Cat Dear Karma I Have A List Of The People You Missed Shirt A first century CE epitaph of a young girl holding a cat is among the earliest pieces of evidence of cats in Rome and, in Greece, the playwright Aristophanes (c. 446-386 BCE) frequently featured cats in his works for comic effect (coining the phrase, “The cat did it” in assigning blame). Among ancient civilizations, however, the cat was probably least popular among the Greeks owing to its association in certain myths with the goddess of death, darkness and witches, Hecate, who is more commonly associated with the dog (as is her Roman conterpart, Trivia). A much later development in Greek appreciation for the cat is evidenced in the legend that the cat protected the baby Jesus from rodents and snakes and so is accorded the best of spots in a Greek home but, originally, they do not seem to have been regarded highly.Cats are thought to have been brought to Europe by Phoenician traders who smuggled them out of Egypt. As the Phoenicians are acknowledged to have extensively traded with every known civilization of the time, cats could have been spread around the region on a fairly regular basis. It is well documented that cats were kept on ships to control vermin during the time of the 15th century CE Age of Discovery and, most likely, they served the same purpose for the Phoenicians. If the Phoenicians did bring the cat to Europe, as seems very likely, they may have also introduced the Greek association of the cat with Hecate. As noted above, Hecate was associated with dogs regularly but one story in particular, which was quite popular, links the dark goddess with the cat.Cat Dear Karma I Have A List Of The People You Missed Shirt The Greek myth which suggests this link is the well known story of Heracles (the Roman Hercules) and concerns Galinthius, a maid-servant to Heracles\’ mother, the Princess Alcmene. The god Zeus seduced Alcmene and she became pregnant with Heracles. Zeus\’ wife, Hera, was thwarted in her attempt to kill Alcmene and Heracles through the cleverness of Galinthius. Enraged, Hera transformed Galinthius into a cat and sent her to the underworld to ever after serve Hecate. This story was popularized by the Latin writer Antoninus Leberalis (2nd century CE) in his Metamorphosis, a retelling of older tales, which was popular enough to be copied and distributed up through the 9th century CE and to enjoy a wide readership through at least the 16th century CE. This myth, then, associated cats with darkness, transformation, the underworld, and witchcraft and, in time, these associations would prove very unfortunate for the cat.Cat Dear Karma I Have A List Of The People You Missed Shirt Cats as Demonic FiguresAlthough cats seem to have enjoyed their ancient high standing in European countries at first (in Norse mythology, for example, the great goddess Freya is depicted in a chariot drawn by cats and in both Ireland and Scotland cats are depicted as magical in a positive sense) the Christian Church, following their regular course of demonizing important pagan symbols, drew on the pre-existing link between the cat and witchcraft to associate cats with evil as personified in the Devil. The medieval writer Walter Map (c. 1140-1210 CE) associated the cat with demonic forces in his work (although it is possible Map was being stirical) and there are records of cats being ritually killed in Cambridge England in the early 13th century CE.Cat Dear Karma I Have A List Of The People You Missed Shirt
