by L A Vocelle
Perhaps it was here too that the now famous Gayer Anderson cat (figure 2.20) was found for its exact origin is unknown. Revealing every nuance of the cat’s body, the bronze statue of the cat goddess Bastet displays exquisite workmanship. Given as a gift by Gayer Anderson to the British Museum, the cat now regally sits in a prominent display.
THE DECLINE OF BUBASTIS AND THE CULT OF THE CAT
Since Bubastis was at the edge of the Egyptian empire, invasions were commonplace and, as Egypt began to weaken and fragment in the later dynasties, both Greek and Persian invaders tried their luck at conquest. Since his father Cyrus had conquered the Middle East, it was left for his son Cambyses II, the new king of the Persian Empire, to conquer Egypt. Thus, in 525 BC he set off toward his prize, aided by Arab Bedouin who supplied the army with water along the way. They reached the city of Pelusium located at the very tip of the Delta region not far from modern day Port Said. There the cunning Cambyses II thought of an ingenious battle strategy. Being familiar with the Egyptians’ religious practices, he had the image of Bast painted on his soldiers’ shields and drove hundreds of the sacred cats in front of his army, thus putting them between his army and the Egyptians. Naturally, the Egyptians would not fight, but turned and fled, for they would not kill a cat or any other sacred animal. Cambyses forced the ill prepared, newly appointed Pharaoh Psamtik III to retreat to Memphis, where he defeated him, and sacrilegiously killed the Apis bull. He proclaimed himself the next pharaoh of Egypt, and thus ushered in the Persian period of rulers that would last to approximately 425 BC.
Figure 2.20. Gayer Anderson Cat, The British Museum, London, Author’s Photograph
During these periods of foreign domination, the Egyptians continually fought for the return of their throne and finally in 404 BC Amyrteos regained control of the empire after the death of Darius II, beginning what is now known as the Late Period. The next to last ruler of the Late Period, Dynasty 30, was Nectunebo I, who rebuilt the temple sanctuary at Bubastis adding a peri-style court with columns on the eastern, southern and northern sides. His successor, Nectunebo II, the last native Egyptian to rule Egypt, was defeated by the Persian Artaxeres III. A cruel vicious man, he ransacked temples and seized treasures carrying them back to Persia. Sacred animals were killed, and their temples and cities completely destroyed. As a result of the Persian invasion, Bubastis in 350 BC entered a period of slow decline. The last dynasties 31 and 32 of the ancient Egyptian empire were ruled by invading Persians and Greeks.
Despite foreign rule and the destruction of her temples, the cat goddess Bast remained in the hearts of the Egyptians. Bast continued to be worshipped by the Greeks and Egyptians alike, evidenced by a recent discovery in the city of Alexandria of a temple dedicated to Bast and belonging to Queen Berenice, wife of Pharaoh Ptolemy III, which dates to the 3rd century BC.
With the slow demise of the empire, however, so too came the demise of the cult of the cat. When Rome annexed Egypt in AD 30 for its abundant grain supply, it was just three years later that Mark the Evangelist brought Christianity to Alexandria. There was not much resistance to the new religion, as various aspects of the old were incorporated, thus making the transition more palatable for the pagan Egyptians. In AD 380 Theodosius I, the last emperor of both the eastern and western Roman Empire, proclaimed Christianity the official religion. Approximately ten years later, in AD 394, Theodosius I secured the importance of this new religion by banning pagan worship of any kind throughout the empire. Now with the last vestiges of the ancient Egyptian religion crumbling under threat of lawful punishment, temples were destroyed or left to become derelict. Animal cults vanished, and along with them the cult of Bast. The cat would never again be worshipped on such a grand scale, and Egypt would not be able to secure its independence from foreign rule for almost 2,000 years.
CHAPTER THREE
THE CAT IN EARLY AEGEAN AND MEDITERRANEAN CIVILIZATIONS
Although the ancient Egyptians forbade the export of their beloved cats, determined smugglers stole the prized and worshipped animals to trade or sell. In an effort to reclaim the kidnapped beasts, whole armies were dispatched to repatriate them, and in some cases emissaries were even given the duty to buy them back (Jennison, 1937). Unfortunately, these efforts were not enough to keep the rare and worshipped cat confined to Egypt.
Taken aboard trader ships and sailed across the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy, whether by accident or as prized cargo, the first evidence of domestic cats in the Minoan civilization has been dated to around 1800-1700 BC. Minoans had a healthy trade relationship with the ancient Egyptians. Evidence of Minoan ceramics at Egyptian archeological sites confirms this. Additionally, Egyptian scarabs and amulets have been found on Crete at Knossos, and there is evidence that Minoans imported papyrus and fine linen from Egypt.
THE CAT IN MINOAN AND MYCENAEAN ART
The Minoans were the first in the Mediterranean to portray the cat in lovely relief on a pitcher and two cups found at the palace of Malia on the island of Crete, while a fresco dating to 1628 BC, on the island of Santorini, also includes a representation of a cat. On a Knossos fresco a cat hunts birds, and at the palace of Agia Triada yet another stealthily stalks a pheasant. A figurine of a snake goddess found at Knossos, dating to 1600 BC, has a cat perched atop her head indicating some religious significance, most probably associated with fertility (figure 3.1). And found at Palaikastro, Crete, a terracotta head of a cat dates to the 1400’s BC (Engels, 2001). In addition to these immortalizations of the cat, Minoan seal stones, dating from 1800-1700 BC engraved with cats chasing a group of water fowl, are reminiscent of the bird hunting scene in the tomb of the Theban noble Nebamun. Scholars suggest that cats trained to hunt water fowl were introduced to Crete from Egypt (Castleden, 1993).
Figure 3.1. Minoan Snake Goddess, Photograph by C. Messier
Unlike the art work of the ancient Egyptians, Minoan frescos adorning palace walls did not have religious or political agendas; instead, historians believe the Minoans were the first people to pursue art for art’s sake. The beautiful compositions of bulls, octopi, plants, fish, women, men and cats were done seemingly for pleasure and decoration. They had even developed a writing system called Linear A script which includes a letter ‘ma’ represented by a cat’s head (Engels, 2001). Unfortunately, the script has yet to be completely deciphered, but archeologists think that most writings would reflect the Minoan’s mercantile endeavors, focusing on facts and figures as in most early civilizations, instead of any true literature. Plagued by natural disasters, notably the eruption of Mt. Thera in 1627-1600 BC, it was not long before the Minoans, a peaceful people weakened by this traumatic event, were soon dominated by the conquest driven Mycenaeans in about 1600 BC. Even so, the Minoan style continued to influence Mycenaean art.
The Mycenaean civilization lasted a mere 500 years, ending abruptly due to infighting, the invasion of the Dorians and/or an invasion of the “Sea People”. Primarily warriors, the Mycenaeans enlarged their empire by conquest rather than by trade, as the Minoans had, and inhabited what is today the whole of the Peloponnesus and Crete. However, Mycenaean artifacts have been found as far away as Russia, Germany and Ireland. Whether through the influence of the Minoans or from their own respect for the cat’s symbolic strength and cunning, feline representations adorn various Mycenaean artifacts. For example, an inlaid dagger dating to 1600 BC depicts a gold cat hunting water fowl surrounded by lotus plants. “The familiarity with Egypt is further proved by the lotus pattern on the dagger blade, by the cat on the dagger, and the cats on the gold furl ornaments, since the cat was then unknown in Greece” (Mahaffy, 2007 p. 393). In addition, found in a shaft grave in Mycenae, two gold images of cats pose strangely like they could have been used on a coat of arms (Engels, 2001). Although the Mycenaeans represented the cat in various attitudes and on various works of art and even on daily utensils, no mention or reference is made to the cat in Mycenaean Linear B script.
THE CAT AND THE PHOENICIANS
THE CAT AND THE ETRUSCANS
The Phoenicians most probably introduced the Egyptian domestic cat to the Etruscans, as there is evidence of Phoenician trade in Etruscan tombs located in the area of Civeta Castellani (Hamilton, 1896). Pictured on many of these tombs walls, the vermin-killing domestic cat was familiar to early Etruscans. On one of the stone pillars, in the Grotto Dei Rilievi at Cervetri in Etruria, dating to 350-200 BC, a sculpted cat and mouse play together (Hamilton, 1896). On a wall painting in the Tomb of Golini, near the modern day Italian city of Porano, a cat named Krankru dismembers its kill under a couch (Dennis, 1878). In Corneto, in the Grotto del Triclinio, an expectant cat crouches under a banquet table overflowing with food, again reminding us of the cats painted on the walls of the tombs of ancient Egyptian nobles. And in yet another banquet scene, in the Tomb of Triclinium in Tarquinia dating to 470 BC, we find the cat conspicuously apparent. Moreover, in the tombs of Scrofa Nera, Francesca, Querciolu and others, cats as well as other animals appear either above or below banquet table scenes (Cameron, 2009). Did the Etruscans understand the character of the cat as being that of a scavenger, beggar? Why are these tomb paintings so reminiscent of ancient Egyptian banquet scenes? The only answer has to be that trade relations were firmly in place between the Aegean civilizations and Egypt, and that the cat was obviously a part of Etruscan domestic life.
Strikingly painted with detailed spotted grey and black or brown or even orange coats, the cats painted in these Etruscan tomb frescos are realistic representations of domestic cats. When not under tables begging for food or killing mice, the cat was depicted as a natural predator of birds (Depuma & Small, 1994). In one bas-relief a lady is playing a pipe for a cat which is standing up on its back legs begging for the two ducks hanging from a tree in the background (Hamilton, 1896).
The cat also appears on Etruscan vases and Bucchero ware on which the common motifs are those of a woman walking a cat, a cat being held up by its back leg upside down, and a cat standing up on its back legs. Cat heads also decorate the edge of a Bucchero ware bowl from Chuisi dating to the 6th century BC (Engels, 2001). Etruscan cats represented on vases are seen primarily with humans and birds, and are never depicted with women and children alone as they would be on later Greek vases (Depuma & Small, 1994, p. 162).
THE CAT IN THE SOUTHERN GREEK ISLANDS
With the help of opportunistic merchants, domestic cats made their way to the port city of Taranto, a center for trade in the south of Italy, inhabited by Greeks from the 8th century BC. The Greek Spartans called the city Taras, as legend states that Taras was the son of Poseidon, who was saved from a shipwreck by dolphins. Later the dolphin as well as the cat became important symbols on Taras coins. With the coming of the Romans, Taras would eventually be renamed Tarentum, and reach its zenith between 500-400 BC. During this period, representations of cats appear on vases and coins. On one vase a girl lovingly snuggles up to a cat, and on another a girl holding a cat looks at herself and her pet’s reflection in a mirror. On a Tarentine coin, the founder of the city, Phalanthos, teasingly plays with a cat that jumps up to grab something from his hand. On another coin, dating between the 5-4th centuries BC, a Taras is riding a dolphin, and on the reverse side a seated boy holds a bird in his right hand, while a cat is trying to scramble up and snatch it (Hamilton, 1896; Ross, 1889, p. 137).
In the modern day port city of Reggio di Calabria, located near Sicily, known as Rhegium under the Romans, coins portray King Iokastos in much the same pose as Phalanthos with a cat playing near his chair (Engels, 2001 p. 89). On a vase from Sicily dating to 330 BC, now in the British Museum, we see two women, one standing and holding what looks like a ball, while the other is sitting with a ball and thread attached to her wrist while holding up a bird. In between the two women, a small spotted cat stands on its back legs and reaches for the bird. The women are obviously happily playing with the cat and have brought various toys to do so.
A group of tiny bronze cats found on the island of Samos dating to the 8th century BC indicates that the cat spread to other islands off Asia Minor (Engels, 2001). And finally, from the Greek prefecture of Laconia, located in the southeast Peloponnese, a vase with a cat in a sphinx-like repose lies under the chair of the King of Arkesilas of Cyrene, ancient Libya, dating to 550 BC. Not unlike the depictions of cats under chairs in Egypt, obviously a quite common motif throughout the region.
THE CAT IN GREECE
Unfortunately, compared to its prominence as a worshipped goddess in ancient Egypt, the domestic cat played a rather small role in the history of Hellenistic Greece. As Repplier writes of the Greeks in The Fireside Sphinx, “This race (the Greeks) so admirably endowed, with ambitious ever unsatisfied, modeling, in insatiable pride, its gods after its own likeness, and forcing Olympos to bear a part in its quarrels; this superb race was far too arrogant to permit the cat to participate in its apotheosis” (Repplier, 1901, p. 15). Instead, grander cats such as the cheetah, lion and panther played a more prominent role in early Greek art and mythology. This is partially attributed to the fact that in early times, the domestic cat was not yet the important rodent killer in Greece that it had been in Egypt. Greeks, too, for religious and cultural reasons did not hold the natural affinity toward animals that the Egyptians did. Prior to the importation of the cat from Egypt, Greeks used weasels, ferrets, martens and pole cats to reduce the damage done by invading vermin. These animals, however, did not take to any sort of domestication and preferred to roam wild, and wandered away from the granaries, eventually leaving them unprotected. They were also quite vicious to humans. In fact, some states in America ban the ownership of ferrets to protect people against possible attacks. So when the cat entered the scene, the Greeks immediately realized that it was a much better protector of granaries, as the cat could be domesticated and would stay near its food source, the ravaging rodents. After recognizing the utility of the cat and its endearing nature, the Greeks allowed themselves to be seduced by its crafty wiles, but never to the extent that the ancient Egyptians had.
The cat made its way to the shores of mainland Greece in several ways. First, the Greeks and Phoenicians traded scarabs and amulets with the ancient Egyptians, particularly in Egypt’s Delta region near the ancient Hyksos capital of Avaris or modern day Tell el Daba (Turcan, 1996). And it stands to reason that cats were most probably included in this trade, albeit illegally. Often-times the pharaohs enlisted the aid of Greek mercenaries, and they too could have helped in the spread of the cat to Greece. Known to have sailed the Mediterranean, especially during the New Kingdom, ancient Egyptians even settled in small Greek communities, no doubt in some cases bringing along their beloved cats. Furthermore, Diodorus writes of a country called Numidia, modern day Algeria, where he says that Agathocles in around 307 BC, after conquering Pkillena, Mishcela Hippaci and Miltene, led his army over a mountainous area so crowded with cats that no birds could be found for miles. He adds that the soldiers captured some of the cats and took them to Greece (Repplier, 1901). It is also claimed that Mount Hermon, in modern day Israel, “….was named Suner…Sunar or Sinnaur …
the Chaldean (Babylonian) name for cat. It was named this by the Amorrheans, or the Mountain of Cats” (Dureau de la Malle, 1829 p. 309). These cats could have made their way with Phoenicians to the shores of Greece as well. We cannot of course forget the fact that the Minoans, Mycenaeans, Etruscans and Tarentines had already obtained the domestic cat from the Egyptians through their trade, giving the animal, even though still rare, a foothold in Greece, its surrounding islands and Italy.
THE MERGING OF BAST WITH GREEK AND ROMAN GODS
Owing to their geographical proximity, the relationship between Greece and Egypt was a close one. Around 450 BC Herodotus writes of the ancient Egyptians’ treatment of the cat at great length in his Histories. With the ongoing trade and merging of cultures, Egyptian gods and goddesses were assimilated and renamed to fit into the Greek pantheon. For example, the Egyptian gods Osiris and Isis became the Greeks gods DomesticDionysos and Demeter; Isis’ son Horus became Harpokrates; Set was to be Typhon; Neith of Sais- Athena, Min- Pan, Amun- Zeus and Bast- Artemis (Erman, 1907).
Both Isis and Artemis/Bast merged and were familiar goddesses in the Greek Isles and Asia Minor. Artemis, daughter of Zeus and twin of Apollo, was the Greek goddess of childbirth, virginity, fertility, forests, hills and the hunt. “…it was exactly in the city of Bubastis, where the cat was the sacred animal, that the Greeks could find the Egyptians worshipping ‘Artemis.’ The assimilation and subsequent identification of Isis with Artemis could not have taken place without the goddess of Bubastis” (Witt, 1971 p. 147). Later, under Greek influence, Bast, too, came to be identified with the Greek goddess Artemis, as they shared the nurturing qualities of motherhood. At Bubastis, “Ostia, a priestess of Bubastis, dedicated an altar to ‘Isis Bubastis.’ By traditional ‘Greek interpretation’ the Egyptian Bast of Bubastis had been labeled Artemis in the Graeco-Roman world. The dedication therefore is one more sign of the syncretism which leads to the fully blended Isis-Artemis” (Witt, 1971 p. 81).
