Does my theorey on why Ancient Egyptains drew eyes the way they did seem correct?

Question

Ancient Egypt is know for it's distinct way of portraying animals (humans count in this category). One of their distinct features is the way in which they draw an eye. I have heard that Egyptians painted around their own eyes to look like the way it did in their drawing by using an early form of eyeliner.

Ancient Egyptians thought much of cats. They had a cat goddess named Bastet in which they worshipped. Egyptians even believed that having a mummified cat was good luck. (sometimes they could not wait until the cat was dead and cracked their neck to kill them)

They breed of cats during Ancient Egypt was tabbies. (they have striped, spotted [a combination of both] orange, brown or gray fur) These cats often have a dark line of fur around their eyes.

Since cats were worshiped so much, I thought that maybe they put the "eyeliner" around their eyes (in drawing and in real life) to either worship the cat, give themselves good luck, or maybe they simply liked they "look".

What do you think? Is it a good theory?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

It's unlikely. 
I will give you Bastet, Bastet was a cat goddess of ancient Egypt, but she was definitely not a major goddess. The falcon, ram, cow, baboon, jackal or even the dog were all animals associated with much more important gods and goddesses (Horus, Amun, Hathor, Thoth, Anubis and Set respectively) and those are just the ones I can remember The common house cat and Bastet didn't become overly popular until the 22nd Dynasty. To put that in perspective, the pyramids came into being in around the 4th Dynasty, Tutankhamun was the 18th and he considered them ancient. And there was only 35 Dynasties in the whole thing. If they were copying the make-up of the cats eye, we would have seen a huge surge in their eyeliner use in the 22nd dynasty, which didn't happen.

redunicorn mentioned cheetahs and yes, some royals kept them as pets, but often used them for hunting, the same way English royals bred dogs. While we're on big cats, leopard skin was used by priests as well in ritual dress, this is right from the beginning. Big cats already had their place and it was a different place from house-cats.

So, I can see where you might draw the connection between cats and makeup. But. When Egyptians draw eyes, they are actually drawing the eye of Horus (falcon god) and not that of a cat, it has mythological significance. As for just regular makeup, well, they outlined their eyes for the same reason we do, it makes your eye look bigger and that's a desirable trait. Many many many other cultures figured this out and did the same thing. Egyptians also figured out eyeshadow and a type of blush. The way they draw people is distinctive because of the perspective they use, it's odd to us because we rarely use this perspective.

It's an interesting theory but doesn't quite fit with the mythology. Keep studying :)

redunicorn · Answer

You may be on to something. Some royals even had pet cheetahs and they have "eye liner."

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Does my theorey on why Ancient Egyptains drew eyes the way they did seem correct?

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