Bast

Bast


 * Other Names:**

Ubasti, Phastet, Bastet


 * Meaning of Name:**

“She of the //Bast//” (ointment jar.) Perfume was one of the most valuable commodities of ancient Egypt.


 * Hieroglyphics:**

or


 * Titles:**

“Mistress of the Sistrum”

“Lady of Flame” “Perfumed Protector”

“Eye of Ra”

"Lady of the East"

“Goddess of Plenty”

"Mistress of Pleasure"

“The Feline One of Women”

“She Who Scratches”


 * Family:**

Bast was thought to be the daughter-wife of Ra, Atum, or Ptah, the mother of Maahes, Khonsu, and Nefertem, and the sister of Sekhmet. She was sometimes considered to be the daughter of Isis and Osiris, or Amun and Mut, and the mother-wife of Anubis.

The worship of Bast has been dated to at least the 2nd Dynasty, before the building of the Great Pyramids. Her name has existed for nearly five millennia, which makes “Bast” one of the oldest names in existence. The Egyptians thought that Bast protected against snakes and illness, and she was the nurse and mother to every pharaoh.

Probably the most famous Egyptian goddess after Isis, Bast was a very popular goddess of joy, music, sensuality, and protection. As a sun goddess she defended the pharaoh and gave the people warmth and light. Previous to the Graeco-Roman influence on Egypt, Bast was exclusively solar; being the Eye of Ra, she //** had **// to be. It is only after she was linked to the Greek goddess Artemis that she became lunar. The confusion arose when the Greeks called Bast “Ailuros” ( Greek for cat), thinking of Bast as a version of Artemis, their own moon goddess.

Bast was pictured as a cat or as a woman with the head of a cat, usually dressed in green. The patterned or striped gown she wears imitates the tabby coat of the ancient Egyptian cat. Occasionally Bast has a cat’s paws and tail showing beneath her dress. Often she was shown holding an aegis or a sistrum (Bast and the sistrum are probably the source of the old rhyme “Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle”). Statues of Bast occasionally had her wearing a necklace or earrings, and holding kittens or with cats around her feet.

Bast was often shown with a round basket dangling from one of her elbows - Egyptologists have coined the phrase “housewife Bast” to describe these statues, because one cannot help comparing them to ordinary housewives on the way to do their shopping at the local supermarket. The basket is peculiar to Bast, and was sometimes worn as an amulet - four gold basket amulets were found in the tomb of Hepy. The baskets Bast carries often have a figure of a cat in them, and there is evidence that this was how sacred cats were carried about Bast's temples.

Occasionally Bast was pictured with a mane, or as a lioness, serval, or caracal, killing poisonous snakes with her claws. "The killing of the snake Apophis by the Living Cat" was a very popular representation on tombs. The gentle housecat Bast and the fierce lioness Sekhmet were two sides of the same coin - in some depictions Bast can be seen as a cat with the mask of a lioness in her hand, and some statues of Sekhmet show a housecat sitting near her feet.

An incantation from the Book of the Dead allows the deceased person to become "a female cat of lapis lazuli," a form of Bast, able to strike down serpents and overpower any dangers on their journey through the Duat. Testimonies to Bast's protective nature can be found in the dozens of war shields with her device on them that have been unearthed in excavations. Hundreds of tiny statuettes of cats, representing Bast, have been found, worn around the neck as a protective charm. These amulets were made of alabaster, carnelian, ivory, glass, faience, bronze, quartz, bone, wood, copper, limestone, lapis lazuli, agate, hematite - every known material from gold to mud.

Cats were thought to have nine lives because the goddess Bast had nine //Ka// (souls) like the god Ra, who created nine gods of the primeval era out of his own substance. Women were often compared to cats - “She rages like Sekhmet and she is friendly like Bast” and “When a man smells of myrrh, his wife is a cat before him. When a man is suffering, his wife is a lioness before him” were common sayings. A woman who wanted children would wear an amulet of a cat (representing Bast) with kittens. The number of kittens indicated the number of children she wished to have. Being rare in Egypt, the black cat was especially sacred to Bast; Egyptian physicians used the black cat symbol in healing.

Great and joyful festivals were periodically celebrated in her main temple, located in the city of //Per-Bast// (Bubastis) - the “House of the Goddess Bast.” The Greek historian Herodotus tells us that her temple was the most beautiful in Egypt, and that Bast’s huge annual festival attracted an estimated more than 700,000 people each year. Herodotus said that “Other temples are greater and more costly, but none more pleasing to the eye than this.” During the Procession of Bast thousands of worshipers journeyed to the city on Nile barques, accompanied by drums and pipes, and everything was a pretext for pleasantry and masquerade.

Herodotus describes the festival of Bast as a “licentious affair” during which women pulled up their skirts while shaking sistrums. Lion hunts were forbidden during this time. 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. Blue glazed flasks of wine with Bast on them were popular New Years gifts, as were kittens and cat amulets. The white wine of Lower Egypt was known as the Wine of Bast. As the evening ended, there were also prayers to Bast, accompanied by music and incense.

Sacred cats lived in Bast’s temples, and were worshiped as demi-gods, the “Children of Bast.” Throughout Egypt thousands of statues and images of Bast were set up in the temples by priests so worshipers could place offerings of fish, flowers, and milk before them. Pilgrims purchased fish as gifts to feed the sacred cats. Those who had the privilege of feeding the sacred animals wore special emblems, and people they met bowed to them in respect. Prayers have been found addressed to the “good and peaceful cat,” “Lady Cat, Mistress of Heaven,” and the "beautiful and gracious cat, enduring, enduring!"

The priestesses of Bast guarded the "resting-place of the cats" - elaborate underground rock-cut galleries where temple cats were buried. Each cat was mummified and entombed in its own pottery jar, occasionally wearing the sacred //menat// necklace or head ornaments such as cobras and solar disks, to show that they were deities. Numerous tiny, protective statuettes of Bast have been found among the bandages of these cat mummies.


 * Feast and Holy Days:**

August 27th (Procession of Bast

October 6th (Bast Appears to Ra)

October 31st (Feast of Bast)

November 16th (Festival of Bast)

December 5th (Bast Goes Forth from Her City)

December 6th (Bast Guards the Two Lands)

December 14th (Bast and Sekhmet Guide Egypt)

April 15th (Festival of Bast)

May 15th (Festival of Bast)


 * Quotes from the B****ook of the Dead and other sources:**

Hymns of Bast


 * Egyptian Names Honoring This Deity:**

Ta-Khaa-en-Bast, Pashenubast, Nanesbastet, Tadibast ("She Whom Bast Gave"), Padibast ("He Whom Bast Gave"), Mery-Bast ("Beloved of Bast"), Sa-Bast ("The Son of Bast"), Ankh-bast ("May Bast Live"), Nakht-Bast-rau ("Bast is Powerful Against Them"), Sawosretbast (“Son of the Strong Lady Bast”), Bastetirdis ("Bast is She Who Gave Him/Her")


 * Outside of Egypt:**

Bast's city, Per-Bast, is mentioned in the Bible as "Pibeseth" (Ezekiel 30:17.) The annual Festival of Bast was so famous that the prophet Ezekiel warned that "The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity."

Egyptian Deities - B