Cat his "History of Animals" that "female cats are naturally lecherous." The Greeks later syncretized their own goddess Artemis with the Egyptian goddess Bastet, adopting Bastet's associations with cats and ascribing them to Artemis. In Ovid's "Metamorphoses", when the gods flee to Egypt and take animal forms, the goddess Diana (the Roman equivalent of Artemis) turns into a cat. Cats eventually displaced ferrets as the pest control of choice because they were more pleasant to have around the house and were more enthusiastic hunters of mice. During the Middle Ages, many of Artemis's associations with cats were grafted onto the Virgin
Piraeus Artemis huntress and a sanctifier of solitude. She was associated with young women and girls and biological maturation, and both Piraeus Artemis statues show the goddess as a curvaceous woman, not a wild young girl. The anger of the goddess was also feared and recounted in legends, and part of the worship consisted of appeasing the goddess. The statues convey this aspect; though in both depictions Artemis's stance is approachable, she carries her weapon, showing her ability to quickly withdraw favor. Often worshipped close to territorial frontiers and a little aways from settlements, female worshippers of Artemis were frequently in danger;