When the Greeks arrived in Egypt, they associated Bastet with Artemis and so she moved from being a sun goddess to a moon goddess. Over time, she also lost her original head of a wild desert cat or lion and gained the head of a domestic cat.

Cats were extremely important to the Egyptians, since they protected grain from vermin, and Bastet was thought to protect them. Killing a cat was punishable by death.

When cats died, families shaved off their eyebrows in mourning and sometimes had their pets mummified. Bastet was often paired with Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess of Memphis.