Bastet
Bastet
(Bast)
The goddess Bastet was usually represented as a woman with
the head of a domesticated cat. However, up until 1000 BC she was portrayed as
a lioness. Bastet was the daughter of Re, the sun god. It may have been
through him that she acquired her feline characteristics. When Re destroyed his
enemy Apep,
he was usually depicted as a cat. As portrayed as a cat, she was connected with
the moon (her son Khonsu
was the god of the moon). When shown as a lioness, she is associated with
sunlight.
Bastet was the goddess of fire, cats, of the home and
pregnant women. According to one myth, she was the personification of the soul
of Isis.
She was also called the "Lady of the East". As such, her counterpart as
"Lady of the West" was Sekhmet.
Her center of worship was in Bubastis (Per-Bast, Pa-Bast,
Pibeseth, Tell-Basta), in the eastern Delta. Her chief festivals were
celebrated in April and May. Herodotus, the famous Greek historian, provides
the following description of one of the festivals:
"When the Egyptians travel to Bubastis, they do so in
this manner: men and women sail together, and in each boat there are many
persons of both sexes. Some of the women shake their rattles and some of the
men blow their pipes during the whole journey, while others sing and clap their
hands. If they pass a town on the way, some of the women land and shout and
jeer at the local women, while others dance and create a disturbance. They do
this at every town on the Nile. When they arrive at Bubastis, they begin the
festival with great sacrifices, and on this occasion, more wine is consumed
than during the whole of the rest of the year."
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