Classical Cats: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat

It's well known that cats were revered as household gods in ancient Egypt, but what happened to them after that? According to this revelatory study of cats in the classical world by University of Arkansas history professor Engels, they fared surprisingly well. Using recent archeological, (feline) genetic, literary and artistic evidence, Engels makes the case that by the third century B.C., Felis catus was widely distributed across Europe, thanks to seafaring Greek merchants and colonizers who associated cats with the goddess Artemis and used them to protect their grain supplies. Drawing on Latin inscriptions, Roman mosaics, sculptures and other artifacts, Engels also shows that cats were far more popular among the dog-loving Romans than is commonly assumed. After millions of the creatures were slaughtered alongside the hundreds of thousands of pagans, heretics and Jews with whom they were associated during the Middle Ages, cats got their revenge. Noting that cats have long been instrumental in defending humankind from rodents and the diseases they carry, Engels suggests that the absence of cats in Europe probably contributed to the spread and the severity of the bubonic plague that devastated the continent in the 14th century. Some cat scholars may accuse Engels of a Eurocentric bias for speculating that Roman traders brought the domesticated cat to India, as there is good reason to believe that the cat was domesticated there at about the same time as in Egypt, or even possibly earlier. On balance, however, the book is well-written and researched--and stunningly illustrated. (Jan.)