This cat on a scarab was picked up for me by my friend Youssef while he was in Egypt during the summer of 1998. The cat may represent Bastet, the Cat-headed goddess of love, sex and fertility. Like the ferocious war goddess Sekhmet, Bastet was originally a lioness deity, but from c.900 BC she began to be represented as a cat, perhaps because of her gentler nature.
The scarab probably represents Khepry, a divine scarab beetle which was the dawn manifestation of the sun god. Khepry is typically represented pushing the sun up into the sky, an image derived from the scarab rolling a ball of dung. To the Egyptians, the scarab beetle was a symbol of rebirth, regeneration and transformation. I think the carving’s made from black basalt, like the Rosetta Stone.
