Who knows why cats were used as the Holy Spirit in ancient Egypt?

The cat was a sacred animal in ancient Egypt, and legend has it that at night, the light of life emitted by the sun was hidden in the cat's eyes. Every night, the sun god is accompanied by the ghost of the deceased, passing through the underworld, and the viper apep prevents the sun god from drinking the water under the boat, but the cat will appear and cut off the head of the apep, and the ghost of the dead will make a "meow" sound to cheer the cat. The Egyptians were thus able to see the light of day, and in this legend, the cat symbolized the savior, and the snake represented death and disease.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped cats so much that anyone who hurt them could be sentenced to death. The Egyptians pampered cats, revered them as gods, and regarded cats as sacred spirits. In the minds of the Egyptians, the cat is the symbol of the goddess on earth, the mascot of luck, and the revered national animal.

The ancient Egyptians were very afraid of the night, and they believed that cats could see things in the night. The ancient Egyptians called cats "mau", which means "to see". The relationship between the opening and closing of the pupils of the cat and the sun and the moon.

Death is considered to be the ultimate darkness. Therefore, cats are believed to have the strength to conquer death. Every year, the Nile floods destroy crops, but the sun brings abundant grain growth.

The power of the sun and the worship of the sun god became to the cat.

Speaking of cats, everyone will think that this is a group of very cute, cold, and silly creatures, because they are very cute between their gestures, many pet lovers will choose cats as their pets. Cats in ancient China is actually not a popular animal, people think that cats are psychic, there are cats in contact with things are very unlucky, in Chinese myths and legends also say that cats if they meet the dead person, the dead person will immediately cheat the corpse, hurt people everywhere. Our lovely cats have always had a thought that they want to rule the earth, and the reason why they have this idea may come from ancient Egypt, because in ancient Egypt, our cats were people's gods, accepting people's worship and worship.

Let me take you through it now.

Historically, the ancient Egyptians first domesticated cats as domestic pets, the purpose of the Egyptians to raise cats, one is to protect the grain from being destroyed by mice, and the other is for religious reasons, cats have a high status as the object of religious worship of the ancient Egyptians, and the god of cats is the god Besti, she is the daughter of the god Rui, with a cat head, protecting the cats that were highly respected in ancient Egypt.

Like Hatol, Besti was the daughter of Ra and appeared as early as the Second Dynasty (2890-2686 BC). Originally a local deity of the Nilo Delta, Besti only later developed into an influential deity throughout Egypt.

Originally, Besti was a part of the body of the sun god Ra, the eye of Ra, known as the goddess of the sunrise, the goddess of the East, the divine all-seeing eye, and the patron deity of the pharaohs, whose symbolic animals were usually lions and sometimes wild cats. As Ra's eye, Besti is both a protector and an avenger. Besty's eyes are the flames of the sun, burning the bodies of those who did not pass the judgment in Hades.

Besty also walks through the sky with Ra on a solar boat to protect Ra. The poisonous snake Apep was the main enemy of the god Ra at night, and it is said that in order to protect Ra, the priests at first burned the candle snake and wrote Ra's name in green ink to protect him, but it did not work at all. In the end, it was Besti, who had all-seeing eyes, who transformed into a cat at night and killed Apep to protect Ra for the day.

As a fierce goddess, Besti is sometimes fused with Hatol, Wadjet (the goddess of protection of Lower Egypt), and Mut (the mother goddess), and is known as Mutt-Vajet-Besti. Besti is also believed to be a sister god to the goddess Sekhmet Sekhmet. Sekhmet was the goddess of war in Upper Egypt and symbolized animals, although sometimes cats were also cats, but usually lions, representing ferocity.

One gentle and the other fierce, the combination of the two represents the average of the forces of nature.

Legend has it that cats are the patron saints of the spirit world, and you should know it after seeing Tomb Raider.

Because cats are very spiritual creatures.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Egypt? Ancient pyramids, Egyptian paintings, or sphinxes? Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is cats. The cat is a special existence for the Egyptians, and occupies a very special place in the hearts of the Egyptians.

Have it? The Grim Reaper is Anubis, the wolf's head.

However, cats can be used for sacrifices.

The male cat is associated with the god Ra in the sacrifice, and the kitten is specially raised for the sacrifice and worship.

The ancient Egyptians regarded cats as sacred objects, and the crime of injuring and killing cats was even more serious than that of injuring and killing people. Cats are sacrosanct. The Abyssinian cat, this slender, lean-looking cat, grew freely in the land of ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egypt was a land of many gods, and they not only worshipped many gods, but also associated the creatures of the world with the gods in their minds: Tut, the god of the moon, had the head of an ibis, Horus, the god of the sun, took the form of a falcon or baboon, and Sobek had the head of a crocodile, the body of a lion, and the tail of a hippo. Even the person in charge of making the mummy is Anubis with a jackal's head.

Of all the animal gods, the most important is Bastas, the daughter of the sun god who guards the city. Her incarnation is a cat, so the most common image she appears in the mural is a cat-headed woman - which also reflects another way most people think of cats: it has a woman-like appearance and personality.

Since she was the embodiment of the goddess and the favorite of the pharaohs, and the father of the cat goddess was the sun god who led to eternal life, the attitude of the Egyptians towards cats can almost be described as "respectful". Not only are cats cared for when they are alive, but their owners also mourn them with tears and tears when they die, and finally pray for eternal life for the cats: they are mummified.

The process of making a cat mummy is no less than that of making it for a prince and nobleman. The materials used were very expensive at the time, and it was important to mummify the cats and still maintain their agile and agile form. The finished cat mummy will be placed in a luxurious small coffin and ceremoniously sent to the temple of the goddess of Istas for interment.

Then the owner has to shave off his eyebrows and mourn for the cat's funeral.

More cats were mummified and buried with their owners. Most of these cats are black and are called the "patron saints of the grave". This is probably because black cats' eyes are especially sharp at night.

Therefore, ancient Egyptian women drew their eyes and eyebrows in the shape of cat's eyes, which was called "cat-style eyeliner".

The Egyptians were the first to domesticate wild cats into domestic cats.

Egyptian cats are considered to be the first domestic cats to appear in the world, and the ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats. As early as more than 4,000 years ago, the murals of some temples in ancient Egypt were painted with cat patterns. In the ancient Egyptians' concept, cats were the embodiment of gods, because cat's eyes could shine in the dark, so they believed that cat's eyes could store sunlight, and this sunlight could dispel dark spirits, so cats were regarded as sacred animals.

It is said that women in ancient Egypt who loved beauty also tried their best to transfer the divine light emitted by cat's eyes to their eyes, so they invented a set of "cat's eye eyebrow drawing method" so that their eyes could become bright and full of beauty. In ancient Egyptian mythology, cats were incarnations of the patron goddess Baschet. The original image of Bastchet was the head of a feral cat and the body of a woman, and over time this image became a family pet cat.

After the conversion, Baschet became more popular, with temples built and regular ceremonies and events praising the exploits of Lady Baschet and the benefits she brought to all living beings. As a result, the love of cats has become more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The ancient Egyptians not only regarded the living cat as a sacred object, worshipped it, and carefully buried the dead cat, and some people also took some small mice or wool balls as the cat's funeral gifts, and treated the pet as "life, glory and death".

In the 5th century B.C., the famous Greek historian Herodotus, after visiting Egypt, wrote in his later writings: "If a cat dies, the owner will shave his eyebrows and mourn; If a fire breaks out in someone's house, the owner usually rescues the family cat first. ”