We have all heard the famous phrase “Cats have nine lives.” Very few people actually know why cats are considered to have nine lives, and is it even true? Historians say that ancient Egyptians idolized the number nine as they associated the number with their sun god Atum-Ra. According to one version, Ra gave birth to eight other gods; he usually took the form of a man with the head of a falcon. However,  he also took other forms such as a cat, and a man with the head of a lion. One theory states that because Ra took the form of a cat and a lion, the Egyptians associated the number nine (Ra + eight) with feline longevity.

   Whether this theory is true or not, other cultures also gave cats multiple lives. In ancient China, it was believed that they had nine lives, even though the Chinese had no connections to the Egyptians. Other cultures, however, are less generous: Italy, Germany, Greece, Brazil, and some Spanish-speaking regions apparently grant cats only seven lives. If you think that’s bad, according to Turkish and Arabic traditions, cats only get six. In English lore it has been nine lives for centuries. But aside from their connections to gods, there is a more down-to-earth and universal reason as to why cats are thought to have more than one life.

   Cats have what is called a “righting reflex,” which is the ability to quickly turn around midair if they fall from a high place so they land on their feet. People noticed that they could remain uninjured in situations that would kill or seriously harm other animals, so naturally they thought cats had multiple lives. That’s why the rumored number of lives is so varied across human civilizations. There was no distinct value set for the number of cats’ lives, so they made sense of it through religion or folklore. This is why cats have multiple lives, and in a small sense, it’s true.