Why do we say that cats have nine lives?

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Although there may not be many people who believe the myth anymore, the idiom “cats have nine lives” is all over the cat world. I distinctly remember two books I had as a child based on that concept. One was a picture book about how a cat lost eight of his lives before finding his forever home with the ninth. Rather disturbing in retrospect. The other was a about a cat who could travel to nine different times and places. Usually, though, people use the phrase in reference to cats surviving incredible odds. What is the origin of this fanciful phrase? And why nine lives specifically?

A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays.

English proverb

StarClan Grants You Six to Ten Lives

The general consensus is that the myth of feline reincarnation began with simple observation. Cats do have an uncanny ability to escape danger, injury, and death. In particular, their ability to survive long falls with little or no damage is legendary. We know now that cats have a “righting reflex,” among other natural adaptations, which allows them to land on their feet and absorb the shock of a fall (1, 3, 4, 6). But people didn’t know that hundreds or thousands of years ago. To them, the feline capability to walk away from falls that would have killed a human–and many other animals besides–may have seemed nothing less than supernatural.

Many cultures have attributed magical properties to the sheer durability of cats. While it is actually quite common to say that cats have multiple lives, the number varies. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and China are some of the places where cats are said to have nine lives (6). However, Italy, Greece, Germany, Brazil, and some Spanish-speaking countries put the number at seven (1, 5, 6). In Turkish and Arabic lore, it’s even less–just six lives (1, 5, 6). Russia, on the other hand, has a saying that cats survive nine deaths, which would mean they get ten lives (3).

What’s in a Number?

Many cultures hold certain numbers sacred, lucky, or otherwise important. Nine is one of those numbers in quite a few places. It is three threes, a trinity of trinities (2, 3, 5, 6). Most importantly, perhaps, the number nine held religious significance to the ancient Egyptians. Rather famously, cats did, too.

The ancient Egyptians believed the sun god, Atum-Ra, sometimes took the form of a cat (1, 5, 6). Atum-Ra gave birth to eight other gods and therefore represented nine lives (1, 5, 6). Additionally, Bast/Bastet, the cat-headed goddess most closely associated with ancient Egyptian cat worship, was said to have nine lives (2). One or both of these deities could have built the association between cats, which were already considered divine and magical in ancient Egyptian culture, and the idea of having nine lives.

Some people think cats may have gotten their nine lives from China instead, however. China also has a long and close history with cats. Nine is considered a lucky number there (1, 5, 6). It comes up a lot in the mythology of Chinese dragons (1). Maybe the number nine also attached itself to Chinese cats.

Other cultures assign special meaning to the number nine, too, and the numbers six, seven, and ten got in there somewhere as well. “Cats have nine lives” is a saying that has been around for hundreds of years at least. William Shakespeare uses the idiom in Romeo and Juliet which was written around 1595 (6). When a saying gets to be over 400 years old, it’s usually very difficult to track its exact origin. The significance of the number nine combined with the keen survival skills of cats makes a good case for itself as the root, wherever the phrase was first spoken.

Mercutio: Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you go fight me?

Tybalt: What do you want from me?

Mercutio: Good King of Cats, I want to take one of your nine lives, and, depending on how you treat me after that, I might beat the other eight out of you, too.

Romeo and Juliet, Act III, William Shakespeare

Works Cited

1. Bhunjun, A. (2017, August 31). Why do cats ‘have nine lives’? What we know behind the myth. Metro. https://metro.co.uk/2017/08/31/why-do-cats-have-nine-lives-what-we-know-behind-the-myth-6890326/
2. Brasch, R. and Brasch, L. (2006). How did it begin? The origins of our curious customs and superstitions. MJF Books.
3. Cats have nine lives. (n.d.). TV Tropes. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CatsHaveNineLives
4. Diamond, J.M. (1988). Why cats have nine lives. Nature, 332(14), 586-587. https://doi.org/10.1038/332586a0
5. Engelman, C. (n.d.). Do cats really have nine lives? Wonderopolis. https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/do-cats-really-have-nine-lives
6. Schlueter, R. (2018, March 23). Here’s how people started believing that cats have nine lives. Belleville News-Democrat. https://www.bnd.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/answer-man/article206591029.html

Published January 24, 2021