Bastet Artemis. Bastet Bastet or Bast ( "She of the Ointment Jar", ) was a goddess of ancient Egyptian religion, worshiped as early as the Second Dynasty (2890 BCE). Her name is also rendered as B'sst, Baast, Ubaste, and Baset. In ancient Greek religion, she is also known as Ailuros ( "cat"). Bastet was worshipped in Bubastis in Lower Egypt, originally as a lioness goddess, a role shared by other deities such as Sekhmet. Eventually Bastet and Sekhmet were characterized as two aspects of the same goddess, with Sekhmet representing the dangerous side of her personality and Bastet, who was increasingly
Bastet dynasties, the deity remained, but was assigned a lesser role in the pantheon by bearing the name "Bastet". This happened after Thebes became the capital of ancient Egypt, during the Eighteenth Dynasty. As they rose to great power the priests of the temple of Amun, dedicated to the primary local deity, advanced the stature of their titular deity to national prominence (Amun-Ra) and shifted the relative stature of others in the Egyptian pantheon. Diminishing her status, they began referring to the deity with the added suffix, as "Bastet", and their use of the new name was well-documented (thereby becoming very