Battle of Pelusium by artist Simon Seitz for World History Encyclopedia
This one is self explanatory really, if you search the appropriate words (like ‘cats + Battle of Pelusium’) on whatever search engine you fancy and browse the memes that rise bubbling to the surface you will see my point immediately.
Because this is not one bullshit meme, the misinformation about this puppy … uh kitten … is legion, ranging from such pop culture classics as Sponge Bob through to Pikachu.
Because this is not one bullshit meme, the misinformation about this puppy … uh kitten … is legion, ranging from such pop culture classics as Sponge Bob through to Pikachu.
Facebook, Reddit, 9gag, ifunny.co
But it is not just a meme, variations on this misinformation may be found in perky history blogs all over the web, mostly containing varying accuracy, but all cashing in on the idea that the wiley Persians used ancient Egypt’s love of cats to defeat them in battle.
Howstuffworks.com - https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/archaeology
/ancient-egyptians-revered-cats-for-divine-energy.htm
Medium: Lessons from History - https://medium.com/lessons-from-history
It was the cats-were-sacred angle that finally caught my attention, because I had been mulling over this issue for a while, and whether there was a blog post in it, predominently from exposure to the bazillion memes on the web claiming that the Egyptians worshipped cats….
Which from the pov of a lifetime cat person is cute, but from the pov of an Egyptologist is not precisely accurate…
Which from the pov of a lifetime cat person is cute, but from the pov of an Egyptologist is not precisely accurate…
The source of the idea that Egyptian cats could not be harmed is Herodotus (Historia II.65.5) and Diodorus
(Library I.83.5) both claimed that if a sacred cat was killed the person responsible would be put to death.
Historical background
Cambyses II of Persia conquered Egypt in around 525 BC (late 6th c BC) by attacking the Egyptian forces of Psamtek III with his army in the northern Sinai at the city of Peluseum on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile.
The actual historical sources for this event are contradictory mainly because they date well after the event and are not from unbiased individuals, nor are they entirely reliable sources: Herodotus (5th c. BC, Historia III.11-12), Ctesias of Cnidus (5th c. BC, Persica) and Polyaenus (2nd c AD, Strategemata 7.9).
A word of caution: There is no Egyptian version of the events of this battle, only secondary references, and none mention any possible version of this military strategy.
The Classical sources
1. Herodotus, the dubiously titled father of history and/or lies, is a dead loss and breezes over the whole episode placing more emphasis on the brutal execution of 2 Egyptian boys in front of their traitor father before the battle than on the actual event.
He does not mention cats, or animals of any description, later he just waffles on about the thousands of dead and the thickness of crushed Egyptian and Persian skulls after the battle (apparently lots of Egyptian sun on a shaved head makes your skull quite resistant to crushing).
Herodotus - when there is a fire Egyptians will be too busy worried about their cats to put it out, but the cats will leap into the flames nonetheless (Historia II.66). Illustration by R. Kohlsaat from W. Keller (1971) Da aber Staunte Herodot.
2. Ctesias, a Greek physician in the
service of Persian kings, on the other hand simply provides the numbers
of soldiers killed in battle (50,000 Egyptians and 7,000 Persians), and
understandably accuses Herodotus of making stuff up. Except that, not to
be pedantic, he too has been accused of this character flaw (about 500 years later Diodorus Siculus uses Ctesias for his version.)
3. 700 years after Herodotus, Polyaenus, a Roman lawyer and orator, provides the actual source of this particular shaggy dog tale. In the Strategemata, a book dedicated to inventive military strategies, he states that when Cambyses besieged Pelusium, the Egyptians retaliated by bombarding the Persians with fire and rocks hurled from catapults.
In rather churlish response Cambyses had ‘as many animals as the Egyptians held sacred arranged before his army; dogs, sheep, cats, and ibis.’ The Egyptians therefore ceased attacking his army for fear of striking their sacred animals and that is how Cambyses was able to outwit Egypt (paraphrased from the Greek because the translation by Shepherd from 1793 is too flowery for my taste).
In rather churlish response Cambyses had ‘as many animals as the Egyptians held sacred arranged before his army; dogs, sheep, cats, and ibis.’ The Egyptians therefore ceased attacking his army for fear of striking their sacred animals and that is how Cambyses was able to outwit Egypt (paraphrased from the Greek because the translation by Shepherd from 1793 is too flowery for my taste).
Cats being thrown at Egyptian archers, because that is totally going to work,
Cambyses at Pelusium by P-M Lenoir (1872). Image Wikipedia.
So, let’s just clarify, according to the anecdote in Polyaenus, Cambyses’ protective ploy was a defensive barrier of sundry animals that were sacred to the Egyptians, not just cats. No shields were decorated with kitty faces, no cats strapped to said shields, nobody flung kittens, and Herodotus had nothing to do with it.
Have a think about that, hundreds of wild birds, dogs, cats and sheep, possibly also cattle …. where did they find them? … and how was there not complete and utter chaos? I mean the phrase *like herding cats* is accurate for a reason.
Reality check
And once you have had a thought about that, have a think about this:
In 525 BC Egyptian temples possessed lively micro industries breeding thousands of cats, dogs, snakes, ibises, falcons, sheep and cattle just to supply the enormous market for animal mummy offerings for the gods and festivals (see Ikram 2015). These poor animals were bred, reared, and then killed specifically to supply market demand.
The same animals Polyaenus claims were put in front of an army as a military tactic.
But more to the point, the trick with stating that animals like cats were sacred is it applies our ideas to a culture that simply did not think that way. An animal was not necessarily special in isolation, but it could be sacred in relation to a god or goddess, and therefore it could be divine under certain circumstances, usually as an individual that was identified by specific markings and then consecrated to a god and worshipped for its lifetime.
In 525 BC Egyptian temples possessed lively micro industries breeding thousands of cats, dogs, snakes, ibises, falcons, sheep and cattle just to supply the enormous market for animal mummy offerings for the gods and festivals (see Ikram 2015). These poor animals were bred, reared, and then killed specifically to supply market demand.
The same animals Polyaenus claims were put in front of an army as a military tactic.
But more to the point, the trick with stating that animals like cats were sacred is it applies our ideas to a culture that simply did not think that way. An animal was not necessarily special in isolation, but it could be sacred in relation to a god or goddess, and therefore it could be divine under certain circumstances, usually as an individual that was identified by specific markings and then consecrated to a god and worshipped for its lifetime.
High end cat mummy, 26th Dyn. 664-525 BC, Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
My photo.
Less fortunate animals could be sacrificed in the service of a god and their temple. The rest of the time a cat could be any number of useful things, including vermin catchers and beloved household pets… oh, and they could be an ingredient.
Which brings me to the reason I was mulling over this issue recently, in the last year I’ve been reading a New Kingdom Egyptian medical text that sometimes uses diverse parts of animals, including cats, for remedies, like the fur, body fat, poo, placentas, blood, you name it.
Which brings me to the reason I was mulling over this issue recently, in the last year I’ve been reading a New Kingdom Egyptian medical text that sometimes uses diverse parts of animals, including cats, for remedies, like the fur, body fat, poo, placentas, blood, you name it.
Because of this, every time I see the *cats were worshipped as gods* memes on Facebook I wince just a little bit, before scrolling on.
Unconfirmed whether Terry actually wrote this.
My final point being that if all
cats were sacred in ancient Egypt under our terms, and venerated as
gods, their fat would not be an ingredient of baldness removal creams,
or of ointments to reduce muscular stiffness or even of a mouse
repellent!
See the Ebers medical papyrus for recipes, and do not try this at home,
if you really want to get rid of mice just keep the damn cat..
Similarly, cats would also not have been farmed en masse and then strangled at a few months old for the convenience of religion.
Similarly, cats would also not have been farmed en masse and then strangled at a few months old for the convenience of religion.
Wall Street Persians and the Washington Egyptians, from Puck magazine 1907,
and by Louis Glackens. Image in the public domain.
Because of this these animals would not have been much use as a psychological barrier against Egyptian catapults in a famous historical battle where thousands of soldiers are reputed to have died.
The whole idea is a Roman shaggy dog tale that incidentally now makes a highly amusing political cartoon or internet meme, and therefore it appeals to a modern sensibility of ‘history as entertainment’, regardless of its actual veracity.
Andrea Sinclair
July 2022
But don't trust me: Sources and further reading
Cambyses II at Livius - https://www.livius.org/articles/person/cambyses-ii/
Dodson and Hilton 2004. The Royal Families of Egypt. (26th-27th Dynasty). Thames and Hudson.
Diodorus Siculus - Library at Uni Chicago Penelope -
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/diodorus_siculus/1d*.html
Herodotus - Histories at Livius - https://www.livius.org/sources/about/herodotus/herodotos-bk-3-logos-7/
Herodotus – Histories at Perseus -
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D11%3Asection%3D3
Polyaenus – Strategemata at Livius - https://www.livius.org/sources/content/polyaenus/
Polyaenus – Stratagemata adapted from E. Shepherd 1793 at Attalus -
http://www.attalus.org/translate/polyaenus7.html#9.1
Ebers Papyrus remedies - https://sae.saw-leipzig.de/de/dokumente/papyrus-ebers
Spell 453 - to prevent greying hair - Cat placenta
Spell 465 - to prevent balding - Cat fat
Spell 486 - a burn remedy - Cat hair
Spell 488 & 498 - to treat burns - Cat poo
Spell 578 & 580 - to treat swellings - Cat poo
Spell 584 - to treat agents of illness - Cat poo
Spell 627 & 658 - to treat vessels, and make stiffness more flexible - Cat fat
Spell 847 - mice repellent to smear on all surfaces of the home - Cat fat
Mummification and animal cults
Ikram, S. 2015. Speculations on the Role of Animal Cults in the Economy of Ancient Egypt. In Taming the Wild, CENiM 11, 211-228.
Mummification and animal cults
Ikram, S. 2015. Speculations on the Role of Animal Cults in the Economy of Ancient Egypt. In Taming the Wild, CENiM 11, 211-228.
Johnston et al 2020. ‘Evidence of Diet, Deification
and Death within Ancient Egyptian Mummified Animals.’ Nature: Scientific Reports 10.
Links
Hyperallergic - British Scientists Find Trove of Animal Mummies
https://hyperallergic.com/208469/british-scientists-find-trove-of-animal-mummies-with-no-bones/
Mummified Animals of Ancient Egypt
https://www.thenotsoinnocentsabroad.com/blog/the-mummified-animals-of-ancient-egypt
https://www.thenotsoinnocentsabroad.com/blog/the-mummified-animals-of-ancient-egypt
Museums of the World - Ancient Egyptians Slaughtered animals on an Industrial Scale
http://museu.ms/article/details/111178/ancient-egyptians-slaughtered-animals-on-industrial-scale-according-to-new-exhibition
http://museu.ms/article/details/111178/ancient-egyptians-slaughtered-animals-on-industrial-scale-according-to-new-exhibition