Early Feline Icons

The most dramatic and enduring legacy of the Egyptian and Greek use of feline symbolism is the sphinx - a mythical beast with the head of a human and the body of a lion.

Some of the sphinxes that flanked the entrances to important funerary monuments can still be viewed in their original settings.
 
However, many were removed by early archaeologists to various museums, including the fine set now adorning a staircase at the Louvre in Paris. The lion, another enduring symbol, has been associated with royalty since time immemorial.

One of the most impressive finds from the tomb of King Tutankhamen was his stately, gold, lion throne (c. 1327 BC). Much later, the great Cartier jewelry firm used the lion and other big cats to create a selection of royal gems for the Duchess of Windsor.

If big cats evoke masculine images of power, strength, and royalty, then the domestic cat embodies beauty, poise, and cleanliness, which are all stereotypical feminine traits.

For example, statuettes of the cat goddess Bastet wearing a long, tight dress were commonplace  in early Egypt.
 
A few of these are now on permanent display in collections    housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum in London, and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.