Who is Hecate?

Hecate is one of the darkest and most mysterious goddesses in Greek mythology.. Associated with the night, she was the patron saint protected night travelers and sorceressessince it was she who had invented magic and sorcery.

He also had the power to control malevolent spirits and to the ghosts that, taking advantage of the darkness, could harm human beings, hence the veneration that the most popular classes gave him.

Furthermore, it was the lady of crossroads and unguarded places.

The powers of the goddess Hecate

Hecate did not belong to the lineage of the Olympian gods, but to that of the Titanssince she was the daughter of Perses and Asteria, the latter sister of Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis. Even so, the Olympian Zeusprobably driven by the passion he had felt for Asteria, He granted Hecate all kinds of gifts and privileges just born.

Among those gifts stood out that of dispense to humans the favors they asked forfrom eloquence in assemblies and trials to victory in war, through obtaining a prize in a competition, abundant fishing or the multiplication of livestock. Hecate was always there to guarantee the material prosperity of its followers.

Hecate, goddess of the moon and night

As time went by, Hecate lost those first attributes, perhaps because she began to associate herself with other divinities, these ones from the Olympian family.

Therefore, He identified more and more with the darkness of the night and its mysteries, including magic.. She thus became the goddess who ruled the subtle border that separated the normal world from the spirit world. As such, he appeared to the witchessometimes in human form, at other times, in that of a dog, a wolf, a mare or a bear.

Hecate also began to associate with Selene and Artemis.with which he formed a triad related to the moon: if Selene symbolized the full moon and Artemis, the crescent moon, Hecate represented the new moon.

Hecate, a triple-faced Greek goddess

The statues of Hecate They also started to get up at crossroads or at city entrances as a protective element against evil spirits.

The most surprising element of these statues is that the goddess appears in them with three human facesalthough these can also be animal. Some artists have also represented her with three bodies.

In his hands, he carries a torch (symbol of the light that destroys darkness), a knife (which cuts everything that is not essential) and a key (that of the doors of sacred knowledge).

Hecate, mother of monsters

Hecate does not have a myth of her own. He also did not marry, although some traditions do attribute descendants to him. The most famous of his daughters was the one he had with an ancient maritime deity, Phorcys: the nymph Scylla.

Jealous of her beauty, the magician Circe transformed her into a monster whose body, from the groin down, was made up of six hideous dogs that devoured everything that came within their reach.

Hecate is also related to the Empusas, ghosts of the infernal world. who fed on human flesh and were responsible for causing nightmares, especially in women and children.

Cult of the goddess Hecate

The cult of Hecate was carried out mainly in the houses and before the statues of the goddess that stood on the roads and before which offerings were left.

The only large temple dedicated to the goddess was in Laginain present-day Türkiye. A festival was held there every year and, every four years, a larger one featuring maidens who brought the key, a symbol of access to the underworld, to the main temple.