Why must black cats always get a bad rap?

Considering who is likely reading my column it’s safe to assume none of us here think black cats are unlucky or evil — but how did they get that rap? Researchers of such things point to ancient Greek lore: Zeus’ wife Hera magicked a servant named Galinthias into a black cat as punishment over some godly drama (there certainly was plenty of drama on Mount Olympus!). In her new form, Galinthias went to work for Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and death. Guilt by association, all black cats thus became evil.

During the Middle Ages, much of Europe believed that witches would shapeshift into black cats, and that witches’ black cat “familiars” assisted in the so-called black arts. In a grim example of unintended consequences, these fears led to mass killings of black cats which in turn led to mass explosion of rats which led to the increased spread of the Black Death (plague, transmitted by a bacterium which travels on rats) which led to more fear of witches’ casting fatal spells which led to more mass killings of more black cats. We know the Black Death killed 20 million Europeans, roughly one third of the continent’s population of the time, but there are no estimates of how many black cats were killed in the backwards attempt to stop it.