Tidbits of Cat Mythology and Folklore
from Various Cultures
- Arensnuphis (Ari-hes-nefer, Arsnuphis , Harensnuphis)
- A benign god of Egyptian Nubia. He had a temple at Philae, where he was referred to as the companion of Isis, the chief local deity. He is
depicted in the form of a lion, or as a man wearing a plumed crown.
- Bast
- The Egyptian Goddess of the moon, cats, and sexuality, she is depicted as either a cat-headed woman or a cat. See Egyptian Cat Goddesses for more details.
- Dedun (Dedwen)
- The Egyptian/Nubian god of wealth and incense. He is associated with the southern lands. Dedun (Dedwen) is usually depicted in human
form but also as a lion.
- Freya (or Freija)
- Freya, Norse Goddess of Love and Beauty, had a chariot drawn by two huge gray cats. She is often depicted with rollicking cats.
- Grimalkin
- Gray cat of celtic lore with magical powers. Used in various fiction as a farmiliar to witches.
- Mafdet
- An Egyptian goddess in feline form, possibly that of a panther. She was noted principally as a destroyer of snakes and scorpions.
- Mahes
- The Egyptian personification of the summer heat, called 'Lord of the massacre'. He is represented as a lion or a man with a lion's head. He was
principally worshipped in the area of the Nile Delta.
- Malaysia
- Malaysians venerated the cat as a godlike creature who eased their afterlife journey from Hell to Paradise. Anyone who killed a cat was required to carry and stack as many coconut tree trunks as the cat had hairs.
- Menhit (Menchit)
- An ancient Egyptian lion-goddess, and a goddess of war. She is the wife of the god Chnum, and her son is the god Hike. The three of them
were worshipped as a triad in Latopolis (the current Esna) in Upper Egypt. Her name means "she who slaughters".
- Narasinha
- The man-lion, fourth incarnation of Vishnu.
- Para
- Ancient Finnish household spirits who appear in the shape of a cat, snake, hare, or frog. They enlarge to amount of food and money with what they stole elsewhere.
- Ra
- The Egyptian Sun God, Ra, changed himself into a cat to do battle with the serpent-like darkness.
- Raiju
- A Japanese demon whose name means "thunder animal". It is a demon of lightning in the shape of a cat, badger or weasel. During thunderstorms it becomes extremely agitated and leaps from tree to tree. If a tree shows the marks of lightning, people say that Raiju's claws have scratched it open.
- Sakhmet, Sekhmet
- Egyptian lion-headed Goddess of war.See Egyptian page.
- Siam
- Siamese god-kings employed a cat for their souls to pass into upon death. It was believed that the soul rested for the cat's natural life span before entering Paradise.
- Singa
- A mythical dragon of the Indonesian Batak people who live in the mountains in northern Sumatra. Singa appears in the shape of a lion and
shows many similarities with the beneficent Hindu Nagas.
- Tjilpa
- The ancestral totemic cat-men of Aboriginal Australia.
- Tsun-Kyanske
- This Burmese Goddess of the Transmutation of Souls, was attended by priests and their cats, animals were believed to communicate directly with the goddess.
