Classical Cats: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat - Softcover

Engels, Donald W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415261627 ISBN 13: 9780415261623

Verlag: Routledge, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

Today when we think of domestic cats, we recall the familiar hearthside companion and the mischievous playmate. It is difficult to comprehend that in the past the animal has played a fundamental role in the development of European and Western civilization. The human relationship to the cat has been important for most of the last four millennia.
In this beautifully illustrated book, Donald Engels charts the history and significance of the cat from ancient Egypt to the middle ages, exploring such phenomena as the worship of the Egyptian cat goddess Bastet, the infamous cat massacres and witch hunts of the thirteenth century, and the role of the cat in combating disease and starvation. Classical Cats presents a unique and entertaining view of the vicissitudes of the cat in history.

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Engels, Donald W.

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Classical Cats

The Rise and Fall of the Sacred CatBy Donald W. Engels

Routledge

Copyright © 2001 Donald W. Engels
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0415261627

Chapter One

EGYPT

I am one pure of mouth, pure of hands, One to whom, "Welcome" is said by those who see him; For I have heard the words spoken by the Donkey and the Cat, In the house of Eternity.

(From the Book of the Dead

Egypt is the ultimate homeland of all domestic cats throughout the world,and so will always have a significant place in the history of the species. Weare fortunate that a superb book has recently appeared on the topic, JaromirMalek's The Cat in Ancient Egypt, that treats all aspects of the animal. Achapter devoted to Egyptian cats may therefore seem redundant; nevertheless,it is important for a work devoted to Greek and Roman cats to includea section on Egypt, since many later characteristics of the animal in iconography,symbolism, religion, and folklore have their origins in that culture.Furthermore, it remains true that important descriptions of the Egyptian catcome from Greek authors, most notably Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, andClaudius Aelian. Finally, we will emphasize the history of the animal in thelater period of the country's history (1070 BC - 330 AD), not the earlier era.

The Libyan wildcat

The Felis sylvestris libyca, the direct ancestor of all domestic cats, is a felineopportunist that has not only survived but flourished in the drasticallychanging natural and human environments of North Africa for the last fivemillion years. Its head and body length are some 30 inches (75 cm) and itstail, some 12 inches (30 cm). Its ears are not tufted as in other small Africanwildcats and it has proportionally longer legs than a domesticated individual.As in the case of F. sylvestris sylvestris, and indeed even more so heresince the libyca is the direct ancestral form, there has probably been considerableinterbreeding between it and the catus. This has led to a gradualreduction of its modern body size and other wild characteristics. This maybe why an examination of many mummified ancient Egyptian cats showsthat they are larger than the modern libyca (Fig. 0.2). The ancient cats weremore closely related to the larger, ancestral libyca, and the modern libycaitself has declined in size through interbreeding.

    Its color is also variable depending on genetics and local environments.Generally, however, the body is a "pale sandy fawn ... with a rufous line onthe back and multiple traverse stripes of the same colour, though paler, onthe body." The markings generally recall those of the common orange andgrey striped tabbies. The tail is ringed and has a black, untufted tip, importantfeatures for the purposes of identifying it in works of art. Leopards(Panthera pardus), for example, have spotted tails and lions (Panthera leo) haveplain tails with a tufted tip.

    There are several significant Greek references to the libyca. DiodorusSiculus, who wrote a universal history that was published about 49 BC,noted that in a region of what is now central Libya, the wildcats (ailouroi)had driven out so many birds from the trees and ravines that none wouldnest there. This reference is made in the context of a military campaignundertaken by Archagathus, a general of Agathocles of Syracuse in 307 BC,against the Carthaginians. At this time, and indeed throughout the Romanera, North Africa still retained many forested regions.

    The natural historian Claudius Aelian, writing in the late second centuryAD, made many shrewd observations on cats and other animals in his DeNatura Animalium. One passage on the taming of the Egyptian libycadeserves to be repeated in full:

In Egypt, the cats, the mongeese, the crocodiles, and even the hawks show that animal nature is not entirely intractable, but that when well treated they are good at remembering kindness. They are caught by pandering to their appetites, and when this has rendered them tame, they remain thereafter perfectly gentle. They would never set upon their benefactors once they have been freed from their genetic and natural temper. Man however, a creature endowed with reason, credited with understanding, gifted with a sense of honor, supposedly capable of blushing, can become the bitter enemy of a friend for some trifling and casual reason and blurt out confidences to betray the very man who trusted him.

That this animal was indeed a libyca and not a Felis chaus or margarita isindicated by the animals tamability, a characteristic generally absent fromthe two other species.

    Aelian also notes the predation of wildcats on other animals and birds,and how these animals have evolved defensive measures to avoid it. In theseinstances, it is not certain whether the wildcats are the libyca, or anotherspecies; nevertheless, the interest in the stories lies in the preys' methods ofescape.

    A monkey, pursued by wildcats fled as fast as he could and climbed a tree.The wildcats also climbed the tree,

very swiftly, for they cling to the bark and can also climb trees. But as he was going to be caught, since he was one against many, he leapt from the trunk with his paws and seized the end of an overhanging branch high up and clung to it for a long time.

The wildcats gave up the chase, descended the tree and went after otherprey. This is also an interesting example of teamwork among wildcats intheir hunting.

    Aelian notes too that the Egyptian Goose is a fierce fighter and candefend itself from eagles, cats, and all other animals that come against it.Finally, there is the ibis, who also eats dangerous snakes and scorpionswithout harm to itself.

It makes its nest on the top of date-palms in order to escape the cats, for this animal cannot easily climb and crawl up a date-palm as it is constantly being impeded and thrown off by the protuberances on the stem.

The miu: the domesticated cat

The earliest remains of cats in domestic contexts from Egypt date fromabout 4000 to 3000 BC, but are probably of tame wildcats rather thandomesticated cats. Wildcats of various species were first represented inEgyptian art from about 1900 BC, about the time the libyca was domesticated.This is also the time that the first representations appear of what areprobably domesticated cats. One bas relief from Coptos of about 1950 BCshows a cat sitting beneath a woman's chair, a common iconographicportrayal in later works of art. By 1450 BC, the cats are a common feature inEgyptian painting of domestic scenes.

    For a few hundred years before this era, however, we find the first individualsnamed after the cat, as other individuals were named after other localanimals such as "Monkey," "Wolf," and "Crocodile." The name given to thedomestic cat by the Egyptians was the onomatopoeic "miu" or feminine"miit." So we find names such as Pa-miu, "The Tomcat," and Ta-miit, "TheCat."

    Among the factors that undermined the serenity and security...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Routledge
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0415261627
• ISBN 13: 9780415261623
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
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