Worshiped in the form of a meek cat, she was merged with the idol Sekhmet in the modern state, where Sekhmet is represented in the form of a predatory lioness. When Bastet gets angry, she becomes Sekhmet, taking revenge on enemies and those of poor character.
The ancient Egyptian domesticated the cat because he noticed that she was catching mice that enter the grain silos, eating and spoiling them. The ancient Egyptians also bred them at home. When she died, he would embalm her as he embalmed his dead. One of the large tombs containing about a million mummified cats was found in Egypt, very carefully and tightly mummified. I have great respect for her.
Her acting
The lioness was also sacred to the ancient Egyptians, and her name was Sekhmet. Therefore, researchers are confused about reading ancient Egyptian texts; it is Bastet or Sekhmet. In some texts, Bastet's name appears accompanied by the figurative symbol of her as a sitting house cat.
Its importance
It was painted on the wall of the temple of Kom Ombo, Egypt. She also represented joy, dancing, music, feasts, and had such non-Meek qualities as anger and predation. With historical development, in later times it was associated with the predatory idol Sekhmet, the lioness, who represents the predatory aspect of Bastet when angry. She was also considered in Heliopolis as a daughter of Atom.
During the reign of the ancient Egyptian kingdom, Bastet was considered the goddess Hathor (Hathor), and she was worshiped in Memphis by the goddess Sekhmet. During the Middle Dynasty, it was represented by the goddess Mut. People used to keep cats in houses. When a cat died, its owner expressed his grief by shaving the eyelids of his eyes (according to what Herodotus wrote).
Places of worship
Embalming the corpses of cats was very widespread. The priests of Bastet raised cats and offered them to people for the purpose of sacrifice. And when one of the people buys a cat from her, the priest kills it, and then a group of priests embalms it as they embalm a human being. Depending on what the buyer paid, the priests hand him a large or small mummy, and he prepares a tomb for her. That was a victim of the goddess Bastet.
And for one of the people to please the goddess Bastet in a special tribute, he would buy some cats. Recently, an X-ray examination was conducted on the dead cats found in a large cemetery in the valley of the Kings, and he was surprised that about a third of the dead cats did not contain a mummified cat and contained only several bones. To date, researchers do not know whether priests cheat people or whether cats are less often found.
The killing of a cat outside a place of worship by a non-priest was a crime for which the perpetrator could be severely punished
Bastit feast
The ancient Egyptians celebrated Bastit, a feast celebrated by drinking beer (sometimes called the feast of drunkenness), having fun, and dancing with their beer drinking sessions. This holiday was mentioned by Herodotus in his manuscript (Herodotus II (II 60.