Why Did Ancient Egyptians Love Cats So Much?

A snake, not something you want to find curled up in your favourite sandal

Perhaps a better question is, why did the Ancient Egyptians hate snakes, scorpions, and rats so much? Well, if you imagine finding a snake slithering in your socks, a scorpion hanging out in your toilet bowl, or a rat scampering through your underpants drawer, then you’ll have your answer. Ancient Egypt was rife with these deadly critters, so what better way to get rid of them, than by keeping a crack-squad of cats to hunt down and kill these multitudes of pests?

That’s exactly what the Ancient Egyptians did, ensuring they had a clowder of cats to take care of pest-hunting business (bonus fun fact: a ‘clowder’ is the name for a group of cats. Who knew right? Well, Google fortunately).

The goddess Mafdet. Image courtesy Eternal Space.

So enamoured were the Egyptians with cats, that some of their gods had cat-like forms – they looked like cats! Mafdet was a cheetah-headed goddess that protected people from pests and vermin, just like real cats did. Though, just like cats, don’t make the mistake of thinking Mafdet was a cute-cuddly furball. Legends say that Mafdet would tear out the hearts of evil-doers and deliver them directly to the toes of the Pharaoh, just like cats must have done with those bits of rat, scorpion, and snake, they ripped off for their owners. We presume they did this with their claws, though not necessarily. In some mortuary texts, cats are shown wielding daggers to chop up snakes – surely that’s just artistic licence, right? RIGHT?!

So, in love were the Egyptians with their cats that they held a yearly festival in their honour at a city called Bubastis. Here hundreds of thousands of people – and, we hope, their cats – worshiped at the temple of Bast, one of the most popular holy places in all Ancient Egypt! People took their cat love seriously, to hurt a cat was punishable by death.

But cat killing wasn’t much of a thing, as cats were so beloved by their owners that they would be mummified after death, presumably so their owners could be reunited with their feline pal in the afterlife. Ten of thousands of mummified cats have been found stashed in temples, tombs, and graves all over Ancient Egypt – proving how beloved those moggies truly were. It is said that after their cat died their distraught owners would shave off their eyebrows and mourn until they regrew. Which is a risky plan, as sometimes those eyebrows never grown back. Just ask my mate Dave.

The sarcophagus of Crown Prince Thutmose's cat. Image courtesy Larazoni.

If that wasn’t enough proof of the Ancient Egyptians super cat love, then there’s the fact that the walls of temples and tombs were covered in cat images, carefully carved into their surfaces. Jewellery as well came with a great deal of moggy branding. Necklaces were covered in cats, like Superdry coats are covered in zips. The cats weren’t shown doing embarrassing stuff either, like licking their own bums, instead they were shown doing awesome stuff – like chasing birds for their owners.

All this cat fandom had a little to do with self-preservation too. The Ancient Egyptians believed that gods could take the form of cats – so you’d better not boot Tiddles out of your way, otherwise you might find Mafdet will be sharpening her claws and coming after you!

It's our workshop!