Editing Bastet (section)

==History==
[[File:Bastet dame katzenkopf.jpg|thumb|235x235px|Statue of Bastet holding a [[sistrum]]]]
Her name was originally shorter, transliterated as ''Bast'' in English.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Great Goddesses of Egypt|last=Lesko|first=Barbara S.|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1999|location=Norman}}</ref> Bast first appears in the third millennium BCE, where she is depicted as either a fierce lioness or a woman with the head of a lioness.<ref name=Velde164>Te Velde, "Bastet", p. 164.</ref> Two thousand years later, during the [[Third Intermediate Period of Egypt]] ({{Circa|1070}}–712 BC), Bast began to be depicted as a domestic cat or a cat-headed woman.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Art of Ancient Egypt: Revised Edition|last=Robins|first=Gay|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-674-03065-7|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=197}}</ref> Scribes of the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] and later eras began referring to her with an additional [[Grammatical gender|feminine]] [[Affix|suffix]], as ''Bastet''. The name change is thought to have been added to emphasize pronunciation of the ending ''t'' sound, often left silent.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Great Goddesses of Egypt|last=Lesko|first=Barbara S.|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1999|location=Norman}}</ref>

[[Cats in ancient Egypt]] were highly revered, partly due to their ability to combat [[vermin]] such as mice and rats which threatened key food supplies, as well as snakes—especially [[cobra]]s. Cats of royalty were, in some instances, known to be dressed in golden jewelry and allowed to eat from the plates of their owners. Dennis C. Turner and [[Patrick Bateson]] estimate that during the [[Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt|Twenty-second Dynasty]] ({{circa|945–715 BC}}), Bastet changed from being a lioness deity into being predominantly a major cat deity.<ref name="Serpell184" />

The native Egyptian rulers were replaced by Greeks during an occupation of Ancient Egypt in the [[Ptolemaic Dynasty]] that lasted almost 300 years. The Greeks sometimes equated Bastet with one of their goddesses, [[Artemis]].<ref name="Delia 545" />

Bastet was depicted by Egyptians with the head of a cat and the slender body of a woman. Sometimes, Bastet was venerated as just a cat head.
[[File:Bastet, Cat-headed Goddess of Egypt.jpg|thumb|Bastet, [[Albert Hall Museum]], Jaipur, India]]
Because domestic cats tend to be tender and protective of their offspring, Bastet was also regarded as a good mother and sometimes was depicted with numerous [[kitten]]s.