Bastet

Bastet is the cat-goddess of Bubastis — protectress of the home, of women and children, of joy, music, and fertility. Where her fellow lioness Sekhmet embodies the sun's raging heat, the gentler cat-form Bastet represents its warm and nurturing aspect; the two are often the fierce and the pacified faces of the same Eye of Ra.

Her festival at Bubastis was, the Greek historian Herodotus reports, the most joyous and thronged in all Egypt. The cat's place of honour in Egyptian homes, and its careful mummification, testify to the deep affection in which her sacred creature was held.