List of illustrations vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
List of abbreviations xii
Introduction: The cat in history 1
Evolution, biology, and behavior 3
Types of domestic cat 10
Mice and rats 14
1 Egypt 18
The Libyan wildcat 18
The miu: the domesticated cat 20
Iconography 21
The goddess in the house: the sacred cats of Egypt 23
Egyptian cats from the fifth century BC through the Roman era, AD 330 32
Folklore 41
Cats in the Near East outside Egypt 45
2 Greece 48
The earliest Greek cats: c. 6000-500 BC 48
Cats of the classical and Hellenistic eras: 500-30 BC 57
The distribution of the cat by the end of the first century BC 80
3 Rome 88
The earliest Italian cats: 800-500 BC 88
Cats of the Roman Republic: 500-30 BC 91
Cats of the Imperial era: 30 BC - AD 500 95
The distribution of the cat by AD 500 136
4 The early Middle Ages: AD 500-1000 138
The Latin, Celtic, and Germanic West 138
The Byzantine East 148
The Muslim world 150
Epilogue: Persecution and redemption 152
The transformation of paganism: AD 1000-1700 152
The fate of Diana and her cat 156
The Black Death 160
The afterlife of the sacred cat 162
Renaissance and redemption 170
Appendix 1 Portrayals of cats, cheetahs, and pantherines (lions, leopards) in Greek and Roman art 174
Appendix 2 Cat remains from Greek and Roman archeological sites 176
Appendix 3 The Vox in Rama of Gregory IX 183
Notes 189
Bibliography 216
Index
· · · · · · (收起)