Hecate

Hecate (Greek: Ἑκάτη, "far-shooting" ) Hekate (Hekátê, Hekátē), or Hekat was originally a goddess of the wilderness and childbirth, naturalized early in Mycenaean Greece^[1] or in Thrace, but originating among the Carians of Anatolia,^[2] the region where most theophoric names invoking Hecate, such as Hecataeus or Hecatomnus, progenitor of Mausollus, are attested,^[3] and where Hekate remained a Great Goddess into historical times, at her unrivalled^[4] cult site in Lagina. William Berg observes, "Since children are not called after spooks, it is safe to assume that Carian theophoric names involving hekat- refer to a major deity free from the dark and unsavoury ties to the underworld and to witchcraft held by the Hecate of classical Athens."^[5] The monuments to Hekate in Phrygia and Caria are numerous but of late date.^[6] Popular cults venerating her as a mother goddess integrated her persona into Greek culture as Ἑκάτη. In Ptolemaic Alexandria she ultimately achieved her connotations as a goddess of sorcery and her role as the "Queen of Ghosts", in which triplicate guise she was transmitted to post-Renaissance culture. Today she is sometimes associated with witchcraft. One aspect of Hecate is represented in the Roman Trivia.

The earliest inscription is found in late archaic Miletus, close to Caria, where Hecate is a protector of entrances.^[7]

Representations

The earliest Greek depictions of Hecate are single faced, not triplicate. Lewis Richard Farnell states:

The earliest known monument is a small terracotta found in Athens, with a dedication to Hekate (Plate XXXVIII. a), in writing of the style of the sixth century. The goddess is seated on a throne with a chaplet bound round her head; she is altogether without attributes and character, and the only value of this work, which is evidently of quite a general type and gets a special reference and name merely from the inscription, is that it proves the single shape to be her earlier from, and her recognition at Athens to be earlier than the Persian invasion.^[8]

The second-century traveller Pausanias stated that Hecate was first depicted in triplicate by the sculptor Alkamenes in the Greek Classical period of the late fifth century. Greek anthropomorphic conventions of art resisted representing her with three faces: a votive sculpture from Attica of the third century B.C.E. (illustration, left), shows three single images against a column; round the column of Hecate dance the Charites. Some classical portrayals, such as the one to the right, show her as a triplicate goddess holding a torch, a key, and a serpent. Others continue to depict her in singular form.

In Egyptian-inspired Greek esoteric writings connected with Hermes Trismegistus, and in magical papyri of Late Antiquity she is described as having three heads: one dog, one serpent, and one horse. Hecate's triplicity is expressed in a more Hellene fashion, with three bodies instead, where she is shown taking part in the battle with the Titans in the vast frieze of the great Pergamon Altar, now in Berlin. In the Argolid, near the shrine of the Dioscuri, Pausanias saw the temple of Hecate opposite the sanctuary of Eileithyia; "The image is a work of Scopas. This one is of stone, while the bronze images opposite, also of Hekate, were made respectively by Polycleitus and his brother Naucydes, son of Mothon. (Description of Greece ii.22.7)

A fourth century BC marble relief from Crannon in Thessaly was dedicated by a race-horse owner.^[9] It shows Hecate, with a hound beside her, placing a wreath on the head of a mare. Her attendant and animal representation is of a female dog, and the most common form of offering was to leave meat at a crossroads. Sometimes dogs themselves were sacrificed to her (a good indication of her non-Hellenic origin, as dogs along with donkeys, very rarely played this role in genuine Greek ritual).

In Argonautica, a third century B.C.E. Alexandrian epic based on early materials, Jason placates Hecate in a ritual prescribed by Medea, her priestess: bathed at midnight in a stream of flowing water, and dressed in dark robes, Jason is to dig a pit and offer a libation of honey^[10] and blood from the throat of a sheep, which was set on a pyre by the pit and wholly consumed as a holocaust, then retreat from the site without looking back (Argonautica, iii). All these elements betoken the rites owed to a chthonic deity.

Mythology

Despite popular belief, Hecate was not originally a Greek goddess. The roots of Hecate seem to be in the Carians of Asia Minor.^[11] She appears in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and in Hesiod's Theogony, where she is promoted strongly as a great goddess. The place of origin of her cult is uncertain, but it is thought that she had popular cult followings in Thrace.^[2] Her most important sanctuary was Lagina, a theocratic city-state in which the goddess was served by eunuchs.^[2] Lagina, where the famous temple of Hecate drew great festal assemblies every year, lay close to the originally Macedonian colony of Stratonikea, where she was the city's patroness.^[12] In Thrace she played a role similar to that of lesser-Hermes, namely a governess of liminal points and the wilderness, bearing little resemblance to the night-walking crone she became. Additionally, this led to her role of aiding women in childbirth and the raising of young men.

There was a fane sacred to Hecate as well in the precincts of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, where the eunuch priests, megabyzi, officiated.^[13] Hesiod records that she was among the offspring of Gaia and Uranus, the Earth and Sky. In Theogony he ascribed to Hecate such wide-ranging and fundamental powers, that it is hard to resist seeing such a deity as a figuration of the Great Goddess, though as a good Olympian Hesiod ascribes her powers as the "gift" of Zeus:

Hesiod emphasizes that Hecate was an only child, the daughter of Asteria, a star-goddess who was the sister of Leto, the mother of Artemis and Apollo. Grandmother of the three cousins was Phoebe the ancient Titaness who personified the moon. Hecate was a reappearance of Phoebe, a moon goddess herself, who appeared in the dark of the moon.

His inclusion and praise of Hecate in Theogony is troublesome for scholars in that he seems fulsomely to praise her attributes and responsibilities in the ancient cosmos even though she is both relatively minor and foreign. It is theorized that Hesiod’s original village had a substantial Hecate following and that his inclusion of her in the Theogony was his own way to boost the home-goddess for unfamiliar hearers.^[14]

As her cult spread into areas of Greece it presented a conflict, as Hecate’s role was already filled by other more prominent deities in the Greek pantheon, above all by Artemis, and by more archaic figures, such as Nemesis.

There are two versions of Hecate that emerge in Greek myth. The lesser role integrates Hecate while not diminishing Artemis. In this version,^[14] Hecate is a mortal priestess who is commonly associated with Iphigeneia. She scorns and insults Artemis, eventually leading the mortal to commit suicide. Artemis then adorns the dead body with jewelry and whispers for her spirit to rise and become her Hecate, and act similar to Nemesis as an avenging spirit, but solely for injured women. Such myths where a home deity sponsors or ‘creates’ a foreign one were widespread in ancient cultures as a way of integrating foreign cults. Additionally, as Hecate’s cult grew, her figure was added to the later myth of the birth of Zeus as one of the midwives that hid the child,^[14] while Cronus consumed the deceiving rock handed to him by Gaia.

The second version helps to explain how Hecate gains the title of the "Queen of Ghosts" and her role as a goddess of sorcery. Similar to totems of Hermes—herms— placed at borders as a ward against danger, images of Hecate, as a liminal goddess, could also serve in such a protective role. It became common to place statues of the goddess at the gates of cities, and eventually domestic doorways. Over time, the association of keeping out evil spirits led to the belief that if offended Hecate could also let in evil spirits. Thus invocations to Hecate arose as the supreme governess of the borders between the normal world and the spirit world.^[14]

The transition of the figure of Hekate can be traced in fifth-century Athens. In two fragments of Aeschylus she appears as a great goddess. In Sophocles and Euripides she has become the mistress of witchcraft and the Keres.

Eventually, Hecate’s power resembled that of sorcery. Medea, who was a priestess of Hecate, used witchcraft in order to handle magic herbs and poisons with skill, and to be able to stay the course of rivers,^{citation needed} or check the paths of the stars and the moon.

Implacable Hecate has been called "tender-hearted", a euphemism perhaps to emphasize her concern with the disappearance of Persephone, when she addressed Demeter with sweet words at a time when the goddess was distressed. She later became Persephone's minister and close companion in the Underworld.

Although she was never truly incorporated among the Olympian deities, the modern understanding of Hecate is derived from the syncretic Hellenistic culture of Alexandria. In the magical papyri of Ptolemaic Egypt, she is called the she-dog or bitch, and her presence is signified by the barking of dogs. She sustained a large following as a goddess of protection and childbirth. In late imagery she also has two ghostly dogs as servants by her side.

In modern times Hecate has become a prevalent figure in Neopagan religions, and a version of Hecate has been appropriated by Wicca and other modern magic-practising traditions.

Relations in the Greek pantheon

Hecate is a pre-Olympian chthonic goddess, and was not easily assimilated into the later pantheon of Classical Greece. Beyond the Theogony, the Greek sources do not offer a story of her parentage, or of her relations in the Greek pantheon: sometimes Hecate is related as a Titaness, daughter of Perses and Asteria, and a mighty helper and protector of humans. Her continued presence was explained by asserting that, because she was the only Titan who aided Zeus in the battle of gods and Titans, she was not banished into the underworld realms after their defeat by the Olympians, more indications of the persistence of the cults in which she was worshipped.

It also is told that she is the daughter of Demeter or Pheraia. Hecate, as was Demeter, was a goddess of the earth and fertility. Sometimes she is called a daughter of Zeus, a trait she shares, however, with Athena and Aphrodite, being aspects of the earlier deities who also could not be eclipsed by the Olympians because their worship was so pervasive. Though many do not know this, Hecate had one and only one daughter. She was the goddess of the ecliptic moons(both solar and lunar.)

Hecate: ancient, powerful, unconquerable

Hesiod considered Hecate to be a daughter, with Leto, of Perses and Asteria, two pre-Olympian Titans. As in most cultures with multi-generational deities, the preceding Titans were originally the only deities worshipped by the earlier Greek cultures,^{citation needed} while the later Olympians were the deities worshipped by later invaders who conquered Greece.^{citation needed} Some readers of mythography find elements of cultural history reflected in myth: as Hecate was one of the only Titans who kept power and status after the Titans lost their war with the Olympians— she was always regarded as having great favor with Olympian Zeus and it seems likely that Hecate's cult was so strong that it could not be suppressed by the invading new religions.^{citation needed}

As with many ancient mother- or earth-goddesses she remained unmarried, had no regular consort, and often is said to have reproduced via parthenogenesis.

In another aspect she is the mother of many monsters, such as Scylla, who represented the dreaded aspects of nature that elicited fear as well as awe.

Other names and epithets

Goddess of the crossroads

Hecate had a special role at three-way crossroads, where the Greeks set poles with masks of each of her heads facing in different directions^{citation needed}

The crossroad aspect of Hecate stems from her original sphere as a goddess of the wilderness and untamed areas. This led to sacrifice to assure safe travel into these areas. This role is similar to lesser Hermes, that is, a god of liminal points or boundaries.

Hecate is the Greek version of Trivia "the three ways" in Roman mythology. Eligius in the 7th century reminded his recently converted flock in Flanders "No Christian should make or render any devotion to the gods of the trivium, where three roads meet, to the fanes or the rocks, or springs or groves or corners".

Goddess of sorcery

In the so-called "Chaldean Oracles" that were edited in Alexandria, she was also associated with a serpentine maze around a spiral, known as Hecate's wheel (the "Strophalos of Hecate", verse 194 of Isaac Preston Cory's 1836 translation). The symbolism referred to the serpent's power of rebirth, to the labyrinth of knowledge through which Hecate could lead mankind, and to the flame of life itself: "The life-producing bosom of Hecate, that Living Flame which clothes itself in Matter to manifest Existence" (verse 55 of Cory's translation of the Chaldean Oracles).

Queen of ghosts

Queen of Ghosts is a title associated with Hecate due to the belief that she can both prevent harm from leaving, but also allow harm to enter from the spirit world.^[14] Hecate thus has a role and special power in graveyards and at crossroads.^{citations needed} She guards the "ways and paths that cross".^{citations needed} Her association with graveyards also played a large part in the idea of Hecate as a lunar goddess.^{citations needed}

The leaves of the black poplar are dark on one side and light on the other, symbolizing the boundary between the worlds. The yew has long been associated with the Underworld.

Animals

The bitch is the animal most commonly associated with Hecate. She was sometimes called the 'Black bitch'^{citation needed} and black dogs were once sacrificed to her in purification rituals. At Colophon in Thrace, Hecate might be manifest as a dog. The sound of barking dogs was the first sign of her approach in Greek and Roman literature.

The frog, significantly a creature that can cross between two elements, also is sacred to Hecate.^[15]

As a triple goddess, she sometimes appears with three heads-one each of a dog, horse, and bear or of dog, serpent, and lion.

It was asserted in Malleus Malificarum (1486) that Hecate was revered by witches who adopted parts of her mythos as their goddess of sorcery. Because Hecate had already been much maligned by the late Roman period, Christians found it easy to vilify her image. Thus were all her creatures also considered "creatures of darkness"; however, the history of creatures such as ravens, night-owls, snakes, scorpions, asses, bats, horses, bears, and lions as her creatures is not always a dark and frightening one. (Rabinovich 1990)

Plants and herbs

The yew has strong associations with death as well as rebirth. A poison prepared from the seeds was used on arrows^{citation needed}, and yew wood was commonly used to make bows and dagger hilts. The potion in Hecate's cauldron contains 'slips of yew'. Yew berries carry Hecate's power, and can bring wisdom or death. The seeds are highly poisonous, but the fleshy, coral-colored 'berry' surrounding it is not.

Places

Wild areas, forests, borders, city walls and doorways, crossroads, and graveyards are all associated with Hecate at various times.

It is often stated that the moon is sacred to Hecate. This is argued against by Farnell (1896, p.4):

However in the magical papyri of Greco-Roman Egypt^[17] there survive several hymns which identify Hecate with Selene and the moon, extolling her as supreme Goddess, mother of the gods. In this form, as a threefold goddess, Hecate continues to have followers in some neopagan religions.^[18]

Festivals

Hecate was worshipped by both the Greeks and the Romans who had their own festivals dedicated to her. According to Ruickbie (2004:19) the Greeks observed two days sacred to Hecate, one on the 13th of August and one on the 30th of November, whilst the Romans observed the 29th of every month as her sacred day.

Cross-cultural parallels

The figure of Hecate can often be associated with the figure of Isis in Egyptian myth, mainly due to her role as sorceress.^{citations needed} Both were symbols of liminal points. Some scholars ultimately compare her to the Virgin Mary. She is also comparable to Hel of Nordic myth in her underworld function.^{citations needed}

Before she became associated with Greek mythology, she had many similarities with Artemis (wilderness, and watching over wedding ceremonies)^[19] and Hera (child rearing and the protection of young men or heroes, and watching over wedding ceremonies).^{citations needed}

Hecate in literature

Hecate is a character in William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, which was first performed circa 1605; she commands the Three Witches, although whether she is a witch, a demon or a goddess is not known. There is some evidence to suggest that the character and the scenes or portions thereof in which she appears (Act III, Scene v, and a portion of Act IV, Scene i) were not written by Shakespeare, but were added during a revision by Thomas Middleton,^[20] who used material from his own play The Witch, which was produced in 1615. Most modern texts of Macbeth indicate the interpolations.

In popular culture

Notes

^ William Berg, "Hecate: Greek or 'Anatolian'?", Numen 21.2 (August 1974:128-40).
^ ^a ^b ^c Walter Burkert, (1987) Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, pp 171. Oxford, Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-15624-0.
^ Theodor Kraus, Hekate: Studien zu Wesen u. Bilde der Göttin in Kleinasien u. Griechenland (Heidelberg) 1960. Kraus offers the first modern comprehensive discussion of Hecate in monuments and material culture.
^ Berg 1974:128: Berg remarks of Hecate's endorsement of Roman hegemony in her representation on the pediment at Lagina solemnising a pact between a warrior (Rome) and an amazon (Asia)
^ Berg 1974:129.
^ Kraus 1960:52; list p 166f.
^ Kraus 1960:12.
^ Lewis Richard Farnell, (1896). "Hecate in Art", The Cults of the Greek States. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
^ This statue is in the British Museum, inventory number 816.
^ Fermented honey was an entheogen older than wine.
^ Kraus 1960; Ruickbie 2004:16
^ Strabo, Geography xiv.2.25; Kraus 1960.
^ Strabo, Geography, xiv.1.23
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Johnston, Sarah Iles, (1991). Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. ISBN 0-520-21707-1
^ Varner, Gary R. (2007). Creatures in the Mist: Little People, Wild Men and Spirit Beings Around the World: A Study in Comparative Mythology, p. 135. New York: Algora Publishing. ISBN 0875865461.
^ Freize, Henry; Dennison, Walter (1902). Virgil's Aeneid. New York: American Book Company, N111.
^ Betz, Hans Dieter (ed.) (1989). The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation : Including the Demotic Spells : Texts. University of Chicago Press.
^ Pike, Sarah M. (2004). New Age and Neopagan Religions in America, pp. 131-32. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231124023.
^ Heidel, William Arthur (1929). The Day of Yahweh: A Study of Sacred Days and Ritual Forms in the Ancient Near East, p. 514. American Historical Association.
^ Taylor, Gary, and Lavagnino, John (eds.) (2007) Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture, pp. 384-85. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198185707.
^ "Orpheus". Angel. 2003-03-19. No. 15, season 4.

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