Hecate

Hecate, for me, is a powerful goddess. She is known as the goddess of crossroads, the dark side of the moon, and sometimes, even the almighty Zeus revere her. Do you know any myths associated with her? I am familiar with Hecate's involvement to Demeter searching for Persephone.
 

magickz

Active Member
I have heard a few random stories of her mixed in with witchcraft but it seems when you research it some sites say one thing and others say seven other things. It is really hard sometimes to find true facts to it all, I guess that is what keeps the search fresh & exciting.
 

Nadai

Active Member
Hecate (Hekate or Perseis) was also the goddess of witchcraft, ghosts, and necromancy. Because she was the daughter of the Titans Perses and Asteria, she had the powers of heaven, earth, and sea. She had a very wide range of power and so was associated with several gods.
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This extensive power possessed by Hecate was probably the reason that subsequently she was confounded and identified with several other divinities, and at length became a mystic goddess, to whom mysteries were celebrated in Samothrace (Lycoph. 77; Schol. ad Aristoph. Pac. 277) and in Aegina. (Paus. ii. 30. § 2; comp. Plut. de Flum. 5.) For being as it were the queen of all nature, we find her identitied with Demeter, Rhea (Cybele or Brimo); being a huntress and the protector of youth, she is the same as Artemis (Curotrophos); and as a goddess of the moon, she is regarded as the mystic Persephone. (Hom. Hymn. in Cer. 25, with the commentat.; Paus. i. 43, § 1.) She was further connected with the worship of other mystic divinities, such as the Cabeiri and Curetes (Schol. ad Theocrit. ii. 12; Strab. x. p. 472), and also with Apollo and the Muses. (Athen. xiv. p. 645; Strab. x. p. 468.) The ground-work of the above-mentioned confusions and identifications, especially with Demeter and Persephone, is contained in the Homeric hymn to Demeter; for, according to this hymn, she was, besides Helios, the only divinity who, from her cave, observed the abduction of Persephone. With a torch in her hand, she accompanied Demeter in the search after Persephone; and when the latter was found, Hecate remained with her as her attendant and companion. She thus becomes a deity of the lower world; but this notion does not occur till the time of the Greek tragedians, though it is generally current among the later writers. She is described in this capacity as a mighty and formidable divinity, ruling over the souls of the departed ; she is the goddess of purifications and expiations, and is accompanied by Stygian dogs. (Orph. Lith. 48; Schol. ad Theocr l. c. ; Apollon. Rhod. iii. 1211; Lycoph. 1175; Horat. Sat. i. 8. 35; Virg. Aen. vi. 257.) By Phorcos she became the mother of Scylla. (Apollon. Rhod. iv. 829 ; comp. Hom. Od. xii. 124.) There is another very important feature which arose out of the notion of her being an infernal divinity, namely, she was regarded as a spectral being, who at night sent from the lower world all kinds of demons and terrible phantoms, who taught sorcery and witchcraft, who dwelt at places where two roads crossed each other, on tombs, and near the blood of murdered persons. She herself too wanders about with the souls of the dead, and her approach is announced by the whining and howling of dogs. (Apollon. Rhod. iii. 529, 861, iv. 829; Theocrit. l. c. ; Ov. Heroid. xii. 168, Met. xiv. 405; Stat. Theb. iv. 428 ; Virg. Aen. iv. 609; Orph. Lith. 45, 47; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1197, 1887; Diod. iv. 45.)​
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She had an immense amount of power and was the only Titan honored by all the immortals. After Hecate helped Demeter find Persephone, she stayed with Persephone in the underworld and became her minester and councel. Hecate was often times seen accompanied by a black dog (former queen, Hekabe, who threw herself into the sea after Troy fell) and a polecate (former witch Gale who offended the goddess).
Hecate's daughter was the witch Medea. Powell, Hesiod, Ovid, Homer, and Virgil describe the relationship with Hecate and Medea as being-not only mother and daughter, but goddess and priestess. Medea calls on the power of Hecate during her rituals. In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, Medea is seen praying to Hecate for the strength and power to aid Jason and again to curse him. Medea caused a great deal of damage to many's lives and did so by using Hecate's power. Ovid mentions her many crimes in Metamorphosis.
 
oh, I never thought that Hecate is Medea's mother, though I am aware that Medea is a powerful witch.
It seems to me that Hecate really is a powerful being!
 

Nadai

Active Member
http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Kirke.html

ENCYCLOPEDIA

CIRCE (Kirkê), a mythical sorceress, whom Homer calls a fair-locked goddess, a daughter of Helios by the Oceanid Perse, and a sister of Aeëtes. (Od. x. 135.) She lived in the island of Aeaea; and when Odysseus on his wanderings came to her island, Circe, after having changed several of his companions into pigs, became so much attached to the unfortunate hero, that he was induced to remain a whole year with her. At length, when he wished to leave her, she prevailed upon him to descend into the lower world to consult the seer Teiresias. After his return from thence, she explained to him the dangers which he would yet have to encounter, and then dismissed him. (Od. lib. x.--xii.; comp. Hygin. Fab. 125.) Her descent is differently described by the poets, for some call her a daughter of Hyperion and Aerope (Orph. Argon. 1215), and others a daughter of Aeëtes and Hecate. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iii. 200.) According to Hesiod (Theog. 1011) she became by Odysseus the mother of Agrius. The Latin poets too make great use of the story of Circe, the sorceress, who metamorphosed Scylla and Picus, king of the Ausonians. (Ov. Met. xiv. 9, &c.)
AEAEA (Aiaia). A surname of Circe, the sister of Aeëtes. (Hom. Od. ix. 32; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 559; Virg. Aen. iii. 386.) Her son Telegonus is likewise mentioned with this surname. (Acaeus, Propert. ii. 23. § 42.)
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
PARENTAGE OF CIRCE

Homer, Odyssey 10. 135 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Kirke, a goddess with braided hair, with human speech and with strange powers; baleful Aeetes was her brother, and both were radiant Helios the sun-god’s children; their mother was Perse, Okeanos’ daughter."
Hesiod, Theogony 956 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"And Perseis, the daughter of Okeanos, bare to unwearying Helios (the Sun) Kirke and Aeetes the king."
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 80 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"The Kholkhians who were ruled by Aeetes, the son of Helios and Perseis, and brother of Kirke and Minos’ wife Pasiphae."
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 584 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :
"Kirke, daughter of Perse and Helios."
Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 45. 1 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) :
"[A late rationalisation of the myth of Kirke :] She [Hekate, the daughter of Perses brother of Aeetes] married Aeetes and bore two daughters, Kirke and Medea, and a son Aigialeus."
 

Nadai

Active Member
I believe that, perhaps because Hecate is seen as the same as so many other goddesses, Medea was believed to be her daughter.
Circe is said to be the goddess of witchcraft and necromancy so it's possible that Hecate and Circe are one in the same.
 

Alejandro

Active Member
Apart from the stories about Zeus granting her immense honour among both the gods and the Titans; her making an attendant out of Herakles' midwife Galanthis/Galinthias (or Gale), who had been transformed into a weasel by the Moirai and the Eileithyiai; her making an animal familiar out of the Trojan queen Hekabe (Hecuba), who had metamorphosed into a black dog; Hekate was one of the warriors among the gods during their war against the Gigantes. In this war Hekate killed the Gigantos Klytios by burning him with her double-ended flaming torches (which sounds kinda ninja to me :)).

A scholion on Apollonios Rhodios' Argonautika calls her the daughter of Zeus and Asteria, which is interesting considering, on the one hand, how Zeus later goes out of his way to give a place of prominence to this goddess, and because, on the other hand, in the commonest version of the story about Zeus' lustful pursuit of Asteria, she is so determined to escape his advances that she succeeds, even if it means she ends up in the form of an island, i.e., Delos, which incidentally becomes the birthplace of her nephew Apollon and niece Artemis, the children of her sister Leto. In the Argonautika scholion, Hekate would not only be the cousin but also the half-sister of Apollon and Artemis. The grandchildren of the Titan Kreios, through his sons Perses, Pallas and Astraios, generally have interesting relationships with Zeus, with the children of Pallas, namely Nike, Zelos, Kratos and Bia, becoming the god's royal guard. Another Argonautika scholion says that Hekate's father was a certain Aristaios, and Aaron Atsma, on his Theoi Project website, believes that this is a mistake for "Astraios," who usually occurs as an uncle of Hekate. Astraios is best known for being the father of the eight (or more) directional Winds and of the Stars (or Astra in Greek) of the Sky. Astrology is notoriously prominent in witchcraft, of which craft Hekate was the presiding divinity. In such an instance she would be the sister of the most powerful forces in the air and in the heavens.

Atsma, on his article/page on a class of Underworld demonesses called the Empousai (Latinised Empusae), conjectures that they might be the fatherless daughters of Hekate. See http://www.theoi.com/Phasma/Empousai.html (One of the three evil witches in the Neil Gaiman novel Stardust, and so the similarly titled 2007 Paramount movie on which it is based, is called Empusa.)

In the mainstream version of Hekate's mythology her relationship with Medeia has her as a cousin of Medeia's grandparents, the sun-god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis. In response to your question, eirene: Yes, Kirke (Circe) was related to Medeia. According to most of the mythographers, Kirke was an aunt of Medeia, being a sister of Medeia's father Aietes.
 
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