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Protective
Bastet
bꜣsttHomeProtectionCatsFertility
How it changed
Began as a lioness goddess close to Sekhmet and softened into a cat over centuries. The change is visible in the art: her earliest forms are fierce, her later ones domestic. Herodotus describes her festival as the largest and most exuberant in Egypt.
Cult centre
Bubastis
Best attested
Second Dynasty onward
Family
Daughter of Ra.
Epithets
- “Lady of Bubastis”
How to recognise the figure
A cat, or a cat-headed woman, often with kittens and a sistrum.
Carries
Worshipped at
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