I've written before about the dogs the Minoans kept as pets and hunting companions. But did you know the Minoans also had cats? They probably came to Crete on trading ships from Egypt, and it's clear from the art that they loved their kitties every bit as much as modern people do.

That's a Minoan cat up top in a fresco from Hagia Triada. In true cat fashion, it's hiding behind some ivy to sneak up on a bird.

Or how about this one, chasing after a goose along a riverbank, in a fresco from Akrotiri:

Its spots and overall shape suggest that it's an Egyptian Mau, another pointer toward Minoan cats having originated in Egypt. This is one section of a long, narrow fresco that includes another cat (the other one is yellow with spots), several geese, and a griffin (the mythical creature).

In case you're wondering, the cat above isn't freezing cold. The Minoans used blue pigment to depict gray surfaces - like cats and rocks, above, or shaved heads and monkey fur. We aren't entirely certain why they made this choice, though the fact that blue pigments were very expensive may have entered into the equation, as a sort of wealth display. There may also have been sacred symbology, as there was with other colors.

In addition to frescoes, cats appear in other forms in Minoan art. I just love this cup and footed jug from Malia, with their 3D cats in outdoor scenes with trees and bushes. Maybe these cats are also hiding in ambush, waiting for a tasty morsel to stroll by:

Cats were important enough to the Minoans that they created symbols for them in their writing systems. Here's a green jasper stone seal engraved with Cretan hieroglyphs. I bet you can find the cat:

We don't have enough examples of Cretan hieroglyphs, or a Rosetta stone, to be able to decipher them. So for now, they're just intriguing symbols, some of which are recognizable.

A few of the Cretan hieroglyphs transferred over when the Minoans invented Linear A, the writing system they used to record their own language, for bookkeeping in the temples and inscriptions on ritual ware. Linear A is also undeciphered; don't let any clickbait headlines fool you. In Linear A, the cat hieroglyph was simplified into a line drawing to go with the rest of the script, like the cat on this tablet fragment from Phaistos:

This symbol also appears in an even more simplified and stylized form in Linear B, the script that resulted when Linear A was adapted for use with the Mycenaean Greek language.

In Linear B, the cat-head symbol stands for the sound MA. It's likely it had the same sound value in Linear A. I find this especially interesting given that the ancient Egyptian word for cat was, more or less, "mau." Maybe the Minoans borrowed the animal's name once the little cat feet pranced off those trading ships and onto the shores of Crete.

I've always loved that the Egyptian word for cat sounds like the Egyptians found a cat in a grain storehouse, went up to it, and said, "Hello there. Who are you?" Of course, the cat answered, "Mau."