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Cats are synonymous with a very simplified impression of ‘ancient Egypt’. In this orientalising view, popularised by Greek and Roman writers like Herodotus, the ancient Egyptians were so inherently strange that they rather laughably worshipped cats – and, if one died in a household, then the inhabitants shaved off their eyebrows!
In fact, pharaonic relations with felines – as with all animals – were far more complex than might at first be assumed. Animals represented the ‘more-than-human’, and were associated with aspects of divinity. The well-known ‘cat goddess’ Bastet was depicted as a lioness-headed woman for most of pharaonic history – until around 1000 BC, when she began to be shown in a somewhat less ferocious aspect as a cat.
This photograph from the archives of the Egypt Exploration Society shows a selection of votive plaques from the site of Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai – given as offerings not to Bastet, but to the goddess Hathor. Sinai mines were the source of copper and turquoise, which were sacred to a form of Hathor. In some way, perhaps, the leaving of offerings in turquoise-coloured faience was a means to placate the goddess during arduous campaigns to extract minerals.
At least 21 such ‘cat plaques’ were discovered at the site, and they can be dated by a particular pharaoh’s cartouches. One in this selection carries the throne name of Hatshepsut (Maatkara), who was closely associated – and in some sense perhaps believed to incarnate – the goddess Hathor. A huge number of similar faience offerings were found in and near the female pharaoh’s ‘mansion of millions of years’, called ‘Holy of Holies’ (Djeser-Djeseru) – today known as Deir el-Bahri in western Luxor. It seems that Hathor was viewed as particularly worthy of being honoured with gifts.
Image: SIN.NEG.267, courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society
