Museum Artifact P2.3 (Bastet)

Artifact 9007-03

03. Seated figure of the goddess Bastet

Late period, 664- 302 BC
Egypt 
Bronze

This bronze cat probably represents the goddess Bastet, whose main temple was at Bubastis in north-eastern Egypt. It was probably bought by a pilgrim at the temple and dedicated to the goddess in hope of ensuring a long life and a good burial. Bastet could be a terrifying and powerful lioness goddess, or a benevolent and calm one, incarnated as an elegant cat.
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Apologies for the unclear pictures, it was due to the lighting..

Anyways, the figure of Bastet is rather small and to me it looks like any ordinary sleek cat. I thought there would have been something really eye-catching for the goddess Bastet's figures.

Though it does look a tad bit different from any ordinary cat figure..probably because of the bronze that it was made out off.


To me Bastet has always been an interesting goddess in the Egyptian mythologies and so it was nice to see a figure of her.
After all, I've always been one to love cats too!!

Carved relief

As was mentioned, cats are a symbol of Bastet and she is also shown with the appearance of a cat.
This is why cats hold importance in Egypt. They are assosciated to gods and goddesses, especially that to Bastet. One may even be confused between Bastet and the goddess Sekhmet, which I have covered briefly in my previous post.

Image

There are various other reasons to why cats were loved in Egypt which you could learn more at the click of the link below.
                        http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk

For better information about the goddess Bastet, you could learn more with just a click below.....
                      http://egyptian-gods.org/egyptian-gods-bastet/
                      http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/bast.html