15 Notorious & Legendary Black Cats in History

15 Notorious & Legendary Black Cats in History

As a lifelong cat lover and historian, I’ve always been fascinated by the rich myths and legends surrounding black cats through the ages. Whether revered or feared, these ebony felines seem to capture our imaginations. When I started researching black cats and their impacts on history and culture more deeply, I uncovered an astonishing array of infamous black cat tales spanning eras and civilizations across the globe.

From supernatural protectors to witches‘, wartime heroes to literary icons, black cats have left imprints of mystery and power throughout our human story. Join me as I unveil my discoveries around 15 exceptionally enthralling black cats that earn the status of notorious or legendary.

In this article I will clearly show the engrossing real-life stories and mythic associations that made these black cats so influential historically, and why we remain captivated by their charisma even now. Slip with me through the shadows between superstition and fact swirling around these ebony-furred phenomenons that shook beliefs, and shaped tales at the hearths of humankind over millennia.

1.   Bastet

Bastet was an Egyptian goddess often depicted as a black cat. She was the goddess of protection, fertility, motherhood, dance, music, and more. Bastet protected people’s health and homes from evil spirits and disease. She was one of the most popular deities in ancient Egypt. Her status as a protective goddess associated with domestic cats contributed to cats being considered sacred animals in ancient Egypt.

An early center of Bastet’s worship was the city of Bubastis, where a major temple was built in her honor. The Egyptians held a yearly feast celebrating Bastet that included drinking, music, and dancing. Bastet’s depictions as a cat was inspired by observations of cats protecting homes by hunting venomous snakes, keeping vermin at bay, and caring for their young.

2.  The Cheshire Cat

A grinning black cat appearing in Lewis Carroll’s classic novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Known for its distinctive mischievous grin and ability to disappear, leaving only its floating grin behind, the Cheshire Cat perplexes and frustrates Alice with its cryptic comments and questions. It acts as a guide for Alice in Wonderland but seems to delight in confusing her and other characters, epitomizing the topsy-turvy nonsense logic of Carroll’s world.

The Cheshire Cat’s enigmatic personality makes it one of the most memorable characters in the Alice stories. Its unique disappearing ability has become fodder for scientific conjecture about optics and physics. Notably, the Cheshire Cat helped inspire the development of the disappeared cat thought experiment in quantum physics, exploring ideas of observation and locality. 

3.  Thackery Binx

 

A boy turned into an immortal black cat by three witches in Disney’s 1993 Halloween film Hocus Pocus. In the movie, Binx fails to save his sister from the Sanderson sisters in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1693, so the witches transform him into a cat as punishment. As an immortal cat, Binx cannot die, allowing him to keep watch over Salem for 300 years until he helps stop the Sanderson sisters after they are revived on Halloween night.

Binx guides the children who accidentally revive the Sanderson sisters using his history and knowledge to help them. By the film’s end when the witches are defeated, Binx regains human form but chooses not to return to life, having fulfilled his centuries-long mission. His loyalty to his sister’s memory makes him one of cinema’s most sympathetic and tragic black cat characters. 

4.  Salem

A sarcastic black cat appears alongside teenage witch Sabrina Spellman in the 1990s TV sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Salem was originally a witch who got turned into a cat as punishment for attempting global domination. Though now forced to be Sabrina’s familiar, Salem retains his snarky wit and regularly banters and meddles in Sabrina’s affairs, providing comic relief and mentorship to the young witch-in-training.

Known for smart quips, Salem established many of the show’s long-running gags, like Sabrina’s iconic finger-twitch magic gestures modeled after Salem’s tail wiggles when he had powerful magic himself. Salem’s backstory of attempting world conquest evokes archetypal images of a cat’s pet-to-master relationship subversions.

5.  Bagheera

A wise black panther who serves as friend, protector, and mentor to Mowgli the man-cub in Rudyard Kipling’s beloved novel The Jungle Book. Known for his greater knowledge of jungle law and languages, Bagheera watches over Mowgli as he grows up in the jungle, teaching him the ways of the jungle. Bagheera’s wisdom and responsible, caring nature make him one of the most level-headed and virtuous characters in the story, even as he helps Mowgli navigate the jungle’s more chaotic residents.

When Shere Khan the tiger threatens Mowgli, Bagheera shepherds Mowgli to the man village for safety. In the classic tale, Bagheera epitomizes the popular idea of the “wise old cat” that mentors the young hero. His watchful, patient care for his human ward paints a nurturing, almost parental version of a protective black cat guardian trope. 

6. Azrael

Gomez Addams’ companion in The Addams Family franchise is Azrael, the family’s giant lion-maned black cat. Though a cat, Azrael is large enough for family members to ride on his back. With a low roar, Azrael is both fierce and affectionate towards the creepy, kooky, and spooky Addams clan. Azrael often assists family members such as seeking lost items or helping catch an escaped octopus from the family home’s pond.

Azrael is fiercely loyal while also prone to shedding black fur all over the Addams’ gothic mansion. The juxtaposition of a house cat scaled up to a beastly yet tamed mythical guardian reflects the Addams’ flair for bizarre subversions of domesticity. Azrael’s mix of nurturing protectiveness with terrifying wildness channels central themes in the Addams’ embrace of the macabre.

7. Sylvester

 

A tuxedo cat is known for being the iconic adversary of Tweety Bird in Looney Tunes cartoons. With his trademark lisp, Sylvester is constantly hatching harebrained schemes to catch the bird, though he is always ultimately outsmarted by Tweety and his owner Granny. His hyper incompetence in capturing his feathered foe, despite his exaggerated sneakiness, makes him an archetypal example of the concept of the unlucky antagonist in comedy.

Sylvester’s eternal frustration echoes cartoon cats’ reputation for aloof dignity mixed with hilarious misfortune. The character also channels mythic associations between cats and birds as adversaries, played for laughs via exaggerated anthropomorphic neuroticism in his eternally foiled stalking of Tweety.

8. Felix the Cat

Felix the Cat is the classic cartoon character of the black-and-white silent film era of the early 20th century. Created by animator Otto Messmer, Felix’s black body and white eyes and mouth made his facial expressions highly visible. Felix was known for his magic bag of tricks that allowed him to take on different personas and transform objects to get himself out of trouble. The popularity of the Felix character spawned the first iconic merchandising craze around a cartoon character in film history.

Felix’s boundless flexibility and adaptability established signature traits for cartoon cats, leaning into their mysteriousness and magic power associations. The mystique of his magic bag evokes old folk ideas of cats as wielders of enchanted items and occult knowledge.

9.  Blackie

It is the beloved resident black cat living in the seaside English town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Serving as the unofficial mascot of the town, the friendly Blackie is often sighted strolling around town. According to local legend, Blackie has brought good fortune, including protecting the town from bad storms.

Customers often spot Blackie lounging in local shops, and tourists flock for a chance to take selfies with the famed feline. Blackie has become a symbol of the village and appears in logos of local institutions. Through her amiable presence, Blackie channels cultural ideas of black cats conferring blessings. 

10.  Unsinkable Sam

An intrepid black cat known as Unsinkable Sam had the incredible fortune of surviving three ship sinkings during World War II while serving at sea. Originally called Oscar, he was first aboard the German battleship Bismarck before being rescued. He then served on the British HMS Cossack, which was struck by a German torpedo.

After more service on the HMS Ark Royal, this unfortunately named vessel was also sunk. Sam’s apparent ability to escape death saw him dubbed “Unsinkable Sam” in the press, leaning into lore about cats having nine lives. He dutifully kept serving until retirement, with a monument in his likeness commemorating his naval service. 

11.  Gladstone

The United Kingdom’s Treasury office is home to Gladstone, the resident Chief Mouser tasked with keeping the facilities mouse-free. Gladstone, named for the famed Prime Minister, patrols the historic government buildings as part of a larger group of Chief Mouser cats that catch rodents across U.K. government offices. With a specially designed collar showing his important occupant status, this prestigious black cat helps maintain the British tradition of using cats to protect notable buildings and artifacts as far back as medieval times.

12.  The Black Cat of Killakee

Dublin, Ireland hosts legends of a frightening black spectral cat known as the Black Cat of Killakee that reputedly haunts the Hellfire Club on Montpelier Hill near the city. The abandoned hunting lodge has seen reported ghost sightings since the 18th century, including stories of a huge black creature. One couple restoring the lodge described encounters with the terrifying creature.

The Black Cat of Killakee feeds lurid tales going back centuries about the property’s use for dark rituals during Hellfire Club meetings. Its status as a local bogeyman persists, playing upon mythic superstitions about black cats’ witches and haunting associations.

13.  Luna

In the magical Harry Potter series, the mysterious black cat named Luna belonged to Rolf Scamander and detected suspicious individuals at Hogwarts School while Harry Potter spoke there in the 1980s. Luna would encircle people untrustworthy to Harry and Rolf and once brushed Harry with her tail to signal someone covertly taking photos during Harry’s speech.

Through subtle gestures and languid movements around specific individuals, J.K. Rowling’s enigmatic Luna evokes ideas in mythology and folklore of black cats having preternatural perceptions beyond human abilities. The descriptor “Loony Lovegood’s cat” also alludes to magic eccentrics drawn to black cat familiars and companions. 

14.  The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short horror story The Black Cat tells the morbid tale of a black cat that brings disaster upon its abusive owner. After the story’s drunken narrator injures and later murders the affectionate cat, another near-identical black cat mysteriously appears, acting as a haunting reminder of his crime.

Poe utilizes long-held superstitions about black cats as omens of misfortune, brewing a suspenseful, doom-laden atmosphere as the second black cat inexorably exposes the narrator’s sin. As the disquieting animal eventually exposes Poe’s protagonist through a chilling revelation, The Black Cat plays on the black cat’s archetypal association with retribution.

15.  Behemoth

The satanic black cat named Behemoth is a devilish companion to the mysterious magician Woland in Mikhail Bulgakov’s acclaimed Soviet satire The Master and Margarita. Behemoth is a shape-shifting demon appearing as a rude, vodka-drinking giant black cat who torments citizens of 1930s Moscow alongside the magician and his entourage, who turn out to be Satan and his companions.

Behemoth delights in nasty pranks and machinations under his Master Woland’s orders, stirring chaotic mischief as part of their condemnation of Soviet society’s absurd bureaucracy and atheism. As a huge, gleefully troublesome black cat demon, Behemoth channels supernatural danger and diabolism attached to folklore around the animals.

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As we’ve explored, black cats have played epochal roles across human civilization – from holy guardians in Egypt to nautical heroes of World War II, and magical literary icons to cartoon superstars. These felines represent just a fraction of the influence ebony-furred cats have held through fables, films, fears, and everyday life over history. Black cats’ aura of mystery and magic continues to inspire new legends today. So next time you cross paths with a mini panther prowling alleyways or peeking from pumpkin patches, consider the epic mythos behind the black cat.