Editing Bastet (section)

==Bubastis==
{{main|Bubastis}}
Bastet was a local deity whose religious sect was centered in the city in the [[Nile Delta]] later named [[Bubastis]]. It lay near what is known today as [[Zagazig]].<ref name="Velde164"/><ref name="emuseum">{{cite web |title=Bastet |website=[[Egyptian Museum|EgyptianMuseum]].gov.eg |department=[[Egyptian Museum|Museum of Egyptian Antiquities]] |publisher=[[Ministry of State for Antiquities]] |place=[[Cairo, Egypt]] |url=http://www.egyptianmuseum.gov.eg/bastet.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080703204648/http://www.egyptianmuseum.gov.eg/bastet.html |archive-date=July 3, 2008 }}</ref> The town, known in [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] as ''pr-bꜣstt'' (transliterated as ''Per-Bastet''), carries her name, literally meaning ''House of Bastet''. It was known in Greek as ''Boubastis'' (''Βούβαστις'') and translated into Hebrew as ''Pî-beset'', spelled without the initial ''t'' sound of the last syllable.<ref name=Velde165/> In the biblical [[Book of Ezekiel]] 30:17, the town appears in the Hebrew form ''Pibeseth''.<ref name=Velde164 />

===Temple===
[[File:Lioness Bast cosmetic jar 83d40m tut burial artifact.jpg|thumb|An [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth Dynasty]] burial artifact from the tomb of [[Tutankhamun]] ({{circa|1323 BC}}), an [[alabaster]] cosmetic jar topped with a lioness representing Bastet — ''[[Egyptian Museum|Cairo Museum]]'']]
[[Herodotus]], an ancient Greek historian who traveled in Egypt in the fifth century BCE, describes Bastet's [[Egyptian temple|temple]] at some length:<ref name=Herodotus138>Herodotus, Book 2, chapter 138.</ref>
{{blockquote|1= Save for the entrance, it stands on an island; two separate channels approach it from the Nile, and after coming up to the entry of the temple, they run round it on opposite sides; each of them a hundred feet wide, and overshadowed by trees. The temple is in the midst of the city, the whole circuit of which commands a view down into it; for the city's level has been raised, but that of the temple has been left as it was from the first, so that it can be seen into from without. A stone wall, carven with figures, runs round it; within is a grove of very tall trees growing round a great shrine, wherein is the image of the goddess; the temple is a square, each side measuring a [[furlong]]. A road, paved with stone, of about three furlongs' length leads to the entrance, running eastward through the market place, towards the temple of [[Hermes]]; this road is about 400 feet wide, and bordered by trees reaching to heaven.}}

This description by Herodotus and several Egyptian texts suggest that water surrounded the temple on three (out of four) sides, forming a type of lake known as ''isheru'', not too dissimilar from that surrounding the temple of the mother goddess [[Mut]] in [[Karnak]] at [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]].<ref name=Velde164 /> These lakes were typical components of temples devoted to a number of lioness goddesses (Bastet, [[Mut]], [[Tefnut]], [[Hathor]], [[Sekhmet|Sakhmet]])<ref name=Velde164 /> who are said to represent one original goddess and who came to be associated with sun gods such as [[Horus]] and [[Ra]], as well as the [[Eye of Ra]]. Each of these goddesses had to be appeased by a specific set of rituals.<ref name=Velde164 /> One myth relates that a lioness, fiery and wrathful, was cooled down by the water of the lake and thus was transformed into a gentle cat, settling down in the temple.<ref name=Velde164 />

At the [[Bubastis]] temple, large numbers of cats were found to have been [[Mummy|mummified]] and buried, many next to their owners. More than 300,000 mummified cats were discovered when Bastet's temple was [[excavation (archaeology)|excavated]]. Turner and Bateson suggest that the status of the cat in Egypt was roughly equivalent to that of the [[Cow protection movement|cow in modern India]]. The death of a cat might leave a family in great mourning, and those who could afford the expense would have the cat embalmed or buried in pet cemeteries,<ref>{{cite web |title=Archeologists Discover Nearly 2,000-Year-Old Pet Cemetery in Egypt|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archeologists-discover-ancient-pet-cemetery-egypt-180961292/|website=www.smithsonianmag.com|author=Daley, Jason|date=6 Dec 2016}}</ref> which demonstrates the great prevalence of the cult of Bastet. Extensive burials of cat remains have been found not only at Bubastis but also at [[Saqqara]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Archaeologists Discover Dozens of Cat Mummies, 100 Cat Statues in Ancient Tomb|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/11/11/666704847/archaeologists-discover-dozens-of-cat-mummies-100-cat-statues-in-ancient-tomb|website=www.npr.org|author=Wamsley, Laurel|date=11 Nov 2018}}</ref><ref name=Zivie2005>{{cite book |author=Zivie, A. and Lichtenberg, R. |year=2005 |title=Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt |publisher=American University in Cairo Press |location=Cairo   |editor=Ikram, S. |chapter=The Cats of the Goddess Bastet}}</ref> including the temple complex known as the [[Bubasteum]]. In 1888, a farmer uncovered a burial site of many hundreds of thousands of cats in [[Beni Hasan]].<ref name=Serpell184 />

===Festival===
Herodotus relates that of the many solemn festivals held in Egypt, the most important and most popular one was that celebrated in Bubastis in honor of this goddess.<ref name=Herodotus59>Herodotus, Book 2, chapter 59.</ref><ref name=Herodotus137>Herodotus, Book 2, chapter 137.</ref> Each year on the day of her festival, the town was said to have attracted some 700,000 visitors, both men and women (but not children), who arrived in numerous crowded ships. The women engaged in music, song, and dance on their way to the place. Great sacrifices were made and prodigious amounts of wine were drunk—more than was the case throughout the year.<ref name=Herodotus60>Herodotus, Book 2, chapter 60.</ref> This accords well with Egyptian sources which prescribe that lioness goddesses are to be appeased with the "feasts of drunkenness".<ref name=Velde165 /> A festival of Bastet was known to be celebrated during the New Kingdom at Bubastis. The block statue from the eighteenth dynasty ({{circa|1380 BC}}) of Nefer-ka, the wab-priest of Sekhmet,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://project-min.de/home/english/restoration.html|title=restoration|website=project-min.de|access-date=2018-03-19}}</ref> provides written evidence for this. The inscription suggests that the king, [[Amenhotep III]], was present at the event and had great offerings made to the deity.