Bastet, the goddess of joy and motherhood, was probably the one that most Egyptian women prayed to the most. Most women prayed to her because they wanted a child. Bastet was shown as a cat or as a women with a cat head. (I wonder if she could purr?) Since Bastet was high on the list of goddesses to worship, if you killed a cat it was punished with death. Clearly cats were very important to the Egyptians! They protected the grain from mice and rats. Even after a house cat died, the family would go through a period of grief, just as they would when a person died! They would even shave their eyebrows to show how sad they were! Bastet also protected the Egyptians from disease and evil spirits. She sounds like a good goddess to keep happy, doesn't she?!
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