Hecate, The Goddess of Darkness

Hectate, the daughter of the Titans Perses and Asteria is referred to as the goddess of darkness. She always has snakes wrapped around her neck and surrounded by a pack with a stern frown and penetrating gaze.

The magicians and sorcerers paid tribute to her with dogs and slaughtered black lambs. Hecate, who had a lot of power in Hades, is represented with three bodies or three heads for a single head or a single body, respectively, and with snakes wrapped around her neck.

The place of origin of the Hectate cult is unknown but it is believed to have many followers in Thrace. Its most important sanctuary was in Lagina, a theocratic city-state in which the goddess was attended by Eunuchs. The famous temple of Hecate attracts large festive gatherings every year.

Hesiod emphasizes that Hecate was the only daughter of Asteria, a titan of the stars who was sister to Leto, mother of Artemis and Apollo. The grandmother of these three cousins was Phoebe, the ancient Titanian who personified the moon. Hecate was a reappearance of Phoebe, and therefore a moon goddess, who manifested in the darkness of the moon.

As this cult spread to areas of Greece a problem arose since the role of Hecate was already covered by other more prominent deities of the Greek pantheon, particularly Artemis, and by more archaic characters such as Nemesis.

Two versions of Hecate then emerge in Greek mythology. The least known is a clear example of an attempt to integrate it without diminishing Artemis. In it, Hecate is a mortal priestess commonly associated with Iphigenia, who scorns and insults the goddess, which ultimately leads her to commit suicide. Artemis then adorns the corpse with jewels and whispers so that her spirit rises and becomes the goddess Hecate, who acts in a similar way to Nemesis as an avenging spirit, but only for wounded women.

This type of myths in which a local deity sponsors or “creates” a foreign deity was popular in ancient cultures as a way of integrating foreign sects.

Additionally, as the worship of Hecate grew, her figure was incorporated into the later myth of the birth of Zeus as one of the midwives who hid the child, while Kronos consumed the false rock that had given him Rhea.

The second version helps explain how Hecate won the title of “Queen of Ghosts” and her role as goddess of sorcery. In a similar way to how the Hermes (Hermes totems) were placed on the borders as protection against danger, images of Hecate, as a liminal goddess, could also play such a protective role.

It was common to put statues of the goddess on the doors of the cities, and finally on the doors of the houses. Thus invocations to Hecate arose as supreme governor of the borders between the normal world and that of the spirits.

The transition of the figure of Hecate can be followed until the Athens of the fifth century. She appears as a great goddess in two fragments of Aeschylus. In Sophocles and Euripides, she has become the mistress of witchcraft and Keres.

The power of Hecate ended up resembling that of sorcery. Medea, who was one of her priestesses, practiced witchcraft to skillfully manipulate magical herbs and poisons, and to be able to stop the course of rivers or check the trajectories of the stars and the moon.

The implacable Hecate has been called “the one of tender heart,” a euphemism perhaps to emphasize her concern for the disappearance of Persephone, when she addressed Demeter with sweet words at a time when the goddess was grieving. Later she became the assistant of Persephone and her close companion in the Underworld.

Although never included among the Olympian gods, Hecate’s modern understanding comes from the syncretic Hellenistic culture of Alexandria. In the magical papyri of Ptolemaic Egypt, she is called the Bitch, and her presence was indicated by the barking of dogs. She maintained a large following as goddess of protection and childbirth.

In modern times Hecate has become popular in neo-pagan religions inspired by feminism and Wicca. She is also referred to as the goddess of sorcery.

Sources:

• https://www.pinterest.com/pin/410672059763224848/?lp=true
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate