The Decline of Cat-worship
The cult of Bast was officially banned by imperial decree in 390 AD. Egypt has since experienced a decline in the respect once held for cats; they are still kept as pets and tolerated elsewhere because they catch pests. Even so, the cat has not lost all religious significance with modern Egypt's largely Islamic population, since cats are also revered to some extent in Muslim tradition.
Read more about this topic: Cats In Ancient Egypt
Famous quotes containing the word decline:
“But only that soul can be my friend which I encounter on the line of my own march, that soul to which I do not decline, and which does not decline me, but, native of the same celestial latitude, repeats in its own all my experience.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)