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Cat with image of Bastet on breast

Late Period–Ptolemaic Period
664–30 BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 138
Bastet was a powerful goddess of Lower Egypt, one who was protective and could bring about great prosperity. In zoomorphic form, she was represented as a cat and cats were considered sacred to her. As a cat, she is poised and alert, on guard against external forces.

Like cat-headed Bastet statuettes, these seated cat statuettes often have special adornments. This figure has inset eyes for the addition of inlay and also wears an amulet on its chest. Cat statuettes were among some of the most common zoomorphic dedications of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. Small statuettes would have been dedicated as offerings to temples or deposited in catacombs alongside cat mummies, as at the extensive catacombs at Bubastis and Saqqara. This example is somewhat large and hollow, and though it is now empty, it may once have held the remains of a small cat mummy.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Cat with image of Bastet on breast
  • Period: Late Period–Ptolemaic Period
  • Date: 664–30 BCE
  • Geography: From Egypt
  • Medium: Cupreous metal
  • Dimensions: H. 20.5 × L. 13.5 × W. 7.4 cm (5 5/16 × 8 1/16 × 2 15/16 in.)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Darius Ogden Mills, 1904
  • Object Number: 04.2.471
  • Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art

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