Cat on base inscribed for Bastet and an offerer

Unknown

664–30 B.C. · Cupreous metal · Egyptian Art

Bastet was a powerful goddess of Lower Egypt, one who was protective and could bring about great prosperity. In zoomorphic form, she was represented as a cat and cats were considered sacred to her. This cat sits on a menat-shaped base in a recumbant pose, with its tail wrapped along its right side. It is poised and alert, on guard against external forces. An inscription encircles the base. Cat statuettes were among some of the most common zoomorphic dedications of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. Small statuettes like this one would have been dedicated as offerings to temples or deposited in catacombs alongside cat mummies, as at the extensive catacombs at Bubastis and Saqqara. Sometimes larger hollow examples held a cat mummy inside.

Artist

Unknown

Date

664–30 B.C.

Medium

Cupreous metal

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Gift of Darius Ogden Mills, 1904