Introduction
Bastet is the cat goddess of the home, fertility, and protection, daughter of Ra, whose gentler domestic character offers a counterpoint to the ferocity of Sekhmet, another daughter and Eye of Ra.
Family
- Father: Ra
- Siblings: Hathor, Ma'at, Sekhmet
The Gentler Eye
Originally depicted with a lioness's head in earlier periods, closer to Sekhmet's own fierce imagery, Bastet's iconography softened over time into the familiar domestic cat form for which she remains best known, becoming especially popular in the Late Period, when her cult center at Bubastis flourished and vast numbers of mummified cats were dedicated to her.
Ancient Egyptian religion spanned three millennia and many regional cult centers, so parentage, roles and even gender pairings for a given deity often differ between the Heliopolitan, Hermopolitan, Memphite and Theban theological systems; the account above follows the most widely attested classical version.