Possibly my favorite of all the gods and goddesses, Hekate is also one of the most timeless personages. There's also a duality in how people see her which makes it all the more interesting. In the positive light she is equated with mother/moon goddesses such as Inanna, Isis, Diana and Demeter. In the less flattering light, she is equated with 'trickster' gods such as Loki and Lilith. In some she has relations to Christian 666 Beast. These last are bastardized however and totally off center from her original purpose. So I bring to you...my lady Hekate.

Hekate

ALSO: Hecate, Lucifera

Concepts/Perspectives belonging to Hekate are:

** The Crossroads

** Abundance

** Fate

** Fortune

** Goodwill

** Prosperity

** Eloquence

** Victory

** Success

** Witchcraft

** The Moon

** The Underworld

** The Mysteries of Eleusis

It’s incredibly difficult to tell where Hekate originated from. Her tradition is thought to be older than even the Titans, reaching as far back as the hunter-gatherer cultures. The meaning of her name in Greek is, as of now, mostly unknown. The closest guess we have is of the root εκατό meaning “one hundred.” In sacrifice, it was considered excellent to sacrifice 100 cattle and among many of the gods 100 repeats itself. So when it comes to symbolism, Hekate is in the forefront of importance.

But besides that, stories about Hekate are few and far between. More often she is referenced as the patron goddess of mortals. With other gods of the Pantheon, they have no qualms about injuring or killing humans that irritate them. Hekate belongs to a, albeit small, group of gods who genuinely want to help us be successful and find the mysteries of eternal life.

Her iconography fluctuates greatly from time to time, person to person. Sometimes she is a crone others show her as a young woman wearing a headdress. At times she has 3 bodies or 3 heads turned to stare off in different directions. In her hands are torches, knives, and keys and is often in the company of ghost dogs, horses, snakes and owls (sometimes the dogs have 3 heads as well).

Hekate’s birth traditions are varied. In some she’s a daughter of Nyx, the embodiment of night. Orphic tradition says she’s the child of Zeus and Demeter, sister of Persephone. In Hesiod’s Theogony she’s the child of Asteria and Perses. That’s the tradition I’ll be sticking with. I don’t think I could do justice to the passage with a summary so here is the direct quote:

“She also bore Asteria, whose name brings good luck;

Perses brought her to his great house, to be his dear wife.

There she conceived and bore 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 born to Ouranos [Uranus] and Gaia.

The son of Kronos did not use force on her and took away

None of the rights she held under the Titans, those older gods.

The distribution made in the beginning is still the same.

Nor does the goddess have less honor for being an only child;

In fact, she has much more because Zeus honors her,

And her domain extends over land and sky and sea,

And she can greatly aid a man—if this is her wish.

In trials her seat is at the side of illustrious kings,

And in assemblies the man she favors gains distinction.

And when men arm themselves for man-destroying battle,

The goddess always stands beside those she prefers

And gladly grants them victory and glory.

Again, she is noble goddess when men compete

For athletic prizes, because she stands by them and helps,

And whoever, by force and strength, wins a fair prize,

Carries it away with ease and joy and brings his parents glory.

To horsemen, too, when she wishes, she is a noble helper

And to those working out on the stormy and gray sea

Who pray to Hekate and to the rumbling Earthshaker.

With ease this glorious goddess gains a great catch of fish

And with ease, if that is her wish, she makes it vanish.

And when she wishes from the heart she can be noble

and, with Hermes, help livestock breed in the stalls,

And swell or thin out herds of cattle and wide-ranging

flocks of goats and thick-wooled sheep.

And even though she was her mother’s only child

She has her share of honors among all the gods.

The son of Kronos made her the fostering goddess of all youths

Who after her birth saw the light of wakeful Dawn.

A nurturer of youths from the beginning, she holds these honors.”

---Hesiod’s Theogony Lines 409-452

She was given, or always had, power over every part of the planet; earth, ocean and heaven. Among mortals she was a teacher and a caretaker, as stated by Hesiod. Medea, the wife of Jason (As in Jason and the Argonauts, Jason and the Golden Fleece, etc.), gained her knowledge of herbs and sorcery from Hekate herself. Humans who had magical powers were thought to be her students.

The other myth that Hekate pops up in is the Kidnapping of Persephone—where Hades snatches up Persephone and brings her down to Hades to be his bride. Zeus had allowed this and brought every god and goddess together on Olympus to strictly warn them not to breathe a word to Demeter about who the abductor was. Anyone who so much as gives her a hint will be immediately slain by Zeus and thrown into Tartarus or Hades. He’s very particular about extending the warning to his most powerful child, Athena. So all they can do is blush and look away when Demeter questions them as to the location of Persephone.

Eventually Hekate approaches her, ignoring Zeus’ orders, and instructs her to see Helios for the answers she seeks. When Helios hears who sent Demeter he is compelled to tell her everything he knows (since the sun shines in the sky, he can see everything that happens in the world). No bolt of lightning flew from the sky to strike him nor Hekate down, once she decided to usurp his orders there was nothing he could do about it

Hekate is quite the enigmatic figure. Her tradition is older than written memory and still has mighty influences over us today.

Her oldest concept is that of the Goddess of the Crossroads. In case you don’t know, a crossroad is when you approach an intersection. The picture to the right shows it best. You’re walking along the path and come to an intersection. From there you have several choices: go left, go right, go forward, turn around or stay where you are. The word “crossroad” insinuates that you don’t know exactly where you’re going so as you travel you’re passing borders and the limits of your knowledge. This was especially important to hunter-gatherer cultures who never knew if the path they followed would bring them a fortune or misfortune. If they took the wrong path there would be no food waiting for them and they would starve and die. The right path would bring them plenty of food and wellbeing for the entire clan. They looked to Hekate to bless them and show the best way to go. Hekate is a guardian of the road and is there to help us along to make decisions, physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally.

The torch is the symbol for knowledge, heralding back from the Prometheus myth where he brought fire to mortals on a torch made out of a fennel stalk. The flame of the torch has many uses. It lights our way in the uncertain night, it can protect us from unsavory creatures, it cooks our food, it warms our bodies, it forges our weapons—it has many purposes that all belong to Hekate. Keys are another symbol of knowledge, unlocking secrets that we may or may not want to know.

Hekate’s purpose changed when people became sedentary, building towns and settling in one spot. It was then that they started viewing everything outside the city walls as something to be feared. It was then that Hekate took on the concept of sorcery.

The original purpose of sorcery or witchcraft (at least in the Greek sense) was to make life simple. When someone came to a crossroads (literally or metaphorically) they would rely on magic to see down each road. Instead of leaving it up to chance they would perform a ritual to see which one offered the best results. Hekate’s 3 heads, staring off down the different roads, became symbolic of her magical power of foresight.

Sorcery is also the act of pushing (or perhaps forcing) fate, fortune and victory in the desired direction. So in other words, it was asking (or making) the gods do your bidding. This is part of the reason why it was so abhorred in other religions that felt that their god bent to the will of no human.

This tri-image of her pretty much automatically makes her an overseer of the birth, life, death cycle. And because of this, this puts her on equal terms with the moon goddesses. Rituals to Hekate were preformed during the dark moon.

Hekate’s power of sight, or prophecy, ties her into the Underworld. In all of the ancient epic poems such as Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid they can’t get information about the future from any human in the living realm. They must make a descent and to converse with the dead to get the information they need. Sorcery claims to know what came before, what’s going on now and what will happen. Since this was Hekate’s power she became related to the Underworld. Many of her helpers came from the Underworld as well, ghost dogs and Empusae (Shapeshifting women who haunted crossroads, ancient versions of the vampire and succubus).

And finally, Hekate is one of the gods associated in what is known as The Mysteries of Eleusis. Eleusis was the city that Demeter holed up in for a year after Persephone was kidnapped and she taught the priests there secrets of the Underworld. It works in very much the same way the Egyptians used their Book of the Dead. Initiates in the Mysteries of Eleusis were taught how to pass the judgment of Minos, get into the best parts of the Underworld and who to hang out with while you’re down there. Also as a part of the Mysteries they were taught the secrets of immortality. The other gods associated with the Mysteries of Eleusis were Demeter, Dionysus and Persephone. All of these gods, Hekate including, were exceptionally kind towards mortals—showing them an abundance of goodwill and gifts.

And that's all I know for now about Hekate. There are many more books I've yet to read concerning her works and purpose, both then and now, that I must look for. I hope you've enjoyed this look at her original embodiment.