Albert Schweitzer

See also: Bast

Bastet is a goddess of the Egyptian Mythologie. The name that the Egyptians gave him was more probably Bast . Confusion comes owing to the fact that a hiéroglyphe was often added after the word to specify the pronunciation of the final sound. The first Egyptologists had not interpreted it as such, leading to the transliteration in Bastet.

Girl of the god sun Re, it is however sometimes regarded as the girl of Amon. Bastet is one of the most discrete goddesses of the the Egyptian Pantheon, and is never represented, if not in its temple with Bubastis, which, according to Hérodote, would have been, at its time, the most beautiful temple of the country, with the most faithful. One can still visit the remainders of the temple which was dedicated to him to Such Basta (Bubastis in Greek, and Per Bast as an Egyptian, the house of Bastet ).

Initially local divinity of the town of Bubastis, the worship of Bastet is propagated gradually with all the country. Venerated as of, under the reign of Pépi {{II}}, one imagines it like during Hathor of Dendérah.

A worship of Bastet settles with the Low Time with Saqqarah not far from the funerary complex of Téti, whose enthusiasm is attested by the innumerable ex-votos dedicated to the goddess she-cat on the spot found as with the necropoles of very close animals which still shelter thousands of cat-like mummies testimonys of the ancient excessively pious people.

Bastet is a goddess with double face. In its shape of she-cat or goddess with nigger head, it is the protective benevolent goddess of humanity, also goddess musician of the joy and goddess of the childbirth. It thus sometimes is represented smiling. It is also famous for its terrible angers. On the other hand, under the features of a goddess with head of lioness, it is identified then with the frightening goddess of the war, Sekhmet. The appearance of Bastet evokes that of other gods; it has the hips of Horus, the belly of Osiris and the nose of Thot, which makes of it a multiple and singular character.

The tempting goddess with head nigger, crowned, protective of the women and the children, holds the magic capacity which stimulates the love and “carnal energy”. An asset which was worth to him a very particular worship on behalf of the Égyptiens.

Bastet is a goddess with the antagonistic characters, soft and cruel, it is as attracting as dangerous. Bastet is also the symbol of femininity, the protective one of the hearth and the goddess of maternity. But always in it, sommeille the cat-like one, and thus Bastet fights against the snake Apophis charged to thwart the race of the solar star. It often carries a Sistre in its hand.

According to certain traditions, Bastet would be the wife of Atoum and it would have given birth to the lion Miysis (Mihos in Greek). According to a tomb of the Valley of the queens where it carries knives to protect the son from the king, it also would have given birth to and nursed Pharaon of which it would be the protective goddess.

The annual festivals of the town of Bubastis, in honor of the Bastet goddess, were events very awaited in Egypt. Hérodote makes of it a colourful description which one held a long time for an invention of the historian, until modern archeologists discover of the evidence of the existence of these memorable festivals. Towards the Low Time, the festival of Bastet was one of most popular Egyptian calendar. On this occasion, the city of Bubastis (to 80 km in the North-East of the Cairo) could be joined only by the waterways.

Hérodote tells: They arrive in boat, men and women together, in great number on each boat; in way, women make music with clappers, and certain men play of the flute, while the others sing and strike in their hands. When they meet a city along the river, they draw the boat with ground, and certain women continue their play, as I mentioned above, while others launch insults to the women of the place and start dances by agitating their dresses in all directions. On their arrival, they celebrate the festival by sacrifices and one consumes on this occasion more wine than during the remainder of the année.

Hérodote speaks about at least: 700000 people “except the children” pressing itself to honor the occupying one with the red granite temple, the Bastet goddess. Hérodote still: The trespassed cats are brought to Boubastis where they are embaumés and buried in ballot boxes sacrées.

Thousands of these creatures were buried in underground galleries of the city and surroundings so that they can carry the message of their Master to the kingdom of the gods. The importance of the festival of Bastet thus described appeared absolutely incredible to the Egyptologists of the end of the 19th century, but, in 1887, an archeologist, Henri Edouard Naville, put at the day the site and showed that Hérodote had not lied. He excavated the sites of the principal temple of Boubastis, the catacombres with the mummies of cats and a certain number of Pharaonic vaults, proving that this considerable religious event attracted all the layers of the Egyptian company.

Bastet is comparable with the Greek goddess Artémis.

Random links: