| Loved and worshipped, hated and feared, cats have been companions to humanity for thousands of years.
A carnivorous mammal in the Felidae family, the cat’s evolutionary origin is not a clear picture. The most ancient known ancestor is an animal called Miacis, which had a slender body and short legs. As for our own dear Felis domesticus, fossils resembling the modern domestic cat, a cross between Felis sylvestris and Felis lybica, date back some ten to twelve million years.
The earliest known companion cat dates to about 4,500 years ago, when a cat was buried with its master in an Egyptian tomb. Called mau, resembling the sound cats make (the word also means “to see”), cats in Egypt were often mummified and placed in tombs as members of the family. Sometimes mummified mice were placed in the tombs with the cats to ensure their sustenance in the afterlife. In 1890, at one ancient tomb complex in Egypt, 300,000 cat mummies were discovered. Cats were considered sacred to the Egyptians, who were grateful to them for ridding the granaries of mice. They showed their appreciation by deifying their feline helpers in the persona of a half cat, half woman goddess named Bast.
By the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe, cats were still tolerated as mouse-catching aids, but by the middle of the thirteenth century things began to change. Many beliefs and practices of the old pagan religions still existed at the time, and these beliefs came under intense persecution. Because the rites of the pagan goddess of fertility, Freya, include a role for the cat, cats too were accused and persecuted. The animals were seen as carriers of evil, brought about by their mysterious nature. Witches also came to be associated with cats. This belief led to authorized persecution of cats, and by the year 1400 cats were close to extinction. |