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Bast, Feline Protector, Goddess of Lower Egypt

by Caroline Seawright February 25, 2001Updated: November 29, 2012

In early times Bast (Ubasti, Bastet) was a goddess with the head of a lion or adesert sand-cat and was regarded as mother of Maahes, a lion-headed god, andwif e to Ptah. She was usually depicted as a cat, or as a woman with the head ofa cat or lion. She was also connected to Hathor, Sekhmet, Tef nut and Mut. Bastwas considered to be the daughter of Atem or Ra. It was only in the NewKingdom that she gained the head of a house cat and became a much more'f riendly' goddess, though she was still depicted as a lion-headed woman toshow her war- like side. As with Hathor, Bast is of ten seen carrying a sistrum.

Her name has the hieroglyph of a 'bas'- jar ( ) with the f eminine ending of 't ' ( ), reading 'She of thebas-Jar'. (Apparently her name was written as 'Bastet' by scribes in later times to emphasise that the't ' was to be pronounced, but this is unclear.) These jars were heavy perf ume jars, of ten f illed withexpensive perf umes - they were very valuable in Egypt, considering the Egyptian need (with the hotweather) of makeup, bathing, hygiene and (of course) perf ume. Bast, by hername, seems to be related to perf umes in some way - a perf umed protector, as itwere. Her son Nef ertem, a solar god, was a god of perf umes and alchemy, whichsupports the theory.

Now there is some conf usion over Bast and Sekhmet. She is given the tit le the'Eye of Ra' when she's in her protector f orm... but Bast and Sekhmet are not thesame goddess (unlike Hathor who becomes Sekhmet as the 'Eye of Ra'). This allgives rise to a lot of conf usion about these goddesses. Bast and Sekhmet wereanother example of Egyptian duality - Sekhmet was a goddess of Upper Egypt,Bast of Lower Egypt (just like the pharaoh was of Upper and/or Lower Egypt!)...and they were linked together by geography, not by myth or legend.

These two f eline goddesses were both very distinct goddesses in their ownrights, despite the below phrase, used rather late in Egyptian history (c. 150 BC):

"She rages like Sekhmet and she is f riendly like Bast" is how the goddessHathor-Tef nut was described in the Myth of the Eye of the Sun in the temple atPhilae.

-- Jaromir Malek (1993), The Cat in Ancient Egypt, p. 95

She was one of the older goddesses, mentioned in The Book of the Dead (thiswas a selection of spells, rather than an actual book):

Rubric - If this Chapter be known by the deceased upon earth, he shall becomelike unto Thoth, and he shall be adored by those who live. He shall not f allheadlong at the moment of the intensity of the royal f lame of the goddess Bast,and the Great Prince shall make him to advance happily. ...

The breast of this Meri-Ra is the breast of Bast; he cometh f orth theref ore and ascendeth intoheaven.

-- E. A. Wallis Budge (1979), The Book of the Dead, p. 512, 602

Even f rom very old times, as protector, Bast was seen as the f ierce f lame of thesun who burned the deceased should they f ail one of the many tests in theunderworld.

Some of Bast's f estivals included the 'Procession of Bast', 'Bast appears to Ra',the 'Festival of Bast', 'Bast Goes Forth f rom Per-Bast (Bubastis)' and 'Bastguards the Two Lands'. There was even a 'Festival of Hathor and Bast', showingthe connection between the two goddesses.

Herodotus describes the 'Festival of Bast' where thousands of men and womentravelled on boats, partying like crazy. They had music, singing, clapping anddancing. When they passed towns, the women would call out dirty jokes to theshore-bound, of ten f lashing the townsf olk by lif t ing up their skirts over their heads! When they reachedPer-Bast, they made their sacrif icies of various animals, and drank as much wine as they could stomach. Nowonder it was such a popular f estival!!

When the people are on their way to Per-Bast, they go by river, a great number inevery boat, men and women together. Some of the women make a noise withrattles, others play f lutes all the way, while the rest of the women, and the men,sing and clap their hands.

As they travel by river to Per-Bast, whenever they come near any other town theybring their boat near the bank; then some of the women do as I have said, whilesome shout mockery of the women of the town; others dance, and others standup and lif t their skirts. They do this whenever they come alongside any riversidetown.

But when they have reached Per-Bast, they make a f estival with great sacrif ices,and more wine is drunk at this f east than in the whole year besides. It iscustomary f or men and women (but not children) to assemble there to thenumber of seven hundred thousand, as the people of the place say.

...

Dead cats are taken away to sacred buildings in the town of Per-Bast, where they are embalmed and buried.

-- Herodotus, Herodotus: Book II

In Greco-Roman times she was equated with Diana and Artemis, and the sister of Horus (who wasconsidered to be the Egyptian Apollo) and thus a child of Osiris and Isis, and became a goddess of themoon.

Her cult centre was in Per-Bast (the temple is now in ruins, but it was made of red granite with a sacredgrove in the centre, with the shrine of the goddess herself ... it was also f ull of cats). An alternativetranslation of her name could be 'She of Bast', ref ering to the city of Per-Bast. She was also worshiped allover Lower Egypt.

© Caroline 'Kunoichi' Seawright 2001 - present