Cat goddess, probably originally a lion goddess; she was the goddess of Bubastis in the Delta (the graecized form of the Egyptian term 'per bastet', 'House (or sanctuary) of Bastet'). In the Old Kingdom she was linked with lion goddesses such as Sakhmet of Memphis and Tefnut of Heliopolis. As a result, Bastet also became involved in the myths concerning the sun's eye. She was called the daughter of the sun god Re, his eye or the eye of the moon, and eventually she was equated with the cobra goddess Wadjet (uraeus). Representations of Bastet from the Old Kingdom nearly always show her with the head of a lioness. Hunting lions during the feast of Bastet was even considered a taboo, according to a text of Ramesses IV at Abydos. Nevertheless, in later tradition Bastet was mainly regarded as a cat. Many bronze statuettes from the Late Period show her with a cat's head, sometimes holding a sistrum, a reference to her relationship with Hathor. Many bronze statuettes of cats have also been found, dedicated to Bastet. Large numbers of cat mummies have been found near places where Bastet was worshipped, such as Bubastis and close to the temple of Bastet at Saqqara. Classical authors mention that the cat was a sacred animal and a text about Hathor of Dendera (a town sometimes called the Bubastis of Upper Egypt) calls this goddess 'angry like Sakhmet, sweet like Bastet', referring to the contrast between an angry lioness and a much friendlier cat. Bastet was considered to be the mother of the lion god Mahes (Miysis), and in a few separate traditions as the mother of Nefertem or of Anubis.