The origins of the commonwealth of man and cat are lost in the sands of the Egyptian deserts. Among the hieroglyphic inscriptions in the pyramid-tombs of the pharaohs of the V-VI dynasties (c. 2700 BC) there are already hieroglyphs with the meaning “cat”.

In ancient Egypt, cats were especially revered; special temples were built for them. Therefore, the Egyptians had many myths about cat goddesses. The most revered of these goddesses is Bastet, the goddess of dance, music, pleasure, femininity, domestic cats and motherhood. She combined the images of two goddesses: the goddess of love and entertainment, Hathor, and the goddess of war, Sokhmet. The Tale of the Extermination of Men clearly describes how the goddess of love, Hathor, first turns into the goddess of war, Sokhmet, and then turns into a goddess who combines these two opposing images, namely Bastet. At first we are told only about the goddess Hathor. She is a young, fragile and beautiful girl. She is not created for fighting with people, but her father, the god Ra, sends her into the thick of war. To win the battle, she has to show her dark side, turn into the bloodthirsty goddess Sokhmet. Sokhmet mercilessly kills people, and, having had enough of blood, she can no longer stop, she needs more blood and suffering. But the cunning gods, having given Sokhmet red beer that looks like blood, persuade Sokhmet to turn back into the peace-loving goddess Hathor. And since, having turned out to be more bloodthirsty than everyone thought, and the goddess Hathor herself believed, she cannot again turn into a peace-loving goddess. And therefore she turns into a feminine and regal goddess, and at the same time strong and ruthless.

But the very transformation of Hathor and Sokhmet into the goddess Bastet for the Egyptian people happened more slowly than described in the myth. From the beginning, Bast was depicted with the head of a lioness. But then the cat appears as Bast’s sacred animal; starting from the New Kingdom, she herself is depicted with a cat's head. The goddess is always endowed with friendly traits; it is related to the moon and in myth becomes the eye of the moon. The "fierce" qualities of the early period are transferred to the goddess Sokhmet, who thereby becomes the negative half of Bast.

In the image of the goddess Bastet, we can recognize the goddess Hathor and the goddess Sokhmet by details. The goddess Hathor was depicted with an ancient musical instrument - the sistrum. In the drawings, Bastet is also holding this instrument. And the very image of Bastet as a woman with the head of a cat is very similar to the image of Sokhmet. Thus, the Egyptian cat goddess Bast combines the fragile, peace-loving Hathor and the merciless, cruel Sokhmet.

The Greek goddess Hecate also turns into a cat. She patronizes hunting, shepherding, horse breeding, human social activities (in court, national assembly, competitions, disputes, war), protects children and young people. She is the giver of maternal well-being, helps the birth and upbringing of children; gives travelers an easy road; helps abandoned lovers. Hecate is the goddess of witchcraft, sorceress and patroness of magic that occurs under the cover of night. People turn to her for help, resorting to mysterious special manipulations.

Roman mythology flowed directly from Greek and that is why there are many similar gods and myths in Roman and Greek mythology. One of these myths is the myth of Typhon.

It says that when Typhon, a terrible monster generated by the earth, got free and neutralized Zeus, all the gods got scared and decided to run away from Typhon. Running past Egypt, they took the form of the animals living there, so that Typhon would not find them. Bacchus became a goat, Vulcan turned into a bull, Diana turned into a cat. Again, the detail about the cat is very small, but it is of great importance.

It was no coincidence that Diana turned into a cat. A cat in Egypt associates with the goddess Bast. And the goddess Bast and the goddess Diana are very similar. Their first sign is that they are both moon goddesses. Bastet was called the moon goddess because the cat's pupil alternately contracts and expands, and this resembles the phases of the moon. Diana has a brother - Helios, who is associated with the sun. If he is the sun, then she is the moon. Then Diana is a ruthless goddess - a warrior, which is similar to one of the sides of Bastet, i.e. Sokhmet. But in the image of a formidable warrior, the image of an innocent girl is also found, because throughout all the years of her life, Diana always hid in the forest with her nymphs and never found her love.

That's why I think that the image of a cat as an image of Diana fits perfectly.

If you compare all three goddesses, it turns out that they are very similar. Look, each of them personifies girlish beauty and innocence, but at the same time, Diana is the queen of the ruthless Amazons, Freya is the leader of the formidable Valkyries, and Bastet can turn into the hard-hearted and bloodthirsty Sokhmet.

Regardless of the geographical location, the cat retained its habits. And in completely different mythologies, the cat was associated not only as an innocent goddess, but also as a cruel, merciless warrior who brings death.

Scandinavian myths say little about cats, just one line, but even this line can say a lot. (And she (Freya) rides on two cats harnessed to a chariot.) It seems to me that there is still some symbolism here. Most of the Asses, the gods of Scandinavia, travel in chariots drawn by various animals. For Thor, since he is a formidable thunder god, these are goats - proud and capricious, they defend themselves like brave warriors. For the goddess Frigg, since she is the goddess of marriage and home, these are rams - they, like Frigg, are the masters of their territory, they take care of everyone who needs their help. This means that if Freya is the goddess of fertility, love and beauty, then it will be cats, since they are very feminine and soft. But Freya is also the leader of the formidable Valkyries, who fought for valiant warriors and then carried them with them to Valhalla, which means that she is not as soft as she seems. But even a cat, if you offend it, it can show you its determination and ability to stand up for itself.

We think that the image of a cat perfectly reflects to us both the subtle, sensitive goddess of love and beauty, and the fearless leader of the Valkyries.

The ancient Slavs had two gods, Lyub and Nelyub. Lub is a red cat who guarded the marriage bed, Nelyub, in the form of a black cat, sowed disputes and discord.

But there are other beliefs. A cat in Polesie, for example, is considered a household patron: “The cat is the owner of the house.”

The cat is a companion of human infant life, often mentioned in lullabies of Ukrainian fairy tales. The cat is invited to rock the child, the cat brings sleep to the children, he is forbidden to purr so as not to wake the child. Another hypostasis is love images. Often a girl lets go of her sweetheart in the form of a cat. In her book, Basovskaya calls ancient man a “baby savage”, this is how she explains it: “Children, as you know, do not like general reasoning. The brighter the image, the deeper the material is absorbed. This is also the thinking of prehistoric man.” Therefore, we decided to take various ancient references to cats, even if they have nothing to do with mythology, since any ancient manuscripts are full of spirituality. Thus, we see that every nation has both evil spirits in the form of cats and good ones.

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