Masters Degrees (Ancient Studies)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Ancient Studies) by Author "Brand, Ilsebeth"

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    The metamorphosis of Bastet: a study of the changing iconography of the Feline Goddess Bastet
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Brand, Ilsebeth; Cornelius, Izak; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Ancient Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The feline deity Bastet is best known for her depiction as a cat, or a woman with the head of a cat. In early depictions, Bastet, however, did not appear with the head of a cat, but rather with the head of a lioness. In Bastet’s earliest depictions, she is represented as a woman with the head of a lioness, and an uraeus on her forehead, while holding a sceptre in one hand and an ankh in the other hand. This depiction of Bastet is similar to the depiction of another feline deity, Sekhmet. Around 1000 B.C.E. Bastet’s iconography changed from a lioness-headed deity to a cat-headed deity. This study aims to investigate why there was a change in the iconography of Bastet. The similarities in the iconography of Bastet in her leonine form and Sekhmet will be investigated to determine whether it is possible to identify Bastet or Sekhmet in a depiction without an accompanying inscription, and thus distinguish the two goddesses from each other. Throughout this study, Panofsky’s iconographic method as revised by Bonfiglio (2016) will be applied to all statues and amulets. The corpus of this study will consist of forty-seven statues of varying size, material, and origin, and twenty-one amulets of varying size, material, and origin, depicting either Bastet or Sekhmet. The study concludes that Bastet’s iconography changed due to her pairing with Sekhmet, and a shift in power in Dynasty 22 to Libyan pharaohs who favoured the cult of Bastet. Although her iconography changed, she did not completely lose her lioness iconography, but rather could manifest as both a lioness and a cat after her transformation.