Arguably, the ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet is the most famous feline deity. The writers of Marvel’s Black Panther stories transformed her into a panther god with a cult that plays a key role in the title character’s culture. When one examines her Kemetic roots along with her syncretism with the fictional version in both the comics and the 2018 film, several fascinating facts come to light.
Bastet: A Feared and Revered Feline Protector
This graceful, elegant cat goddess was more than an excuse to allow feline familiars to populate a household. The Ancient History Encyclopedia reveals that she was called several different names over the course of Egyptian history:
- B’sst
- Ubaste
- Bast
- Bastet
Scholars think that Ubaste may translate to “She of the Ointment Jar,” which could possibly explain her later association with perfume. Notably, archeologists have unearthed several cat-decorated perfume jars from Egypt. One of these is currently on display at The Met in New York City.
The Ancient History Encyclopedia also discloses that Bastet was the daughter of Ra, a powerful sun god whose worship gained significant status thanks to several pharaohs claiming to be his earthly incarnations. Depictions of Bastet ranged from aggressive and deadly to helpful and nurturing. She and her sister, the lioness deity Sekhmet, were defenders of the innocent and avenged those who were wrong. Early nicknames for Bastet included “The Lady of the Dead” and “The Lady of Slaughter.”
The Encyclopedia Britannica delineates that the softening of Bastet’s image over time may correspond to the domestication of cats, estimated to have occurred around 1500 B.C.E. Regardless, she did not decline in importance. Since women’s social standing in Egypt was nearly equal to that of men, the Ancient History Encyclopedia speculates that this helped secure Bastet’s high status in Kemetic religion. It also didn’t hurt that household felines were especially valued for their pest-control abilities along with providing companionship to the humans with whom they shared homes.
Bast: A Powerful Wakandan Deity
Most citizens of Wakanda, the fictional African kingdom from where Marvel’s Black Panther originates, revere the feline deity Bast. Assuming multiple genders and appearances, Bast is a member of the Ennead, a race of formidable extradimensional humanoids who hail from a pocket alternate reality known as Heliopolis. According to the Marvel Database, the Ennead collectively created ancient Egyptian society. Some, including Bast, became the guardians and gods of Wakanda. Bast also appeared as a black panther goddess and helped Bashenga, the first Black Panther, discover the radioactively mutated heart-shaped herb that grants whoever ingests it superhuman powers.
The visual parallels between Marvel’s Bast and the ancient Egyptian Bastet are obvious, but Marvel’s writers incorporated Bast with other Kemetic cultural elements in many stories. For example, a Fantastic Four issue titled “City of the Dead” depicts T’Challa, the eponymous protagonist of the 2018 film, encountering Bast in Wakanda’s Necropolis. It’s a place where former Black Panthers live out eternity after they die, but the 2018 film suggests that all righteous Wakandan ancestors reside there in an eternal paradise. Some African cultures’ mythologies include blessed realms in which their ancestors and honored dead live on, but it’s also notable that Bastet also served as a helper to departed souls in the Egyptian afterlife.
Feline Worship in Fiction and Reality
All over the world, humans have worshipped either cats or cat-like deities for centuries. While Bastet is the most prominent, the Mayan people also revered several jaguar gods and goddesses and the Indonesian Bali culture honors the divine lion king Barong. Similarly, Bastet’s appearance in the Marvel universe as a powerful panther deity is a testament to humans seeking supernatural meaning in the natural world.