Editing Bastet

{{Short description|Ancient Egyptian goddess}}
{{For-multi|other uses of Bastet|Bastet (disambiguation)|other uses of Bast|Bast (disambiguation){{!}}Bast}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Egyptian
| name = Bastet
| image = Bastet.svg
| alt = 
| caption = Bastet in her late form of a cat-headed woman (rather than a lioness) holding an [[ankh]] and [[sistrum]]
| hiero = <hiero>W2-t:t</hiero><ref>Hart, George (2005). ''The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Second Edition'', p. 45</ref>
| cult_center = [[Bubastis]]
| symbol = lioness, cat, ointment jar, [[sistrum]], solar disk
| parents = [[Ra]] and [[Isis]]
| siblings = <small>[[Shu (Egyptian deity)|Shu]], [[Tefnut]], [[Hathor]], [[Sekhmet]], [[Mafdet]], [[Satet]], [[Ma'at]], [[Mut]], [[Anat]], [[Qetesh]], [[Anhur]] (paternal half-siblings)<br>[[Min (god)|Min]], [[Horus|Horus the Younger]], [[Four Sons of Horus|Four Sons of Horus the Elder]] (maternal half-siblings)</small>
| consort = [[Ptah]] (in some myths), [[Anubis]] (disputed)
| offspring = [[Maahes]]
| Greek_equivalent = [[Artemis]]
}}

'''Bastet''' or '''Bast '''({{langx|egy|[[wikt:bꜣstt|bꜣstt]]}}), also known as '''Ubasti'''{{efn|{{langx|cop|Ⲟⲩⲃⲁⲥϯ|Oubasti}}, {{IPA|cop|ʔuˈβastə}};<ref>{{cite web |title=Coptic Dictionary Online |url=https://corpling.uis.georgetown.edu/coptic-dictionary/entry.cgi?entry=4899&super=1948 |website=corpling.uis.georgetown.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>Badawi, Cherine. ''Footprint Egypt''. Footprint Travel Guides, 2004.</ref>}} or '''Bubastis''',{{efn|{{langx|grc|Βούβαστις|translit=Bûbastis}}, where {{script|grc|-ούβαστις|translit=-ûbastis}} is probably the name of the goddess herself, and the {{script|grc|Β-}} is an intrusive conflation with her [[Bubastis|centre of worship]],  {{langx|egy|[[wikt:pr-bꜣstt|pr-bꜣstt]]}}.}} is a goddess of [[ancient Egyptian religion]], possibly of Nubian origin, worshipped as early as the [[Second Dynasty of Egypt|Second Dynasty]] (2890 BC). In [[ancient Greek religion]], she was known as '''Ailuros''' ({{langx|grc-x-koine|αἴλουρος|lit=cat}}).

Bastet was worshipped in [[Bubastis]] in [[Lower Egypt]], originally as a [[lion]]ess goddess, a role shared by other deities such as [[Sekhmet]]. Eventually Bastet and Sekhmet were characterized as two aspects of the same goddess, with Sekhmet representing the powerful warrior and protector aspect, and Bastet, who increasingly was depicted as a [[cat]], representing a gentler aspect.<ref name=Serpell184>Serpell, "Domestication and History of the Cat", p. 184.</ref>

==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" />

==Role in ancient Egypt==
Bastet was originally a fierce lioness warrior goddess of the [[solar deity|sun]], worshipped throughout most of ancient Egyptian history. Later she became the cat goddess that is familiar today.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt|last=Pinch|first=Geraldine|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|location=New York, New York|pages=115}}</ref> She was then depicted as the daughter of [[Ra]] and [[Isis]], and the consort of [[Ptah]], with whom she had a son, [[Maahes]].<ref name=":0" />

As protector of [[Lower Egypt]], she was seen as defender of the [[pharaoh|king]], and consequently of the sun god, Ra. Along with other deities such as [[Hathor]], Sekhmet, and Isis, Bastet was associated with the [[Eye of Ra]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Darnell |first=John Coleman |author-link=John Coleman Darnell |date=1997 |title=The Apotropaic Goddess in the Eye |journal=Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur |volume=24 |pages=35–48 |jstor=25152728 }}</ref> She has been depicted as fighting the evil snake named [[Apep]], an enemy of Ra.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt|last=Pinch|first=Geraldine|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|location=New York|pages=130}}</ref> In addition to her solar connections, she was also related to [[Wadjet]], one of the oldest Egyptian goddesses from the [[Upper Egypt|Southern Delta]] who was dubbed "eye of the moon".<ref>Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). ''The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt''. Thames & Hudson. p. 176</ref>

Bastet was also a goddess of pregnancy and childbirth, possibly because of the fertility of the domestic cat.<ref name="Delia 545">Delia, Diana (1999). "Isis, or the Moon". In W. Clarysse, A. Schoors, H. Willems. ''Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand Years. Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Jan Quaegebeur''. Peeters. pp. 545–546</ref>

Images of Bastet were often created from [[alabaster]]. The goddess was sometimes depicted holding a ceremonial [[sistrum]] in one hand and an [[aegis]] in the other—the aegis usually resembling a collar or [[gorget]], embellished with a lioness head.

Bastet was also depicted as the [[Tutelary deity|goddess of protection]] against [[contagious disease]]s and [[evil spirit]]s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Bastet/|title=Bastet|last=Mark|first=Joshua J.|date=July 24, 2016|website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417142324/https://www.worldhistory.org/Bastet/|archive-date=April 17, 2021|access-date=December 5, 2018}}</ref>

==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.

==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.

==See also==
* [[Gayer-Anderson cat]]
* [[List of solar deities]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
* [[Herodotus]], ed. H. Stein (et al.) and tr. AD Godley (1920), ''Herodotus 1. Books 1 and 2''. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts
* E. Bernhauer, "[http://project-min.de/home/english/restoration.html Block Statue of Nefer-ka]", in: M. I. Bakr, H. Brandl, Faye Kalloniatis (eds.): Egyptian Antiquities from Kufur Nigm and Bubastis. Berlin 2010, pp.&nbsp;176–179 {{ISBN|978-3-00-033509-9}}.
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Velde |first=Herman te |title=Bastet |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Demons and Deities in the Bible | editor=Karel van der Toorn |editor2=Bob Becking |editor3=Pieter W. van der Horst |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Academic |year=1999 |edition=2nd |pages=164–5 |isbn=90-04-11119-0}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Serpell |first=James A. |title=Domestication and History of the Cat |encyclopedia=The Domestic Cat: the Biology of its Behaviour |date=8 June 2000 |editor=Dennis C. Turner |editor2=Paul Patrick Gordon Bateson |editor2-link=Paul Patrick Gordon Bateson |pages=177–192 |isbn=9780521636483 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kO5y0fnLUD4C&pg=PA179 }}

{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |first=Jaromir |last=Malek |title=The Cat in Ancient Egypt |location=London |publisher=British Museum Press |year=1993 |isbn=0812216326}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Otto |first=Eberhard |author-link=Eberhard Otto |title=Bastet |encyclopedia=Lexicon der Ägyptologie |editor=W. Helck |location=Wiesbaden |year=1972–1992 |volume=1 |pages=628–30 |ol=OL5376028M |display-editors=etal}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Quaegebeur |first=J. |title=Le culte de Boubastis - Bastet en Egypte gréco-romaine |encyclopedia=Les divins chat d'Egypte |editor-first1=L. |editor-last1=Delvaux |editor-first2=E. |editor-last2=Warmenbol |location=Leuven |year=1991 |pages=117–27}}
* {{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}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author1=Bakr, Mohamed I.  |author2=Brandl, Helmut  |name-list-style=amp |title=Bubastis and the Temple of Bastet |encyclopedia=Egyptian Antiquities from Kufur Nigm and Bubastis| editor=M. I. Bakr |editor2=H. Brandl |editor3=F. Kalloniatis |location=Cairo/Berlin |year=2010 |pages=27–36}} {{ISBN|978-3-00-033509-9}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Bernhauer, Edith |title=Stela Fragment (of Bastet) |url=http://project-min.de/home/english/museums.html |encyclopedia=Egyptian Antiquities from the Eastern Nile Delta| editor=M. I. Bakr |editor2=H. Brandl |editor3=F. Kalloniatis |location=Cairo/Berlin |year=2014 |pages=156–157}} {{ISBN|978-3-00-045318-2}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.per-bast.org/ "All About Bast"] — Comprehensive essay by S.D. Cass on ''per-Bast.org'' 
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8468803.stm "Temple to cat god found in Egypt"], BBC News
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[[Category:Bastet| ]]
[[Category:Cat goddesses]]
[[Category:Egyptian goddesses]]
[[Category:Fertility goddesses]]
[[Category:Lion goddesses]]
[[Category:Love and lust goddesses]]
[[Category:Lunar goddesses]]
[[Category:Nubian goddesses]]
[[Category:Solar goddesses]]
[[Category:Sekhmet]]
[[Category:Tutelary goddesses]]
[[Category:War goddesses]]