Hekate

Basic Information / General Synopsis:

Hecate,

Though, properly speaking, not one of the supreme order of deities, is entitled to be placed here on account of a resemblance to Persephone in her mysterious functions both in the upper and lower world.  She is a goddess of Titanic origin, daughter of Tartaros and Night, or of Perses and Asteria (Starry-Night), the sister of Leto, according to other accounts.  The stories current among the ancients concerning her vary greatly, and often confuse her with other deities, especially those of the night, such as Selene or Luna, the goddess of the moon, while standing to Persephone in the relation of the servant or companion.  She belongs to the class of torch-bearing deities, like Artemis, and was conceived as carrying a burning torch, to suit the belief that she was the nocturnal goddess of the moon, and a huntress who knew her way also in the realm of spirits.  All the secret powers of Nature were at her command, was thought.  She had a control over birth, life, and death, and enjoyed great honour among the gods of Olympos as well as in the under-world.  To express her power in the three regions of nature, heaven, earth, and the under-world, she was represented as of triple form, and named Triformis.  Dogs were sacred to her.  Her character being originally that of a mysterious deity, it happened that more prominence was always given in the conception of her to her gloomy and appalling features, her chief function being held to be that of goddess of nether world, of night and darkness, mistress of all the witchcraft and black arts which were believed in as much in antiquity as inthe middle ages.  Accordingly her festivals were held at night, worship was paid her by torchlight, and sacrifices of black lambs presented with many strange ceremonies.  Her presence was mostly felt at lonely cross-roads, whence she derived the name of Trivia.

A mysterious festival was held in her honour every year in the island of Ægina, in the Saronic Gulf.  Beside the lake of Avernus, in lower Italy, was a dark grove sacred to her. (e)

"...Hekate, whom Zeus
honored above all others; he gave her dazzling gifts,
a share of the earth and a share of the barren sea.
She was given a place of honor in the starry sky,
and among the deathless gods her rank is high.
For even now, when a mortal propitiates the gods
and, following custom, sacrifices well-chosen victims,
he invokes Hekate, and if she receives his prayers
with favor, then honor goes to him with great ease,
and he is given blessings, because she has power
and a share in all the rights once granted
to the offspring of Ouranos and Gaia."

Hesiod, Theogony, 411-422

coming soon

• Noumenia (‘new moon day’): Held on the new moon (the 13th day of the month in the Grecian Lunar Calendar). Greeks did a thorough cleaning of their houses and deposited the garbage at the crossroads. A statue of the Triple Hekate was placed there along with eggs and other items as offerings. This allowed Greek families to begin the new month purified.

• Deipnon (supper): Held on the 13th day of the month, usually in conjunction with Noumenia. Offerings consisted of food:

  • Magides: a kind of loaf or cake (shape unknown)

  • Mainis or sprat

  • Skoroda: garlic

  • Trigle: or mullet fish

  • Psammeta: “a sacrificial cake described by Harpocration as “somewhat like the psaista””

  • Eggs

  • Cheese

  • Possibly the basunias a kind of cake, for which Semus, in Athenaeus, xiv. 545 B, gives the recipe.”

• Amphiphon: celebrations to Hekate which took place at crossroads. Included a cake surrounded by lighted torches.

• Katharmata: Katharmata was all those portions of sacrifices that were not used during the rite (i.e. blood, water, etc). These were sacred to Hekate and deposited at the crossroads.

• Katharsia: After the sacrifices were complete, katharsia was whatever was leftover. This could have included eggs or the body of a dog. Before such items were sacrificed, every member of the household had to touch them. This process was referred to as periskulakismos and if the material included a dog it could have been made the scapegoat of the entire household. Another part of this rite was the fumigation of the house (oxuthumia). After it was completed the censer (always made of baked clay) was deposited at the crossroads. It is not known what was burned in the censer; one theory holds that the actual katharmata itself.  (1 & 2 - not verbatim entries)

Proclus Diadochus (410-485 AD)

Hymn VI: To Hekate and Janus

(Text: E. Vogt Procli Hymni Weisbaden 1957)

Hail, many-named Mother of the Gods, whose children are fair

Hail, mighty Hekate of the Threshold

And hail to you also Forefather Janus, Imperishable Zeus

Hail to you Zeus most high.

Shape the course of my life with luminous Light

And make it laden with good things,

Drive sickness and evil from my limbs.

And when my soul rages about worldly things,

Deliver me purified by your soul-stirring rituals.

Yes, give me your hand I pray

And reveal to me the pathways of divine guidance that I long for,

Then shall I gaze upon that precious Light

Whence I can flee the evil of our dark origin.

Yes, give me your hand I pray,

And when I am weary bring me to the haven of piety with your winds.

Hail, many-named mother of the Gods, whose children are fair

Hail, mighty Hekate of the Threshold

And hail to you also Forefather Janus, Imperishable Zeus,

Hail to you Zeus most high.

NOTES:  The pairing of Hekate with Janus (as Demiurge) is very unusual, and is one piece of evidence which indicates that there was a link between Chaldean traditions and the Syrian sanctuary on the Janiculum.  This is discussed in Chaldean Hekate on pp 126-8 below.

The Orphic Hymns (1st-3rd c. AD?)

Hymn I: To Hekate

(text: w. Quant Orphei hymni Berlin 1962)

I invoke you, beloved Hekate of the Crossroads and the Three Ways

Saffron-cloaked Goddess of the Heavens, the Underworld and the Sea

Tomb-frequenter, mystery-raving with the souls of the dead

Daughter of Perses, Lover of the Wilderness who exults among the deer

Nightgoing One, Protectress of dogs, Unconquerable Queen

Beast-roarer, Dishevelled One of compelling countenance

Tauropolos, Keyholding Mistress of the whole world

Ruler, Nymph, Mountain-wandering Nurturer of youth.

Maiden, I beg you to be present at these sacred rites

Ever with a gladsome heart and ever gracious to the Oxherd.

Line 7) tauropolos An epithet of Artemis, variously interpreted to mean worshipped at Tauris, or drawn by a yoke of bulls, or hunting bulls (LSJ), or herder of bulls (Athanassakis tr.)

Line 10) Oxherd (boukolos) This seems to have been an officer in an Orphic group (Athanassakis p.113)

Sophocles (496-406 BC)

Hymn to Helios and Hekate

(fragment from the play the Rhizotomoi)

(Text: S. Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta 2 vols. [Leipzig 1889]. Fr 492; cf. T. Kraus Hekate Heidelberg 1960, p. 87.)

O Master Helios and Sacred Fire

O spear of Hekate of the Crossroads

Which she bears as she travels Olympus

And dwells in the holy triple-ways of the Earth

She who is crowned with oak-leaves

And the coils of wild snakes.

NOTES:  Reading naiousa 'dwells' in line 4 with Nauck, rather than the aniousa 'returns' of Wilamowitz (U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff Der Glaube der Hellenen 2 vols. [Berlin 1931-2] I. p 173), through it is not perhaps of vital importance which we read.  Farnell (pp 26-8) was keen to read this hymn as evidence for a lunar dimension to Hekate at this time, but it seems very hard to understand how the sun (Helios) would be seen as the 'spear' of the Moon-Goddess, and thus it appears to be better to take this as another piece of evidence of an early solar connection to Hekate which we discuss in Chaldean Hekate on p.116 below.

More Hymns

1. To the Hecate.

I call Einodian Hecate, lovely dame,
Of earthly, wat’ry, and celestial frame,
Sepulchral, in a saffron veil array’d,
Pleas’d with dark ghosts that wander thro’ the shade ;
Persian, unconquerable huntress hail !
The world’s key-bearer never doom’d to fail ;
On the rough rock to wander thee delights,
Leader and nurse be present to our rites ;
Propitious grant our just desires success,
Accept our homage, and the incense bless. (4)
 

Resource List:

All entries are taken verbatim from the original source:

(1)  "The Goddess Hekate: Studies in Ancient Pagan and Christian Religion & Philosophy Volume I."   Edited by Stephen Ronan.  Chthonios Books.  Hastings, UK.  ©1992

(e) "Who's Who in Mythology."  Alexander S. Murray.  Braken Books.  ©1988

(4)  Excerpt from "The Orphic Hymns."  Translated by Thomas Taylor in 1792.  Copied from: 

http://homepage.mac.com/dodecatheon/24OR1

Other sources used:

(2) Personal & professor's notes from the class: Classics 323 - Greek Religion. Taken Winter Quarter 2003 at The Ohio State University.

(3) Personal & professor's notes from the class:  Classics 324 - Magic in the Ancient World.  Taken Autumn Quarter 2002 at The Ohio State University.

(f) http://www.loggia.com/myth/myth.html