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| Goddess Bastet holding a sistrum |
Herodotus links that of the many solemn fetes held in Egypt, the most heavy and most popular one was that famous in
Bubastis in honour of
Bastet, whom he calls Bubastis and matches with the Greek goddess Artemis. Each year on the day of her festival, the town is said to have appealed some 700,000 visitors, both men and women (but not children), who came in many another crowded ships. The women engaged in music, song, and dance on their way to the place, great dedicates were made and significant amounts of wine were drunk, more than was the case passim the year. This fits well with Egyptian sources which dictate that leonine goddesses are to be staid with the "feeds of drunkenness".
The goddess Bastet was sometimes drawn holding a ceremonial sistrum in one hand and an breastplate in the other the protection usually resembling a collar or gorget embellished with a lioness head.
Bastet was a lioness goddess of the sun throughout most of
Ancient Egyptian history, but later when she was exchanged into a cat goddess (Bastet). She also was modified to a goddess of the moon by Greeks worrying Ancient Egypt toward the end of its civilisation. In Greek mythology, Bastet also is famous as Ailuros.
