bastet

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Definition of bastet in English English dictionary

or Bast or Ubasti In Egyptian religion, a goddess worshiped first as a lioness and later as a cat. Her nature changed after the domestication of the cat 1500 BC. She had cults at Bubastis in the Nile delta and at Memphis. In the Late and Ptolemaic periods, large cemeteries of mummified cats were created at both sites, and thousands of bronze statuettes of the goddess were deposited as votive offerings. Bastet is represented as a lioness or a woman with a cat's head, usually holding a bag, a breastplate, and a sistrum (wire rattle). The Romans carried her cult to Italy

cat-headed goddess who personified joy and motherly protection She was the domestic manifestation of Sekhmet, who when angry, took the form of a lioness She gained popularity in the New Kingdom

goddess of the city of Bubastis in the delta, depicted as a cat or as a human with a cat's head; often understood as the benign counterpart of Sakhmet

A cat goddess whose cult center was Bubastis in the Delta Originally a lioness-goddess, but with time it came to represent the tame aspect of that goddess It is in Lower Egypt that she appears particularly as a cat

The cat goddess of the Late period, the goddess of fun and music