| 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. |
