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History & Mythology of Cats!
The exact history of human interaction with cats is still somewhat vague. The
earliest written records of the attempt to domesticate cats date to ancient
Egypt circa 4000 BC, where cats were employed to keep mice and rats away from
grain stores. However, a gravesite discovered in 1983 in Shillourokambos,
Cyprus, dating to 7500 BC, contains the skeletons of a ceremonially buried human
and a type of young cat. Since cats are not native to Cyprus, this suggests that
cats were domesticated (or just tamed) at least this early. The cat found in the
Cyprus grave was more similar to the ancestral wildcat species than to modern
housecats. [11][12]. Statues from Anatolia created around 6000 BC have also been
found depicting woman playing with domesticated cats, which implies that cats
were domesticated there around the same time period.
A bronze mask used in the burial of a cat mummy in Ancient Egypt.Ancient
Egyptians regarded cats as embodiments of the goddess Bast, also known as Bastet
(emphasising the female -t suffix) or Thet. The penalty for killing a cat was
death, and when a cat died it was sometimes mummified in the same way as a
human. Recently, deep scans of several mummified felines indicated they had
suffered broken necks before mummification. It is unclear why, but researchers
theorize that some cats may have been sacrificed to honor Bast.
Vikings used cats as rat-catchers and companions. and are sometimes credited
with the domestication of the Norwegian Forest Cat, or Skogkatt. In Viking
mythology, Freya, the Viking goddess of love, fertility and war, was strongly
associated with cats. Freya's chariot was driven by two large cats, Bygul and
Trygul; and kittens were often given in her name to brides, linking together
Freya's influence over both cats and romance.
In the Middle Ages, cats were often thought to be witches' familiars, and during
festivities were sometimes burnt alive or thrown off tall buildings. Some
historians theorize that widespread superstition-induced enmity towards cats
accelerated the Black Death (generally held to have been an outbreak of Bubonic
Plague). The speed with which the Black Death spread through 14th century Europe
led many to believe that the Devil was responsible for the disease. This belief
led the Pope to declare that cats, which were known to roam freely, were in
league with the devil. Because of the declaration, a great many cats were killed
in Europe. The sudden decrease in the cat population led to a massive increase
in the number of rats, the number of plague-carrying fleas that fed upon them,
and the number of human plague victims, which is what the declaration had aimed
to reduce (but cats were also a carriers of fleas of the type responsible for
spreading the black plague).
Today some people still believe that black cats are unlucky, or that it is
unlucky if a black cat crosses one's path, while others believe that black cats
are lucky.
Cats are also still to this day associated with witchcraft. Black cats in
particular are associated with Halloween festivities (because of this, many cat
rescue groups will not adopt out black cats during the month of October).
Wiccans and other practitioners of Neopaganism believe that cats are
good-natured animals that are attuned to the spirit world and can sense evil
spirits.
In Asia, the cat is one of the animals in the 12-year cycle of the Vietnamese
zodiac. It does not, however, appear in the Chinese zodiac. Legend holds that
the rat, who invited the animals to the Jade Emperor's Palace to be chosen for
the zodiac, forgot to invite the cat, so the cat declared the rat its natural
enemy.
The cat is highly respected in Islam, because of tales that the Prophet Mohammed
was a cat lover. One story tells of a cat that saved Mohammed from being bitten
by a deadly snake. In another, when Mohammed was called to prayer, he found his
cat Muezza asleep on the sleeve of his robe; the Prophet cut off the sleeve
rather than disturb his cat.
The source of this article is
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this
article is licensed under the
GFDL
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