And this is the sort of worship that cats have come to expect.
This limestone stela was uncovered at Deir el-Medina, the exclusive village of the workers who dug and decorated the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, ca. 1200 BC.
Here an unidentified couple are shown adoring the divine cats of Atum and Ra, who combine to become Atum-Ra, the god of the setting sun.
Every night, the sun-disk travelled through the dangerous underworld towards its rebirth at dawn. One of the challenges it faced was Apep, who took the form of a snake to swallow the sun.
Because cats were known to kill snakes, the cat-god Atum-Ra entered the underworld to destroy Apep and clear the path for the sun.
This wonderful stela is now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
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