Lesley Jackson - Sekhmet & Bastet: The Feline Powers of Egypt

When they wish to symbolise spiritedness, they draw a lionit has fiery eyesits mane radiates from about it, in imitation of the sun.

Animals and the Egyptians

The natural world and especially the animals in it were very important to the Egyptians. All ancient societies had a much closer link to the natural world than we do if only through the fact that they were predominantly rural societies, but for the Egyptians, animals were an integral part of all aspects of their lives. Over 20 percent of hieroglyphs are connected with animals, and they form a significant part of Egyptian iconography.

The Egyptians were very much aware of the natural world around them. Many animals became significant because they had some feature, such as fertility or hunting skills, which was admired. This power manifested more in the specific animal than in people. Being generalists, we can do what most animals can but not as skilfully. Because of this animals were seen as a link to the various deities and emblematic of their powers. The desert was seen as the refuge of wild animals compared to the civilised cultivated land. Wild animals represented the dangerous forces of chaos which could only be pacified or controlled through sacred rites and royal intervention. Felines are one of the most iconic of Egyptian symbolic animals. Their major areas of symbolism are listed below and will be dealt with in depth in the relevant chapters.

The Family Felidae

The feline family is divided into Panthera which contains the big cats (lion, leopard and so forth) and Felinae which contains all others. Felines are the most specialist of the carnivores and are exclusively meat eaters. They are adept at prowling and stalking and their speciality is hunting at night. The vast majority of the species are solitary. Unfortunately all species are classed as vulnerable by the IUCN.

The Natural History of Lions

The lion, Panthera leo , is the largest African feline and originally there were a number of different species. They were widespread in Europe, the Near East, South West Asia and all of Africa. The Egyptians will have encountered species from North Africa (the Barbary lion) and the Near East (the Asiatic lion) as well as the African lion. Today these species are mostly eradicated with only the African lion remaining in the wild and confined to sub-Saharan Africa. Hunting, disease and loss of habitat and prey caused their decline with hunting rising to obscene levels with well-armed trophy hunters.

It is thought that lions were originally quite abundant in Egypt in the semi-desert areas to the east and west of the Nile and in Sinai. They appear to have drifted south during the Pre-dynastic Period as a result of climate change and increasing human population density and were uncommon during the Pharaonic Period. There may have been a small population still surviving in Egypt during the Ptolemaic Period but it isnt known when they became locally extinct. Tomb chapels in the Old and Middle Kingdoms frequently depict lions hunting in the desert, but that doesnt mean that they were commonly seen rather that they were a popular motif through their symbolism.