Bast
Bast
Bast
Guirand, Felix, ed. THE LAROUSSE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHOLOGY.
Trans. Richard Aldrington and Delano Ames, New York. Barnes & Noble Books. 1994, 36-37

Bast (Bastet) was identified by the Greeks with Artemis, probably by confusion with the lioness-headed goddess Tefnut. She was local goddess of Bubastis, capital of the eighteenth nome or province of Lower Egypt. Bubastis is a transcription of Per Bast, i.e. 'The House of Bast'. She became the great national divinity when, about 950 BC, with Sheshonk and the Libyan Pharaohs of the twenty-second dynasty, Bubastis became the capital of the kingdom. Though in origin a lioness-goddess, personifying the fertilising warmth of the sun, her sacred animal later became the cat, and she is represented as a cat-headed woman holding in her right hand either a sistrum or an aegis, composed of a semi-circular breastplate surmounted with the head of a lioness. In her left hand she carries a basket. She was related to the sun-god whom some called her father and others her brother-spouse; and she became - like Sekhmet, with whom she is frequently confused in spite of their very dissimilar characters - the wife of Ptah of Memphis and with him formed a triad in which Nefertum was the third person. Although, as patron of the kings of Bubastis, Bast had already become one of the great divinities of Egypt, it was in the fourth century BC that she achieved her greatest popularity. She existed also in secondary forms as Pekhet, the cat or lion-headed goddess of Speos Artemidos, to the east of Beni Hasan. Like Hathor she was a goddess of pleasure and loved music and the dance. She would beat time with the sistrum, often decorated with the figure of a cat, which she grasped in her hand. In her benevolence she also protected men against contagious disease and evil spirits. Great and joyful festivals were periodically celebrated in her temple at Bubastis. Herodotus tells us that it was one of the most elegant in Egypt and recounts how the devout came in hundreds of thousands from all over the country for the huge annual fair-The journey took place by barges to the sound of flutes and castanets. Buffoonery and jokes were bandied between the pilgrims and the women on the banks of the river who watched the barges as they passed, and everything was a pretext for pleasantry and masquerade. On the appointed day a splendid procession wound through the town and festivities followed during which, it seems, more wine was drunk than during all the rest of the year. To please the cat-goddess her devotees consecrated statues of this animal in great numbers, and in the shadow of her sanctuaries it was a pious custom to bury the carefully mummified bodies of cats who during their lifetime had been venerated as animals sacred to Bast. .

Bast/ Bastet
Bast/Bastet

Bast
Conway, D. J. MAGICK OF the GODS & GODDESSES. St. Paul, Minnesota, Llewellyn Publications, 1997, 117

Bast/Bastet/Pasht (in her dark aspect)—Cat-headed goddess; mother of all cats; Wife of Ptah. She was identified with Artemis or Diana who was also called the mother of cats. The living power and gentle heat of the sunlight. Lady of the East; associated with the god Sept (Lord of the East). The cat was Egypt's most sacred animal but the black cat was especially sacred to her; Egyptian physicians used the black cat symbol in healing. Cats were sacred to her in general, kept in her temple, and embalmed when they died. To kill a cat meant a death sentence. Her sacred home was Bubastis in Lower Egypt. Bast carried a sistrum in her right hand and a basket in her left. She was generally draped in green. During her huge annual fair, thousands of worshippers journeyed on Nile barges, accompanied by flutes, castanets, and lots of wine. Splendid processions went through the streets to her temples. Goddess of fire, the Moon, childbirth, fertility, pleasure, benevolence, joy, jokes, sexual rites, music, dance, protection against disease and evil spirits, warmth, all animals (especially cats), intuition, healing, generosity, marriage.

Sekhmet and Bast

Bastet
by Stephanie Cass
Encyclopedia MYTHICA

The Egyptian cat-headed goddess, Bastet was strictly a solar deity until the arrival of Greek influence on Egyptian society, when she became a lunar goddess due to the Greeks associating her with their Artemis. Dating from the 2nd Dynasty (roughly 2890-2686 BC), Bastet was originally portrayed as either a wild desert cat or as a lioness, and only became associated with the domesticated feline around 1000 BC. She was commonly paired with Sakhmet, the lion-headed goddess of Memphis, Wadjet, and Hathor. Bastet was the "Daughter of Ra", a designation that placed her in the same ranks as such goddesses as Maat and Tefnut. Additionally, Bastet was one of the "Eyes of Ra", the title of an "avenger" god who is sent out specifically to lay waste to the enemies of Egypt and her gods.

         The cult of Bastet was centered in Bubastis (located in the delta region, near modern- day Zagazig) from at least the 4th Dynasty. In the Late Period Bubastis was the capital of Egypt for a dynasty, and a few kings took her name into their royal titles. Bubastis was made famous by the traveler Herodotus in the 4th century BC, when he described in his annals one of the festivals that takes place in honor of Bastet. Excavations in the ruins of Tell-Basta (the former Bubastis) have yielded many discoveries, including a graveyard with mummified holy cats.

          Because the Greeks equated Bastet with Diana and Artemis and Horus with Apollo, Bastet became adopted into the Osiris-Isis myth as their daughter (this association, however, was never made previous to the arrival of Hellenistic influence on Egypt). She is stated to be the mother of the lion-headed god Mihos (who was also worshipped in Bubastis, along with Thoth). She is depicted most commonly as a woman with the head of a domesticated or wild cat or lion, or as a cat itself.

Encyclopedia ENCARTA

Bast, also Bastet or Ubasti, in Egyptain mythology, cat goddess worshiped primarily in the ancient city of Bubastis on the Nile Delta. As the protector of cats, which the ancient Egyptians often kept in their homes as pets, Bast was also an important goddess of the hearth. During the New Kingdom (1539-1075 BC), she became equated with Sekhmet, the lioness deity of war. Bast was also worshiped as the spouse of the creator god, Ptah-seker-ausur, and possessed destructive powers attributed to the sun. Images of Bast portray her with a sistrum (ancient Egyptian percussion instrument) in her right hand, and a small bag over her left arm, with figurines of kittens surrounding her feet. Such images are among the most naturalistic works of ancient Egyptian sculpture. Herodotus, a Greek historian of the 5th century BC, described in his second book of his Histories the annual festival of Bast, whom he equated with the Greek goddess Artemis. He estimated that the festival attracted more than 700,000 people each year. Excavations in the area where Bubastis was located have uncovered cat cemeteries with large numbers of mummified cats and cat figurines, which were perhaps dedicated to Bast during her festival.

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