| In Egyptian
mythology, Bast (also spelt Ubasti,
and Pasht) is an ancient goddess,
worshipped at least since the Second
Dynasty, for whom the centre of her
cult was in Per-Bast (Bubastis in
greek), which was named after her.
Originally she was viewed as the protector
goddess of Lower Egypt, and consequently
depicted as a fierce lion. Indeed,
her name means (female) devourer.
As protectress, she was seen as defender
of the pharaoh, and consequently of
the chief god, Ra,
who was a solar deity, gaining her
the titles Lady of flame, and Eye
of Ra. |
|
|
Later scribes sometimes named her Bastet, a variation on
Bast consisting of an additional feminine suffix to the one
already present, thought to have been added to emphasise pronunciation.
Since Bastet would literally mean (female) of the ointment
jar, Bast gradually became thought of as the goddess of perfumes,
earning the title perfumed protector. In connection with this,
when Anubis became the god of embalming,
Bast, as goddess of ointment, became thought of as his mother,
although this association was broken in later years, when
Anubis became thought of as Nephthys'
son.
This gentler characteristic, of goddess of perfumes, together
with Lower Egypt's position as the loser in the wars between
Upper & Lower Egypt, lead to her ferocity being gradually
toned down. Thus by the Middle Kingdom, she had come to be
thought of as a domestic cat rather than a lion, although
occasionally, she would be depicted holding a lionness mask,
hinting at supressed ferocity. Since domestic cats tend to
be quite tender, and protective, toward their children, she
was also thought of as a good mother, and sometimes became
depicted with numerous (unidentified) kittens. Consequently,
a woman who wanted children would sometimes wear an amulet
depicting Bast, as a cat, with kittens, the number of which
indicated her own desired amount of children.
|
|
|
Due to the severe disaster to the
food supply that could be caused by
simple vermin such as mice and rats,
and their ability to fight and kill
snakes, especially Cobras, Cats in
Egypt were revered heavily, sometimes
being given golden jewelery to wear,
and being allowed to eat from the
same plates as their owners. Consequently,
as the main cat (rather than lion)
deity, Bast was strongly revered as
the patron of cats, and thus it was
in the temple at Per-Bast that dead
(and mummified) cats were brought
for burial. Over 300,000 mummified
cats were discovered when Bast's temple
at per-Bast was excavated. |
As a cat/lion goddess, and protector of the lands, when,
during the New Kingdom, the fierce lion god Maahes became
part of Egyptian mythology, she was identified, in the Lower
Kingdom, as his mother. This paralleled the identification
of the fierce lion goddess Sekhmet, as his mother in the Upper
Kingdom.
As divine mother, and more especially as protectress, for
Lower Egypt, she became strongly associated with Wadjet,
the patron goddess of Lower Egypt, eventually becoming Wadjet-Bast,
paralleling the similar pair of patron (Nekhbet)
and lioness protector (Sekhmet)
for Upper Egypt. Eventually, her position as patron and protector
of Lower Egypt, lead to her being identified as the more substantial
goddess Mut, whose cult had risen to
power with that of Amun, and eventually
being absorbed into her as Mut-Wadjet-Bast. Shortly after,
Mut also absorbed the identities of
the Sekhmet-Nekhbet pairing as well.
| This merging of identities of similar
goddesses has lead to considerable
confusion, leading to some associating
things such as the title Mistress
of the Sistrum (more properly belonging
to Hathor,
who had become thought of as an aspect
of Isis, as
had Mut), and
the idea of her as a lunar goddess
(more properly an attribute of Mut).
Indeed, much of this confusion occurred
to subsequent generations, as the
identities slowly merged, leading
to the Greeks, who sometimes named
her Ailuros (Greek for cat), thinking
of Bast as a version of Artemis, their
own moon goddess. And thus, to fit
their own cosmology, to the Greeks,
Bast was thought of as the sister
of Horus, who they identified as Apollo
(Artemis' brother), and consequently
the daughter of Isis
and Osiris. |
|
|
Gods
and Goddesses Menu
This article
is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org
- the free encyclopedia created and edited
by online user community. Although the
vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia
articles provide accurate and timely information
please do not assume the accuracy of any
particular article. This article is distributed
under the terms of GNU
Free Documentation License.
|
