Superstitions regarding Cats
Today I’m going to be talking about some of the superstition regarding cats. Being a cat lover, I found the topic in general quiet interesting. Below are the most fascinating I was able to find.
As most people know, Ancient Egyptians worshiped cats, and as one of my favorite cat-related quotes go, “Thousands of years ago, cats were worshiped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.” Anyone who owns a cat knows this is true, but, back to the subject. =) Part of the reason why Egyptians worshiped cats were because of the cat’s “glowing” eyes. As I found from one of my sources, “This was because Egyptians worshipped the sun, and they believed that cats could retain the sun’s power within their eyes. They believed this because of a retina adaptation called ‘tapetum,’ which is the phenomenon that causes cats’ eyes to appear to glow in the dark; anyone who has seen a cat has probably noted this phenomenon, wherein a cat’s eyes reflect a somewhat green circle of light.” That’s surprising to me since I hadn’t really heard of that idea before doing my research, but it makes a lot of sense.
Another very interesting tidbit is that during the medieval ages just before the Bubonic Plague really started up, there was a lot of cat killing going on. And…guess what? That is one of the reasons why the Bubonic Plague was so devastating. Cats would have been important in killing the brown rats, which spread the black plague.
Another source has this to say about cats in the Middle Ages, “It was largely in the Middle Ages that the black cat became affiliated with evil. Because cats are nocturnal and roam at night, they were believed to be supernatural servants of witches, or even witches themselves. Partly because of the cat’s sleek movements and eyes that ‘glow’ at night, they became the embodiment of darkness, mystery, and evil, possessing frightening powers. If a black cat walked into the room of an ill person, and the person later died, it was blamed on the cat’s supernatural powers. If a black cat crossed a person’s path without harming them, this indicated that the person was then protected by the devil. Often times, a cat would find shelter with older women who were living in solitude. The cat became a source of comfort and companionship, and the old woman would curse anyone who mistreated it. If one of these tormentors became ill, the witch and her familiar were blamed.” That makes more since on why people thought they needed to kill cats at the period of time, but it’s still so horrible!
Well, I hope you enjoyed this topic! I’d love to hear what you think about these beliefs as well as share your own. Have you heard of interesting cat superstitions or tidbits?
Interesting Links: http://cats.suite101.com/article.cfm/egyptian_cat_myths
http://www.cat-health-behavior.com/cats-history.html
http://maxellah.tripod.com/superstitions.htm