Hecate by Twilight

“Hellish, heavenly and earthly Hecate,
Goddess of crossroads, witch queen,
Gorgon eyed terrible dark one…”
(from Hellboy by Mike Mignola)

If you were to closely examine many Wiccan and neo-pagan groups you would most likely find that Hecate appears as one of their patron deities. She has also made several appearances in popular culture, for example in television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the volume of Hellboy that is quoted above.[1] She is commonly associated in these modern accounts of her as a Goddess of magic, perhaps with dark and dangerous undertones. But how true is this perception of her and why is she viewed as having negative connotations?

Hecate is in fact not - as is popularly thought - a Goddess.  This is due to her divine birthright which comes from her parents Perses and Asteria. These two beings are Titans as is Hecate, she is one of the few of these deities to retain the formidable powers that are her heritage.

The Titans in Greek myths are a pantheon of deities, they created the world and give birth to the Gods. The Gods then in turn made war with their parents. After the defeat of the Titans by the Gods they were stripped collectively of their power and their authority. This mantle was then passed onto the newly victorious Zeus and his siblings, only those of the Titans that either aided or had the favour of the Gods retained their power. Hecate is one of the Titans that had this favour bestowed upon her, in fact Zeus honoured Hecate “above all others, granting her magnificent privileges: a share both of the earth and of the undraining sea. From the starry heaven too she has a portion of honour, and she is the most honoured by the immortal Gods.”[2] However, her main sphere of influence falls within the underworld to which she keeps the keys. She also acts to sanctify the oath made between Hades and Persephone in the land of the dead. This was made to allow Persephone to return to the land of the living after a four month period spent with Hades as her husband. When Persephone was abducted it was Hecate who first helped Demeter’s search for her and it is Hecate who Persephone spends much of her time with in the underworld, preferring her company greatly to that of Hades.

Hecate as a deity has a number of names and associations: dogs are her sacred animals and black ones were sometimes sacrificed to her. She was often worshipped in places where three ways met and so she naturally became linked with crossroads. An idea that became further entwined with her due to the fact that the dead were often buried outside cities along roadsides. This then led to people worshipping her at these places. As a deity of the underworld she has a number of ghosts and apparitions as her consorts and can send them to harass people at will. Conversely she can also bestow protection from the dead and an inscribed tablet could be set on a house to give it her blessing. While all this may suggest her main realm is death, as shown above she has a larger influence upon the Greek world. Childbirth is an area which she jointly presides over with other Gods and she also acts to protect the living and especially children. Hecate also jointly acts alongside Hermes but her influence is focused on increasing cattle and flock numbers.

She has a number of aliases befitting her status; Enodia the wayside Goddess, Trimorphos and Trioditis of the three ways are just three. Her appearance is equally malleable: on engraved images of her she appears as a woman holding a torch and on either side are two hounds. Rather fittingly for a deity of the three ways she is also seen as having three bodies, one with a lions head, one with a dogs and one with that of a mare.

One of the most common pieces of information that is known about Hecate is her magical connotations and her invocation in witchcraft. This came about due to the fact that a number of Greek plays and myths link her directly to it. Medea is one such link - she is Hecate’s main priestess and is taught the magical arts directly by the titan. Medea then goes on to become a powerful witch and is instrumental in the lives of the Greek heroes Theseus and Jason. Another reason that Hecate is linked to magic is that a number of Greek plays satire her devotees and the image of witchcraft. They evoke images of graveyards and black magic performed at night in her name. This gives her a darker image in Greek culture and means that spells and sacrifices performed in her name are given nastier undertones. Hecate is invoked in a large number of Greek spells and magical enchantments. She is prayed to in a huge number of love spells and is asked in at least one spell for an audience in a dream. The titan is also linked in spells to the concept of being a queen of the animals “Bull-headed, you have the eyes of bulls, / the voice of dogs; you hide your form in shanks of lions”[3]

In summary, Hecate is a powerful being with many aspects to her nature. She is not just seen as the dark hag in Greek myths but also as a vibrant, charismatic being loved and befriended by a number of the Gods. In being so she transcends limitations, helps to keep the hope of spring alive after winter has come, and acts as a comforter and mother to many beings. She is the twilight Goddess standing between the dark and the light.

Further Reading:

[1] Mike Mignola, Hellboy: Wake the Devil, Dark Horse Books (1997).

[2] Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, trans. M. L. West (1999).

[3] Hans Dieter Betz (ed), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, The University of Chicago Press (1992).

Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, The Folio Society (1998).

Sabine G. Oswalt, Collins Concise Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology, Collins Sons and co Ltd (1969).

Janet and Stewart Farrar, A Witch’s Bible, Phoenix Publishing Inc (1996).

Christopher A. Faraone And Dirk Obbink (ed), Magika Hiera, Oxford University Press (1997).