Tea at Trianon: Cats in Egyptian Culture

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Cats in Egyptian Culture

From My Modern Met:

Lions and African wildcats appear in the earliest Egyptian art. As of the mid-third millennium BCE, cats in collars were depicted in tombs. These paintings suggested pharaohs kept wildcats as pets. Pharaohs and nobles would long continue to be associated with these noble beasts. By the 20th century BCE, a breed of domestic cat was found depicted in tombs. Around 1350 BCE, Prince Thutmose of the royal house mummified his beloved pet cat and buried it in an engraved stone coffin. While this luxurious burial is an early example of cat mummification, the tradition would continue until late Roman Egypt.
Contrary to popular belief, the ancient Egyptians did not worship cats. Rather, they revered them as sacred to deities. Cats were respected for being fierce hunters and protectors of their homes and young. They could be sweet at times, warrior-like at others. While there is clear evidence that many Egyptians adored their family pets, these pets likely were useful, too, as mousers and snake-hunters. These household cats often wore collars as pets do today. (Read more.)