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,
Anuket gazelle. She was also shown suckling the Pharaoh through the New Kingdom and became a goddess of lust in later years. In later periods, she was associated with the cowry, especially the shell, which resembled the vagina. She was originally the daughter of Ra, but was always related to Satet in some way. For example, both goddesses were called the "Eye of Ra", along with Bastet, Hathor, and Sekhmet. Also, they were both related in some way to the Uraeus. Anuket was part of a triad with the god Khnum, and the goddess Satis. She may have been the sister