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Why Did the Ancient Egyptians Worship Cats?
The ancient Egyptians respected and revered many animals and mythical beings, but cats held a particularly special place in their daily life and religious imagination. So how did that happen?
Imagine living in ancient Egypt, a world filled with tiny but dangerous creatures. Threats seemed to lurk everywhere: snakes hid inside clay jars, rats spoiled precious grain stores, and venomous scorpions crawled beneath children’s cradles. In ancient Egypt, there was one creature above all others that could help protect people from these dangers — the cat.
The ancient Egyptians were devoted to cats and revered them for two main reasons. First, cats helped protect agricultural stores from rodents that fed on harvested grain. Egyptian society was overwhelmingly agrarian, and safeguarding crops from pests was a constant challenge. In an age when food shortages could mean disaster, cats could quite literally help save people from hunger.
For a long time, many people believed that ancient Egypt was the original homeland of cat domestication. The Egyptians certainly noticed that wild cats were skilled hunters of rodents. They began attracting them to their homes by…
