Classical Cats: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat

by Engels,Donald W.

• ISBN13: 9780415261623
• ISBN10: 0415261627
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-07-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Domesticated cats were the bulwark of western society's' defense against rodents and the many diseases they carry, including typhus and the bubonic plague. Cats were alsoimportant religious symbols for the goddess Artemis of the Greeks, Diana of the Romans and the Greco-Egyptian goddess, Isis. In this beautifully illustrated book, Donald Engels traces the history and significance of the cat from ancient Egypt to the middle ages, exploring such phenomena as the worship of the Egyptian cat goddess Bastet, the infamous cat massacres and witch hunts of the eleventh century and their role in combating disease and starvation.Classical Catspresents a unique and entertaining view of cat history.

Author Biography

Donald Engels is Associate Professor of History at the University of Arkansas

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
List of abbreviations	p. xii
Introduction: The cat in history	p. 1
Evolution, biology, and behavior	p. 3
Types of domestic cat	p. 10
Mice and rats	p. 14
Egypt	p. 18
The Libyan wildcat	p. 18
The miu: the domesticated cat	p. 20
Iconography	p. 21
The goddess in the house: the sacred cats of Egypt	p. 23
Egyptian cats from the fifth century BC through the Roman era, AD 330	p. 32
Folklore	p. 41
Cats in the Near East outside Egypt	p. 45
Greece	p. 48
The earliest Greek cats: c. 6000-500 BC	p. 48
Cats of the classical and Hellenistic eras: 500-30 BC	p. 57
The distribution of the cat by the end of the first century BC	p. 80
Rome	p. 88
The earliest Italian cats: 800-500 BC	p. 88
Cats of the Roman Republic: 500-30 BC	p. 91
Cats of the Imperial era: 30 BC - AD 500	p. 95
The distribution of the cat by AD 500	p. 136
The early Middle Ages: AD 500-1000	p. 138
The Latin, Celtic, and Germanic West	p. 138
The Byzantine East	p. 148
The Muslim world	p. 150
Epilogue: Persecution and redemption	p. 152
The transformation of paganism: AD 1000-1700	p. 152
The fate of Diana and her cat	p. 156
The Black Death	p. 160
The afterlife of the sacred cat	p. 162
Renaissance and redemption	p. 170
Portrayals of cats, cheetahs, and pantherines (lions, leopards) in Greek and Roman art	p. 174
Cat remains from Greek and Roman archeological sites	p. 176
The Vox in Rama of Gregory IX	p. 183
Notes	p. 189
Bibliography	p. 216
Index	p. 223
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