“Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once led to his great house to be
called his dear wife. And she conceived and bare Hekate whom Zeus the
son of Kronos honoured above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a
share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honour also in
starry heaven, and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods. For to
this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and
prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hekate. Great honour
comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favourably,
and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her.”
Hesiodic Hymn to Hekate
"Out of Erebos and Chaos she called Nox (Night) and the Di Nocti
(Gods of Night) and poured a prayer with long-drawn wailing cries to
Hecate ... a groan came from the ground, the bushes blanched, the
spattered sward was soaked with gouts of blood, stones brayed and
bellowed, dogs began to bark, black snakes swarmed on the soil and
ghostly shapes of silent spirits floated through the air."
Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.403
Hekate is the Greek goddess of crossroads and thresholds, witchcraft and
magic, the night, and of ghosts and necromancy. She is said to have
power over the sky, the earth, and the sea, and also has strong ties to
the underworld (which the Greeks called Hades).
Hekate’s origins are unclear. Some suggest she originates from Heket,
the Egyptian goddess of childbirth, but there is very little evidence to
support this. It is perhaps more likely that she has Thracian origins,
but there are also other theories. Despite the debate surrounding her
exact origins, she does appear to be a fairly ancient goddess of
pre-Olympian origins. It is believed that when the Olympian pantheon
displaced the Titans, Hekate is one of the few Titans who was allowed to
keep what was hers (dominion over land, sea, sky, and underworld), as
Zeus respected her power.
Although Hekate is a Greek deity, she is not an Olympian, but instead
she is often regarded as a chthonic deity – that is, a deity relating to
the underworld. Even so, as a goddess of thresholds, she did not fit
neatly into that category at all times.
The meaning of Hekate’s name is not entirely clear, it seems most likely
that it means something like ‘worker from afar’ (Hekatos). Hekate is a
more accurate Greek spelling, where Hecate is the Latin spelling, either
spelling is acceptable.
The earliest depictions of Hekate show her as a young woman holding
either twin torches, or a key. Frequently she is dressed in a short
tunic, similar to Artemis. In later periods, Hekate was often shown in
triple form, but she does not really fit neatly into the modern
Maiden-Mother-Crone archetype. In Greek thought, she was shown in
triplicate form to symbolize the wide range of her rule, her mystical
nature, her ability to see into the past, present and future, and her
link to the triple crossroads. When depicted in triplicate, she is often
still holding her twin torches, a key, and a knife.
The Greek Magical Papyri, a series of writings from Graeco-Roman Egypt,
often describe Hekate as having one or three animal heads, or as having
the head of a maiden (sometimes horned), and two animal heads. The
animal heads could be that of a dog, cow, bull, goat, horse, or serpent.
It is likely that in addition to having specific links to these
animals, she is shown with animal heads to symbolize her link to the
wilderness, and to the wild and primal.
Hekate rules over the crossroads. We usually think of a crossroads as
two roads coming together to form a cross, but it is actually a triple
crossroads (three roads forming a T or Y sort of shape, for example)
which is most closely associated with her. It is said that her triple
form faces three directions so she can guard the triple crossroads. It
was common to find wayshrines dedicated to her erected at the
crossroads.
Hekate was also associated with borders and thresholds of various sorts,
such as the city walls, doorways, and so on – the crossroads also fit
into this pattern. As a liminal goddess, she also stands between the two
worlds (upper and lower, or those of the living and the dead), as well
as serving as a mediator between the Olympians and the titans, or the
Olympians and the Chthonic deities. Hekate was thought to guard such
thresholds, and was said to be able to protect them (be it by not
allowing evil to cross the doorway into a house, or by not allowing the
dead to wander the world of the living), and as such this also meant she
could refuse to protect someone against these things, and even send
them against people should she wish to do so.
Her threshold associations can be seen in the myth of Persephone (among
other myths), where she was a witness to Hades’ abduction of Persephone
from her cave – a threshold to the underworld.
Hekate is also a goddess of witchcraft and magic – which also includes
the creation of potions, tinctures, poisons, salves, and so on, and the
knowledge of herbs required to do such things. The witch Medea is said
to have gotten her power from Hekate (and she was also a priestess at
Hekate’s temple), and Medea practiced magic that is frequently described
as nocturnal in nature, or necromantic. Hekate is also said to have
given Medea incredible knowledge of, and skill with, all the herbs that
grow on land, and all the herbs of the water.
Hekate is a goddess of the night. She has some lunar ties, especially
when she becomes more identified with Selene, but it might be more
accurate to say that she is the goddess of moonless nights – especially
moonless nights where the stars are fully visible.
Hekate is also a goddess of the dead, and of the underworld. She rules
over necromancy, allowing the living to contact the dead for information
or aid. She is said to lead the ghosts of the dead around the world of
the living during the night, and that howling dogs is a symbol that she
is passing by. In addition to leading the earthbound ghosts, she is also
sometimes said to lead the spirits of the dead to the underworld. Being
that she has the power to let the dead loose, she is also sometimes
invoked to keep the dead from wandering.
Hekate was also related to the keres, female death-spirits who were
daughters of the goddess Nyx, which include the Moirai (the fates),
among other figures.
Hekate was not only associated with the dead, but also had some ties to
childbirth as well. Additionally, she also had some associations with
purification.
Animals sacred to Hekate include the dog, who have ties to the
underworld in Greek mythology (and indeed, often in Indo-european myth
in general), as well as having ties to the living (as
companions/guardians of humans). Additionally, dogs were thought of as
being threshold guardians – be it in guarding human homes, or Kerberos,
who guarded the entrance of the underworld. Hekate was often accompanied
by dogs, and there are a few myths where a human woman was turned into a
dog (for various reasons), and became one of Hekate’s.
The polecat (a sort of weasel) was also one of her sacred animals.
Again, in some myths she is accompanied by a polecat that was once a
person, but was either turned into polecat by Hekate, or was turned into
weasel by another, and Hekate took pity on them
The red mullet, a type of fish, also carried some loose associations to
Hekate. As did serpents, cows and bulls, and horses, all to some extent.
Plants sacred to Hekate include aconite, mandrake belladonna, saffron,
garlic, dittany, yew, cypress, and oak. Ebony was also said to be sacred
to Hekate, as was bronze.
Some of Hekate’s titles include:
- Night Wandering
- Lady of the Underworld
- Queen of the Dead (or Queen of those Below)
- Angry/terrible One
- Tender/delicate (hearted) One
- Of the Crossroads
- Of the Wayside
- Nurse of the Young
- Leader of Dogs
- One That Turns Away/protects
- Holding the Keys
- Before the Gate
- Savior
- Light Bringer
Hekate had a few public temples, but household shrines were often
erected in her name, often in hopes to ward off witchcraft, or otherwise
to protect the house from all manner of evils and ills.. A Hekataion
was a little shrine placed at the front door, which was dedicated to
Hekate, and were very common in Athens.
Offerings to Hekate were said to often be made to during the night, and
at the crossroads. As a Chthonic deity, offerings to her might have also
been burned whole, or buried in the ground (unlike offerings to the
Olympians, which were often communal meals).
In one epic, a man named Jason placates Hecate in a ritual given to him
by the witch Medea. He was told to bathe at midnight in flowing water,
and to dress in clean, darkly colored robes. He was then to dig a pit,
and to erect a pyre next to the pit, so that an ewe could be sacrificed
within the pit, which should then be burned whole on the pyre with an
offering of honey. He is then instructed to leave the offering site
without looking back, even if he hears the sound of people, footsteps,
or barking dogs – which would all indicate the presence of Hekate. The
elements of this particular ritual are all very chthonic in nature.
However, not all of Hekate’s traditional offerings were done in this
manner.
A common sacrifice to Hekate would be that of dogs (or puppies). When
dog meat was offered, it would usually be offered at a crossroads, and
it would often be shared in a communal meal with those present.
In some locations, notably Athens, the end of each lunar month brought a
festival dedicated to Hekate called the Deipnon - or sometimes Deipna Hekates (Deipnon is the Greek word for the largest meal of the
day, Deipna is the plural of Deipnon).
This festival contained two parts. The first was to fumigate and cleanse
the home. The home and household shrines were cleaned out, and the
cleanings were gathered up to become part of the offering (the cleanings
often contained dropped food, leftover offerings, waste blood,
dirt/dust, ashes from sacrifices or incense ashes, and so on), and the
home was purified. This ensured a fresh start for the beginning of the
month.
The second part of the festival was to offer a meal to Hekate, which
could include cakes, eggs, garlic, leeks or onions, fish, and cheese. At
the end of the evening, the cleanings and the meal were usually left at
the end of the path connecting the house and the main road, which of
course formed a triple crossroads. The offering was placed there, and it
was not to be looked at as one went back into the house. It’s not sure
what was done with these offerings the next day, but often the food
would be taken away by the poor in the night.
"Ask Hekate whether it is better to be rich or starving; she will
tell you that the rich send her a meal every month [i.e. food placed
inside her door-front shrines] and that the poor make it disappear
before it is even served."
Aristophanes, Plutus 410 ff (trans. O'Neill) Greek comedy C5th to 4th B.C
Hekate is often said to be one of the virgin goddesses, much like
Artemis and Athena. Many myths say she is unmarried, and she is often
said to be without children, but occasionally myths say she is mother to
the sea monster Scylla.
Hekate is usually regarded as the daughter of Asteria (“Starry One”) and
Perses (a deity of destruction and war), who were both Greek Titans.
However, a few sources say she is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter.
Sometimes said to be a daughter of Leto (a Titan who was sister to
Asteria, and the mother of Artemis and Apollo), perhaps because of her
association with Artemis.
Hekate assisted Demeter in her search for Persephone, and became
Persephone’s companion during her time in Hades. Due to this, she became
a key part of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and served as a guide to the
initiate of the mysteries, as well as perhaps serving other roles
(little is recorded of the mysteries).
Hekate, in later times, was often heavily identified with Artemis and
Selene. Eventually these three formed a triad deity,
Hekate-Artemis-Selene, who was fairly popular in the poetry of Roman era
Greece. Sometimes she would be linked to just one or the other, forming
Artemis-Hekate, and Hekate-Selene.
Hekate was also identified with the Thracian goddess Bendis, who was a
goddess of the moon, hunting, and witchcraft. Bendis was also associated
with Selene and Artemis, and indeed the Greeks essentially saw her as a
combination of those three deities. It is likely that this is the
source of Hekate becoming linked to closely to both Artemis and Selene.
The Romans equated Hekate with their goddess Trivia.
"Hekate Einodia, Trioditis [Trivia], lovely dame, of earthly, watery,
and celestial frame, sepulchral, in a saffron veil arrayed, pleased with
dark ghosts that wander through the shade; Perseis, solitary goddess,
hail! The world’s key-bearer, never doomed to fail; in stags rejoicing,
huntress, nightly seen, and drawn by bulls, unconquerable queen; Leader,
Nymphe, nurse, on mountains wandering, hear the suppliants who with
holy rites thy power revere, and to the herdsman with a favouring mind
draw near."
Orphic Hymn 1 to Hecate
Additional Sources:
Hekate on Theoi.com
Hekate Liminal Rites, by Sorita d'Este and David Rankine
Bearing Torches: A Devotional Anthology for Hekate, by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
