About 15 years ago, a good friend and I performed a ritual to appeal to Hekate for help. We set up an altar in her backyard and, before we began, a fluffy black cat carrying a dead rat entered the yard. The cat approached the altar, dropped the rat next to it, and left. We’d never seen that cat before and never saw it again. The ritual was successful, and Hekate has remained an important goddess in my pantheon since then.
I don’t remember when I first learned about Hekate. One of my earliest exposures to her was when I was about 12 years old. Through a Scholastic Book Clubs flyer, I bought Gods, Demigods & Demons: An Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology by Bernard Evslin, originally published in 1975. Below is the entry on Hekate (yes, I still have it):
“Hecate (HECK uh tee): A goddess of the underworld. Some say she was an aspect of Persephone, Hades’ queen, in her most deadly phase. But she is usually depicted as a self-sufficient deity, very ancient, very cruel… a torturer of ghosts and mistress of the brass-winged, brass-clawed Furies, whose task it is to torment those who have offended the gods. She was known also as queen of the roads, because, in ancient times, the dead were taken beyond the city walls and buried along the side of the roads. Hecate’s cult outlived those of all the other Greek gods. She was adopted by the medieval witch covens as their patroness and was worshipped in their secret rites.”
Interesting, right? It goes a little off the rails, but 12-year-old me must have been fascinated.
I have a shrine to Hekate, and I perform a monthly ritual to her, my adaptation of the Deipnon. This year, I’ve been dedicating every month to a different goddess, and I’ve placed Hekate on my main working altar in October.
It’s spring here in the Southern Hemisphere. Although I’m enjoying waking up to squawking birds, warmer days, and the beautiful Banksia Rose blooming in our backyard, I still associate October with Samhain and ancestors. As I wrote about recently in Happy Equinox, I mix up all my Sabbats now, but spring, like autumn, is a time of transition and just as good for spending time with Hekate, a goddess of liminality.
I have a shrine to Hekate, and I perform a monthly ritual to her, my adaptation of the Deipnon. This year, I’ve been dedicating every month to a different goddess, and I’ve placed Hekate on my main working altar in October.k
Approaching the subject of Hekate
Who is Hekate? What are her functions? How do we worship her? I see people ask these questions every day. Since I’m dedicating this month to Hekate, in a series of articles, I’ll share my understanding of this ancient and mysterious goddess, how I approach her, and where you can learn more.
Keep in mind that Hekate is ancient and was widely worshipped. Her cult had local variations, and the literature about Hekate spans two thousand years. Many contemporary books and papers have been written about Hekate. My scope here is limited to summarising what I think are some of the most important things to know about this complicated goddess when you’re starting to get to know her.
Because of Hekate’s long, complex, and diverse history, she can seem enormous when we learn about her today, like a goddess of everything. This leads to a tremendous amount of variety in approaches in contemporary perspectives and worship.
Origins
Hekate is commonly said to be a Greek goddess, but classical scholars dispute her origins. She may have originated in Thrace, a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.
Another popular theory is that Hekate originated in Caria, an area of western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey) that Greek tribes colonised after arriving sometime around the 13th century BCE. Caria was a significant centre of her worship, and the city-state of Lagina contained an important temple of Hekate that held great festivals every year.
The literary tradition
The first piece of literature that mentions Hekate is the Theogony, a poem by Hesiod composed in the 7th century BCE that describes the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods.
Hesiod described Hekate as a pre-Olympian goddess. In the Greek succession myth, Zeus and the Olympians overthrew the Titans, banishing and imprisoning them in Tartarus. But, not all the Titans were vanquished. According to Hesiod, Zeus “did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods.”
Hesiod wrote that Hekate “holds privilege” in earth, heaven, and sea. She sits by worshipful kings in judgement, is associated with battle and games, and granted victory and glory. Hekate stands by horsemen and gives a great catch to fishermen who prayed to her. She increases the stock of goats and sheep and is also a nurse to the young.
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter is perhaps Hekate’s most well-known literary appearance. In the hymn, Hekate and the sun god Helios heard Persephone’s cries when Hades abducted her. When Hades returned Persephone to her mother Demeter, Hekate embraced her and became Persephone’s attendant and companion and an important goddess of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Hekate has few myths, but we learn more about her from mentions by other Greek and Roman writers, including Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, Demosthenes, Lucanus, Virgil, Strabo, Ovid, Plutarch, and Pliny the Elder. Papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt and the post-Christian spiritual and philosophical texts known as the Chaldean Oracles are also relevant sources of information about Hekate. They tell us more about her appearance, the scope of her divine functions, and her cultic practices.
Divine duties
Hekate is bright, watches over childbirth, holds twin torches and acts as a guide. She is also called the Black Goddess and characterised as a pale goddess of the night, of witchcraft, associated with sorcery, incantations, poisons, herbs, charms, necromancy, and death magic. A chthonic goddess, Hekate guides deceased souls and is accompanied by the Lampades, nymphs of the Underworld.
Hekate is said to have three faces, three forms, and be of three ways. She becomes associated with crossroads, where people made offerings to her, as well as borders, city walls, gates, and doorways.
Hekate’s numerous epithets give us more insight into her roles and qualities. Some of her well-known titles are:
- Apotropaia (that turns away/protects)
- Chthonia (of the earth/underworld)
- Dadouchos (torch-bearer)
- Enodia (of the way)
- Kleidouchos (holding the keys)
- Kourotrophos (nurse of children)
- Krokopeplos (saffron cloaked)
- Phosphoros (bringing or bearing light)
- Propolos (who serves/attends)
- Propylaia (before the gate)
- Soteira (saviour)
- Triformis (three-formed)
- Trioditis (who frequents crossroads)
Hekate is a liminal goddess, a crosser of boundaries. Her father, Perses, is a Titan whose name means “destroyer”. Her mother is Asteria, a daughter of a Titan who inhabited Olympus and whose name means “starry one”. Asteria may also have been a goddess of dream oracles. We begin to see how the only daughter of The Destroyer and the Falling Stars inherited power over heaven, earth, and sea.
Hekate crossed the Titan and Olympian regimes, the realms between the mortal and divine, and the living and the dead. Her liminality is seen in her iconography, her many epithets, and places of worship.
What does Hekate look like?
Hekate has historically been depicted as young. The so-called Running Maiden from Eleusis from about 480 BCE, identified with Hekate, wears a garment characteristic of girls. In the early 20th century, the growing association of triple goddesses with the Maiden, Mother, and Crone model led to the transformation of Hekate from young to old. This image of Hekate as Crone has persisted in contemporary Paganism.
Early depictions show Hekate in a singular form, wearing a long garment and holding burning torches. Later, she appears with three separate bodies around a central column. In late antiquity, she is singular with three heads. In esoteric literature, she has three animal heads: a dog, snake, and horse.
I see Hekate as a young woman with dark hair and a pale, olive complexion. One of my favourite depictions of her is by Carolina Mylius, shown below.
Next time, I’ll dive more deeply into some of Hekate’s divine functions and explore some approaches to her worship.
I have recently come to find whom has been calling to me, or leaving me signs to worship Her. I have always felt it was a her, and did not feel any pull towards the God most know and pray of. I’ve felt pull towards all water, and the Moon, and have seen numerous signs. A tree I was always fascinated with as a child was a split trunk and the only one of its kind I had seen in that yard, to signify crossroads. There was a hole at the bottom that looked like it had a large egg in it, the next day (or by dream) I went out to see a turquoise, yellow belly and shimmery blue and green snake staring back at me. The egg was gone the next day. Dogs have also, always been kind towards me, even ones known to be aggressive. I discovered the Goddess Hecate and have found a sense of purpose. The Mother has been leading me towards her this whole time.
I’m glad you’ve found your way to Hecate. Thanks for reading and commenting, Alex. Best of luck on your journey.
I know of someone who has been having strange lucid dreams where he finds himself in world of perpetual twilight. There is a woman there on a thrown of sorts and has attendants. He says there are 2 torches on the throne and there is a black dog. The man is manic and considered delusional but I took an interest in his dreams and begin trying to see if there was anything in mythology to aligned to the dreams. I focused on Haitian and African myths because of his geographical location and never uncovered anything. Today I described the dreams to an AI chatbot who immediately suggested Hecate. Mind blown. There is a lot more to the dreams but he has been having them over the last three or four years and believes they are tied to a location from his youth. I’m starting to believe that someone the world considers mentally ill is actually the opposite.
Thank you for your comment, Alan. That’s interesting and you raise an excellent question at the end. History is full of people who heard voices and experienced visions. Sometimes, we’ve accepted it as mysticism, and sometimes, we’ve called them crazy. Determining where to draw that line can be tricky, but we can look at how it affects the person. Do they welcome it or are they troubled by it? I made a video about this over on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@divinehourswitch/video/7325784329466940680