The Goddess Ubasti

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Ubasti, She-of-the-City-Bast.
WB*STE
Alternate meanings: {She-Who-Brings-Forth}.
[to Whom the twenty-fifth day of February, day 055, is dedicated]

Geography/Culture: Egyptian: especially the cities P-ubasti (also called Bubastis) and Memphis She became an important national deity circa 950 BC.
Linguistic Note: from B',s-t, a city, better known by its later name P-Ubastis `Place of Bast'. The Oxford Dictionary of Etymology derives the word bastard from Old French bast, `pack saddle' + a perjorative noun formation, ultimately based on Greek bastazein "to bear". It doesn't seem unreasonable to suppose the Greek word to be etymologically connected with Her name, nor that it might have meant `born of Bast' in reference to one conceived during a festival of Ubasti.
Description: Originally a lioness Goddess of the warmth and fertilising power of the sun. Later Goddess of the Sun in its mild, beneficent and fructifying aspect; She Who, in return for reverence, bestows mental and physical health; playful Inspirer of music and dance; Protectress of pregnant women and of all humanity against the evil spirits which cause disease; She Who is sometimes involved in the journey of the dead through the underworld; the Eye of the moon.
In the Negative Confession Her name is hailed as one of the forty-two judges, followed by: "I have not eaten the heart" (ie. I have not grieved uselessly or felt remorse).
To Whom Sacred: domestic cat (dead cats were mummified in Her honour; Pharonic Egyptians have been known to murder someone for killing a cat); wine; castenets; sistrum; handclapping; semi-circular pectoral surmounted by the head of a lioness; basket; royal flame.
Festivals: two annual festivals, the greater and the lesser, on these days lion-hunting was forbidden. Attended by thousands, who arrived by barge, the Greater festival was especially riotous and licentious; it included obscene comments and gestures from women.
Iconography: She is portrayed as lioness or cat headed; in Her right hand often a sistrum, in Her left a basket, or a semi-circular pectoral surmouted by the head of a cat or lioness.
Male Associates: consort, Ptah, `ÄÄ', the smith God; son, Nefertum `All-Good'; (variant: Nefertem), or Iphthimus, `ÄÄ', who probably represented the rising sun. {These gods are also given as the consort and son of Sekhmet.}

Titles/Variants, etc:

Identified by the Greeks with Artemis, qv.
Variant: Bast.
Variant: Bastet.
Perhaps a variant: Basti, a name which appears in one of the Negative Confession papyruses, followed by "I have made none to weep".
The Greeks confused the name of the city with that of the Goddess and called both Bubastis, later Bubastos.
Her association with the domestic cat makes Her akin to Roman Felicitas, qv.
Mai-Hesa, qv Mehurt, is also worshipped at Bubastis.
Also called: Pasht, or perhaps this is a variant form.
Alternate name, or secondary form: Pekhet.
Perhaps somehow associated with Mafdet, see below.
Perhaps also called: Maldet, a cat Goddess honored during the first dynasty.
Sometimes identified with, or an aspect of, Mut, qv.
Benevolent form of, or just confounded with, Sekhmet, qv.
Some say almost indistinguishable from Tefnut, qv.

Source: Budge BD 187,512,578,584; Britannica v4 709ab; Larousse NEM 32,36-7; Lurker GSAE 32,79.

Mafdet, `Lady-of-the-Castle-of-Life'.
M1FD]T Geography/Culture: Egypt.
Description: Goddess of the judicial authority; She Who appears in scenes of the Judgement Hall; Eponym of the device used for executions; She Whose claws are like the spear of Horus; She Who wreaks terror on evil doers; Fighter of snakes.
To Whom Sacred: the mafdet (the execution device).

Titles/Variants, etc:

Perhaps variant: Maftet, a lynx Goddess Who bit off the head of the Serpent Lord of the Seventh Aat.
Perhaps variant: Maldet, see above.

Source: Budge BD 140; Ions EM 125; Lurker GSAE 78.

worked on: July 28, 1990; July 30, 1991; August 9, 1991; May 1995.