Hecate

About Hecate in brief

Hecate or Hekate is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches or a key. She is variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, night, light, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery. Her place of origin is debated by scholars, but she had popular followings amongst the witches of Thessaly and an important sanctuary among the Carians of Asia Minor in Lagina. Hecate was one of several deities worshiped in ancient Athens as a protector of the oikos, alongside Zeus, Hestia, Hermes, and Apollo. In the post-Christian writings of the Chaldean Oracles she was also regarded with rulership over earth, sea, and sky, as well as a more universal role as Savior, Mother of Angels and the Cosmic World Soul. Some scholars have suggested that the name derives from a Greek root, and several potential source words have been identified. A possibility for foreign origin of the name may be an Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth, who, like HeCate, was also associated with magic. The hypothesis that she was a foreign deity who was incorporated into the Greek pantheon is widely accepted. Other theories include that she might be derived from the local sun goddesses based on similar attributes, and that her role was already filled by other goddesses in the pantheon by the time she was worshiped by the Greeks in the 8th century BCE. In particular, there is some evidence that she may be derived.

from the Greek goddess Other, who was more prominent in the ancient pantheon than other deities. She was also worshipped in Asia Minor, where her association with Artemis seems to have been a late development, and the competing theories that the attribution of darker aspects and magic to Hecates were themselves not originally part of her cult. She may also have originated in Anatolia, the region where most theophoric names invoking Shecate, such as Hecataeus or Hecatomnus, the father of Mausolus, are attested, and where hecate remained a Great Goddess into historical times, at her unrivaled cult site of Lagina, in Phrygia. It has been remarked that she is more at home on the fringes than in the center of Greek polytheism. She straddles conventional boundaries and eludes definition. The name may have been derived from an obscure epithet of Apollo interpreted as \”the far reaching one\” or “the far-darter’”. This has been suggested in comparison with the attributes of the goddess Artemis, strongly associated with Apollo and frequently equated with HecATE in the classical world. No sources suggested list will or willingness as a major attribute of Hecette, which makes this possibility unlikely. It is possible it is a conflict, as it is not safe to assume that Carophian names involving hekat refer to a major deity free from the dark underworld and to the underworld.