Bastet worship changed from being a lioness deity into being predominantly a major cat deity. Because domestic cats tend to be tender and protective of their offspring, Bastet was also regarded as a good mother, and she was sometimes depicted with numerous kittens. Consequently, a woman who wanted children sometimes wore an amulet showing the goddess with kittens, the number of which indicated her own desired number of children. The native Egyptian rulers were replaced by Greeks during an occupation of Egypt in the Ptolemaic Dynasty that lasted almost 300 years. The Greeks sometimes equated Bastet with one of their goddesses,
Eye of Ra In other accounts, it is Shu who searches for Tefnut, who in this case represents the Eye rather than an independent deity. Thoth, who often serves as a messenger and conciliator in the Egyptian pantheon, can also seek the wandering goddess. His role in retrieving the Eye of Ra parallels his role in the Osiris myth, in which he heals or returns Horus's lost Eye. In a Late Period papyrus dubbed "The Myth of the Eye of the Sun", Thoth persuades the Eye of Ra to return through a combination of lectures, enticement, and entertaining stories. His efforts are not