The gayer-anderson cat

(ca. 600 BC). Although other goddesses also sometimes manifested themselves as cats. Bastet is seen as the principal cat goddess. In de complex Egyptian pantheon, Osiris and Isis’ daughter formed a trinity with Hathor and the vengeful Sekhmet, both negatives to Bastet’s positive. Bastet was attributed to have the power to invoke solar and lunar eclipses. She was associated with fertility through the cycles of the moon. Celebrations in her honour were so ecstatic that she was also worshipped as the goddess of song, dance and music. The Gayer-Anderson cat was named after the British officer and collector who donated this bronze sculpture to the British Museum in 1947. The cat was probably found in Saqqara or Giza at one of the animal cemeteries and dates back to the 26th Dynasty (664-525 BC).