕,<ref>[[Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum|CIS]] I 1988, 2082</ref> <small>romanized:</small> bst.

[[File:Wadjet N5139 mp3h8831.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Wadjet-Bastet, with a lioness head, the solar disk, and the cobra that represents [[Wadjet]]]]
What the name of the goddess means remains uncertain.<ref name=Velde165 /> Names of ancient Egyptian deities often were represented as references to associations or with euphemisms, being cult secrets. One recent suggestion by [[Stephen Quirke]] (''Ancient Egyptian Religion'') explains Bastet as meaning, "She of the ointment jar".<ref>{{cite book |first=Stephen |last=Quirke |author-link=Stephen Quirke |title=Ancient Egyptian Religion |location=London |asin=B01K2D7BYM |date=1992-08-01 |publisher=British Museum Press}}</ref> This ties in with the observation that her name was written with the hieroglyph for ''ointment jar'' (''bꜣs'') and that she was associated with protective ointments, among other things.<ref name=Velde165 /> The name of the material known as ''[[alabaster]]'' might, through Greek, come from the name of the goddess. This association would have come about much later than when the goddess was a protective lioness goddess, however, and is useful only in deciphering the origin of the term, alabaster.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}{{Ancient Egyptian religion}}James P. Allen instead derives the name as a [[Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba|nisba construction]] from a place name "Baset" (''bꜣst'') with the meaning "she of ''bꜣst''".<ref name="language-allen" />