Ancient Egyptians shaved their eyebrows when their cats died.

World History

T hough ancient Egyptians didn't literally worship cats, they did see them and other animals as symbols of the gods' divine qualities. They admired felines as much for their hunting prowess as they did for the way they nurtured their young, and both aspects factored into their reverence. Their devotion was so fierce, in fact, that they shaved their eyebrows when their own cats died — the beginning of a mourning period that didn't end until their eyebrows grew back. Keeping a cat in one's home was considered a way of both attracting good fortune and warding off evil spirits, and a cat's passing was considered a significant loss — many Egyptians even mummified them.

This royal treatment began not with commoners but with the actual royalty, who let their cats eat from their plates in addition to adorning them in gold jewelry. Perhaps the most important feline deity was Bastet, a goddess of the home, fertility, childbirth, and, yes, cats themselves. Bastet was first depicted as a lioness before later being portrayed as a small domestic cat. Sekhmet, a lioness goddess of war who defended the sun god Ra from his enemies, represented the other half of cats' most revered qualities. Statues of these "divine felines" remain to this day in museum collections.

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By the Numbers

Estimated number of animals mummified in ancient Egypt

70 million

Length (in years) of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, the longest

250

Did you know?

Many ancient Egyptians didn't name their cats.

Despite their love of cats, evidence suggests that many ancient Egyptians didn't give their cats unique names, but rather referred to all kitties by the Egyptian word for "cat": "miu," an onomatopoeic reference meaning "he or she who mews." There are notable historical exceptions, of course: The first known cat with a name was Nedjem, which means "sweet" or "pleasant." Said feline belonged to the high priest Puimre, who lived during the reign of Thutmose III. People were even named after cats in some cases: The Egyptian name Ta-mitt comes from the word for female cat, and Pa-mitt comes from the word for tomcat.