What is Bast?
[[File:Bastet.svg|thumb|Bastet]] {{Hiero|Bast|<hiero>W1-t-B1</hiero>|align=left|era=egypt}} '''Bastet''' was the ancient [[Religion of Ancient Egypt|Egyptian goddess]] of protection and [[cat]]s. She was the warrior daughter and defender of [[Ra]], who sent her to fight his archenemy [[Apep]]. As protectress, she was seen as defender of the [[pharaoh]], after [[Sekhet]], the lioness, and consequently of the chief god [[Ra]]. Bast is also known as '''Bastet''', '''Ubasti''', and '''Pasch'''. She was worshipped at least since the Second Dynasty in Ancient Egypt. The centre of her cult was in [[Per-Bast]] (''Bubastis'' in Greek), which was named after her. Originally she was seen as the protector goddess of [[Lower Egypt]] and her image was that of a fierce lion. The name Bast means '(female) devourer'. In later times Bast became the goddess of protection and blessing and was the protectress of women, children and domestic cats. She was the goddess of sunrise, music, dance and pleasure as well as family, fertility and birth. When [[Anubis]] became the god of embalming, Bast, as goddess of ointment, was connected to him (sometimes viewed as his wife and sometimes as his mother) until Anubis became [[Nephthys]]' son. This gentler characteristic, of Bast as goddess of [[perfume]]s, following Lower Egypt's loss in the wars between Upper and Lower Egypt, meant that in the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt]] she became seen as a [[domestic cat]] and not as a lioness. Owing to associations with the maternal nature of cats, Bast was also regarded as a good mother and she was commonly depicted with [[kitten]]s. Sometimes Egyptian women who wanted children wore an amulet showing the goddess with kittens; the number of kittens on the amulet would correspond to how many children the woman wanted to have. == Worship == Bastet (Bast) was the most honored feline deity in Ancient Egypt. The cult of Bastet started around the town of Bubastis, located in the Eastern Delta in Lower Egypt (around 3,200 B.C.), and was an important town