Egyptian Cat Statue / Sculpture of Bast / Bastet music goddess Joy & protection

Bast / Bastet

Dimensions including base - 12.5cm high x 8 x 6.4cm base

Inches - 5 high x 3.2 x 2.5 base

* Combined postage offered if you would like to add other pieces. to save on postage.



On offer here, is a fine replica statue of the goddess Bast. Coloured with a realistic slate black patina, she rests on an a polished felt lined stand. This piece really looks like it could be from a delta temple offering thousands of years ago.

Bast statues were made with a profusion of variations in style, size and form. The personality, also discernible from statue to statue. This particular example would fit the description of stoic and confident.



Mythology- Certainly a very popular figure in ancient Egypt from the earliest times when the domestic cat proved a worthy advantage to have protect the hard won food stuffs of the ancient pantry or temple storehouse. By dynasty number 2 she was already known and revered before a single pyramid was built. In the pantheon of Egyptian divinity she was both wife and a daughter of Ra the sun god. She had a son named Maahes who had the body of a man and the head of a lion wearing an atef crown. (See listing -'miniature Osiris wearing Atef crown')

Late in Egyptian history during the 22nd dynasty, Bast was elevated to supreme state god by the Pharaoh Sheshonq the1st and her sacred town of Bubastis in the delta region of the Nile became capital. Her temples across the land were enriched including Thebes which was the home of Amun. All gods co-existed but from time to time a change would shake the status quo into a new direction. Usually politically motivated.

The attributes of Bast are in many ways similar to Hathor with music, dance and all manner of lighthearted activity associated with her. She even shakes a Hathor Sistrum when depicted as a womanly figure with a feline head. She could of course be shown as just a cat without the human features. The ancient public would commission people like myself to make for them a statue or at least a votive head, to place in a temple as an offering to the goddess.