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Mythos Atlas

Egyptian Pantheon

Bastet

Also known as Bast, Ubasti, Lady of Dread

Illustration of Bastet, a deity of the Egyptian Pantheon
Illustrative imageIllustration of Bastet. Generated with an AI image model; not a historical artifact. About our images
  • protection
  • cats
  • joy
  • dance
  • music
  • fertility

Goddess of home, fertility, and protection. Originally a fierce lioness warrior goddess, she later became gentler as a cat goddess.

About Bastet

Lady of the East

Bastet is the feline goddess of the home, protection, pleasure, and good health. In the earliest periods, she was depicted as a fierce lioness warrior deity, but over time she transformed into the gentler domestic cat goddess beloved throughout Egypt.

The Duality of the Cat

Bastet embodies the dual nature of the cat: nurturing and protective of the home, yet fierce against threats. She guards women during childbirth, protects children, and wards off evil spirits and disease. As a war goddess, she defended the pharaoh and accompanied him into battle.

Goddess of Pleasure and Perfume

Bastet presided over joy, music, dance, and festivities. Her name may derive from bas, meaning "ointment jar," connecting her to perfumes and cosmetics. Her annual festival at Bubastis was one of the largest and most joyous in Egypt, with music, dancing, and wine.

Sacred Cats and Cult Center

Cats were sacred to Bastet and killing one, even accidentally, was punishable by death. Thousands of mummified cats have been found at her cult center of Bubastis (Per-Bast) in the Nile Delta. Families would shave their eyebrows in mourning when a beloved cat died.

Origin story

Bastet was originally a lioness goddess of war, daughter of the sun god Ra. In her fierce form, she was nearly identical to Sekhmet, representing the destructive power of the sun. Over millennia, as domestic cats became cherished in Egyptian households for protecting grain stores from vermin, Bastet's image softened. She became associated with the protective, nurturing aspects of the sun rather than its scorching heat. By the Late Period, she was depicted primarily as a graceful cat or a woman with a cat's head, embodying domesticity and maternal care.

Across traditions

Parallel figures

Figures who play a role like Bastet's in other traditions.

Worship and cult

Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Bastet

Cat, perfume, and a noisy river pilgrimage. Herodotus says boats, music, and a larger crowd than any other Egyptian feast. Later she is the gentle counterpart to Sekhmet; both are the same solar eye in different moods.

Sacred sites

  • Temple of Bastet at Bubastis (Per-Bastet)

Festivals

  • Bubastis festival described by Herodotus

In the museums

Bastet in art

Real objects in public collections, released into the public domain by the museums that hold them. Dates refer to when each object was made. Objects made within the tradition come first, later depictions after.

  • Bronze figure of the cat goddess Bastet with inlaid decoration. Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (opens the museum record)

    Ancient object

    Bastet (opens the museum record)

    Egyptian, Late Period–Ptolemaic Period · 664–30 BCE · Leaded bronze, precious metal and black bronze inlays

    A bronze figure of Bastet inlaid with precious metal, catalogued by the museum under her name. Cat-headed images of Bastet were popular votive and household objects associating her with protection and fertility.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 34.6.1 · Public Domain (museum record)

  • Cupreous metal statuette of the cat goddess Bastet. Photograph: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (opens the museum record)

    Ancient object

    Bastet (opens the museum record)

    Egyptian, Late Period–Ptolemaic Period · 664–30 BCE · Cupreous metal

    A cast metal figure of Bastet, one of many produced in the Late and Ptolemaic Periods when her cult at Bubastis drew large numbers of pilgrims and votive offerings.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art · 57.101 · Public Domain (museum record)

Sources and further reading

Source notes

These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.

  • Herodotus, Histories 2.60 (paraphrase of the Bubastis pilgrimage)

    Catalog date: c. 440 BCE

About this entry

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. . Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.

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Genealogy

Family tree

Bastet's parents, consorts, children and rivals, as recorded in the atlas.

Open the full tree