Bubast
Bubast [1]
in Egyptian mythology, is synonymous with the Grecian Artemis and the Roman Disinia, being the daughter of Osiris and Isis, who are the same with Bacchus and Ceres among the Greeks and Romans. She is also the sister of Horus, who corresponds to the Greek Apollo. Isis gave her with Horus to Buto (Greek Latoia) for protection from the evil god Typhon, the persecutor of Osiris and his generation. As to the signification of her name little is known. She appears to have been a goddess of the moon or births. But she was a highly honored goddess. In the city Bubastis she had a temple whose halls contained six immense statues, and furnished a place of worship for the innumerable throngs of people who yearly came up or down the Nile to join in the celebration of her joyous festival. The cat, the hieroglyphic symbol of the moon, was sacred to the goddess. In the city Bubastis was the place for collecting mummies of cats. These animals, after death, were brought to the temple in great solemnity, and there embalmed. (See Pasht).
