Dr. Rafi Ventura from the Department of Archeology tells about a two-thousand-year-old temple dedicated to the Egyptian cat goddess in Stat that was discovered during excavations in Alexandria. The temple was built during the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty * the cult in which was dedicated to the ancient goddess Bastet, whose shape is like a cat.
Egyptologist Dr. Rafi Ventura says that the ancient Egyptians believed that Stat was a lioness, a relative of the sun god Ra, but the Hellenists who came to Egypt already brought with them foreign religious influences. Thus Bestat became a cat-goddess associated with the moon, probably under the influence of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt. The new findings verify the claim that the Ptolemies continued the ancient ritual of worshiping gods in animal form.
Dr. Ventura says that the worship of the goddess cost the lives of thousands of cats: "Bastet was known even before the Hellenists, but during their time it was customary to embalm and bury cats by the thousands as a tribute to the revered goddess. And what better gift can you give to those who are shaped like a cat than a cat? An entire industry of making cats began to develop in Egypt, and when one of the believers would come to pray, they would give him a special cat that was prepared for the sacrificial ceremony. Thus huge cemeteries were established for thousands of cats embalmed during the ritual. To this day, this is the biggest nightmare of archaeologists who come to dig in Egypt: instead of finding ancient temples, they find yet another cat cemetery."
Mohammed Abdel-Maksud, the Egyptian archaeologist who headed the expedition, told the BBC that the discovery may be the first sign of uncovering the royal quarter of Alexandria, whose ruins lie buried beneath the modern city and have fired the imagination of researchers for many years.
Dr. Ventura explains that in recent years Alexandria has become a favorite destination for archaeologists and many expeditions arrive to explore the ancient city that sank into the sea: "One of the biggest mysteries is related to the tomb of Alexander the Great, who founded the city in 334 BC. It is estimated that he was buried in the area, but his grave was never discovered and the archaeologists dream that one day they will be able to find it."
The temple, which was discovered in the city's Qom-el-Daqa neighborhood, probably belonged to Queen Bernica II, the wife of Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt in the 3rd century BC. The end of the Ptolemaic dynasty and Hellenistic control over Egypt came during the time of the famous Queen Cleopatra, the last Hellenistic queen to rule the region before it became a Roman province.
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Liair: It's strange to me to hang the name "Rei" and "Reuel" in the Egyptian language when you have the root "re" (baciri) in Hebrew meaning friend, and in Aramaic "reu" meaning desire, Aramaic is a language closer to Hebrew than Egyptian, as far as I know. It's hard for me to think of names in the Torah that sound "not heaven" (in the coat, of course). By the way, is the name "Rei" common in the Bible? To the best of my recollection, it is not found very often. One of David's heroes (and this is really far from the Exodus...) Reuel, if anything, but he is also really not common in the Bible.
First, kudos to this fine site.
I read the article and was surprised that there was no reference (building materials, artistic style, etc.) to this wonderful work of art, which for a moment I was sure was created only yesterday.
It seems to me that many contemporary sculptors are green with envy for the perfect elegant look, for the choice of the appropriate decoration colors, for the choice of material, for the proportions, and this was created over two thousand years ago!
If there is a "divine" description of a cat, it is probably the statue.
The sun god was bad and not bad (in the paragraph next to the picture). From the name ra comes perhaps the Hebrew name found in Tanach Rai, and also Reuel.