Tidbits of Cat Mythology and Folklore
from Various Cultures

Arensnuphis (Ari-hes-nefer, Arsnuphis , Harensnuphis)

A benign god of Egyptian Nubia. He had a temple at Philae, where he was referred to as the companion of Isis, the chief local deity. He is depicted in the form of a lion, or as a man wearing a plumed crown.

Bast

The Egyptian Goddess of the moon, cats, and sexuality, she is depicted as either a cat-headed woman or a cat. See Egyptian Cat Goddesses for more details.

Dedun (Dedwen)

The Egyptian/Nubian god of wealth and incense. He is associated with the southern lands. Dedun (Dedwen) is usually depicted in human form but also as a lion.

Freya (or Freija)

Freya, Norse Goddess of Love and Beauty, had a chariot drawn by two huge gray cats. She is often depicted with rollicking cats.

Grimalkin

Gray cat of celtic lore with magical powers. Used in various fiction as a farmiliar to witches.

Mafdet

An Egyptian goddess in feline form, possibly that of a panther. She was noted principally as a destroyer of snakes and scorpions.

Mahes

The Egyptian personification of the summer heat, called 'Lord of the massacre'. He is represented as a lion or a man with a lion's head. He was principally worshipped in the area of the Nile Delta.

Malaysia

Malaysians venerated the cat as a godlike creature who eased their afterlife journey from Hell to Paradise. Anyone who killed a cat was required to carry and stack as many coconut tree trunks as the cat had hairs.

Menhit (Menchit)

An ancient Egyptian lion-goddess, and a goddess of war. She is the wife of the god Chnum, and her son is the god Hike. The three of them were worshipped as a triad in Latopolis (the current Esna) in Upper Egypt. Her name means "she who slaughters".

Narasinha

The man-lion, fourth incarnation of Vishnu.

Para

Ancient Finnish household spirits who appear in the shape of a cat, snake, hare, or frog. They enlarge to amount of food and money with what they stole elsewhere.

Ra

The Egyptian Sun God, Ra, changed himself into a cat to do battle with the serpent-like darkness.

Raiju

A Japanese demon whose name means "thunder animal". It is a demon of lightning in the shape of a cat, badger or weasel. During thunderstorms it becomes extremely agitated and leaps from tree to tree. If a tree shows the marks of lightning, people say that Raiju's claws have scratched it open.

Sakhmet, Sekhmet

Egyptian lion-headed Goddess of war.See Egyptian page.

Siam

Siamese god-kings employed a cat for their souls to pass into upon death. It was believed that the soul rested for the cat's natural life span before entering Paradise.

Singa

A mythical dragon of the Indonesian Batak people who live in the mountains in northern Sumatra. Singa appears in the shape of a lion and shows many similarities with the beneficent Hindu Nagas.

Tjilpa

The ancestral totemic cat-men of Aboriginal Australia.

Tsun-Kyanske

This Burmese Goddess of the Transmutation of Souls, was attended by priests and their cats, animals were believed to communicate directly with the goddess.

from the internet