Bast / Bastet / Sekhmet - Egyptian necklace - Cat goddess of music, dance, joy, protection

Bast / Bastet necklace

Dimensions of amulet - Height - 4.5 cm / 1 - 3/4 inches

Width - 2.6 cm / 1 inch

Depth 1.4 cm / 1/2 inch

Strand length - 48cm / 19 inches approximately. Extender chain approximately 5 cm.



Here is a necklace design for all cat lovers featuring the sacred goddess Bast or Bastet in full regalia. She wears a sun disc crown that can also be worn by Sekhmet the lioness and this feature links both of these feline Goddesses to Ra the Sun God. Often difficult to tell apart, but here the face is more cat than lion. In this representation she also wears a broad collar necklace forming an aegis design. The aegis design was a popular shape for amulets during the time of Bast's elevation to state god in the late period.

Made of Temstone which is a limestone / quartzite composition stone used for fine museum reproductions. It is not too heavy to wear and has an earthy coloration with a light polish.

Mythology- Certainly a very popular figure in ancient Egypt from the earliest times when the domestic cat proved a worthy advantage to have protect the hard won food stuffs of the ancient pantry or temple storehouse. By dynasty number 2 she was already known and revered before a single pyramid was built. In the pantheon of Egyptian divinity she was both wife and a daughter of Ra the sun god. She had a son named Maahes who had the body of a man and the head of a lion wearing an atef crown. (See listing -'miniature Osiris wearing Atef crown')

Late in Egyptian history during the 22nd dynasty, Bast was elevated to supreme state god by the Pharaoh Sheshonq the1st and her sacred town of Bubastis in the delta region of the Nile became capital. Her temples across the land were enriched including Thebes which was the home of Amun. All gods co-existed but from time to time a change would shake the status quo into a new direction. Usually politically motivated.

The attributes of Bast are in many ways similar to Hathor with music, dance and all manner of lighthearted activity associated with her. She even shakes a Hathor Sistrum when depicted as a womanly figure with a feline head. She could of course be shown as just a cat without the human features. The ancient public would commission people like myself to make for them a statue or at least a votive head, to place in a temple as an offering to the goddess.