Bastet

Bastet was the ancient Egyptian goddess of cats, home, family, sexuality, fertility and pregnancy...She is associated with Mafdet, the first feline deity in Egyptian history which was believed to protect against bites of snakes and scorpions. And with Mau, the divine cat, whom Ra sent her to fight and kill his archenemy Apep, the serpent of chaos...🙂

Most commonly Apep is shown being killed by a cat

Sometimes Apep is shown being killed by a lion headed goddess

I talked about this "mythical struggle" and it's actual meaning derived from the Egyptian climate in my post "Apep"...In short: Snake represents the sun's heat and it's effect on earth (drought). It is in Leo that the sun's heat, reaches it's maximum, and the cooling of the earth begins...It is also in Leo that the Nile river reaches its highest level and the flooding reaches its maximum extent...This is all symbolically represented as slaughtering of the great snake which choked the "river on which Ra's barge sailed"...

Originally Bastet was seen as (another) ferocious lioness goddess, (another) protector of the Pharaoh and (another) goddess associated with the "Eye of Ra"...

I talked about these lioness goddesses and their actual meaning derived from the Egyptian climate in my post "Holy Cow"... 

One of the most popular & elaborate festivals in ancient Egypt, was dedicated to Bastet. 

Herodotus says that "...of the many solemn festivals held in Egypt, the most important and most popular one was that celebrated in Bubastis in honor of this goddess [Bastet]. Each year on the day of her festival, the town was said to have attracted some 700,000 visitors, both men and women (but not children), who arrived in numerous crowded ships. The women engaged in music, song, and dance on their way to the place. Great sacrifices were made and prodigious amounts of wine were drunk—more than was the case throughout the year..."

This accords well with Egyptian sources that prescribe that lioness goddesses are to be appeased with the "feasts of drunkenness".

Why? So that lioness (wild nature) turns into a cat (tamed nature)...I talked about this in my post "Holy Cow"... 

This festival, held in Bubastis, the main cult centre of the goddess, were celebrated in April and May. Why then? Let me see If we can dig something out...

Harvest time in the Nile River Valley occurred between April and June, depending on the weather...So the festival coincided with harvest...The time of lots of grain and lots of mice...

What is the best way to protect the harvested grain from mice? Well get some cats around...Domesticated cats descended from African wild cat which is also found in Egypt...

Well, knowing cats, they were probably never "domesticated"...They probably just turned up one day, chasing mice which were after grain...And decided to stay... 

To Egyptians whose life depended on grain, these cats must have looked like God Sent...Hence being deified and worshipped...And mummified after death...

Thousands of mummified cats were fund in Bastet's temples...

In ancient Egypt, the flail, an agricultural tool used for threshing, the process of separating grains from their husks, with the shepherd crook, was a symbol associated with the pharaoh. 

It is hypothesised that these two symbols represent pharaoh's ability to provide food for his people...So a mice infestation would destroy not just grain but also the authority of the Pharaoh based on his ability to provide grain for his people...Hence cat killing mice, protects not just grain, but also the Pharoh...

But why "Goddess of sexuality, fertility and pregnancy"? 

Sexuality? Have you ever seen (and heard) cats at it? 

Fertility? Pergnancy? 

In the northern Sahara (Egypt) African wild cat breeding season runs from January to March. Gestation lasts for 56-68 days, meaning that kittens are usually born between March and May...Right on time for the grain harvest and the invasion of mice...Which is why Bastet was often depicted as cat with kittens...

And right on time for the festival of the cat goddess...

Oh and by the way, they kill and eat snakes too...Hence cat (lion) killing snake...