Hecate: Greek Goddess of Magic, Crossroads, & the Moon

SUMMARY

• In Greek religion, Hecate is associated with magic, witchcraft, the moon, and the night. She was also a goddess of the crossroads and liminal spaces and could move between realms, including those of the living and the dead, making her a chthonic goddess.
• Hecate is often depicted as a triple-formed deity, looking in all directions.
• Hecate’s symbols include torches, keys, and dogs, reflecting her roles as a guide through darkness, a controller of boundaries, and a protector against evil.
• Hecate was principally worshipped in home shrines and at crossroads shrines. While she had some major cult centers, she was mainly worshipped alongside other gods in their temples.

The goddess Hecate belongs to the ancient Greek religion. She was a goddess of the crossroads, a protector of the household, a lunar goddess, and a chthonic deity. She was also a goddess of magic and witchcraft, which has revived her popularity as a goddess of modern Wicca. Although there are few surviving myths about the goddess Hecate, her tales reveal a lot about her spheres of influence. They also suggest that she was a foreign goddess imported into the Greek pantheon, explaining her overlap and identification with many other Greek goddesses.

Classical scholars dispute Hecate’s origins. There are many theories for where Hecate originated, the most likely being Thrace, near modern Bulgaria, or Caria in Asia Minor. Wherever she came from, Hecate seems to have arrived in ancient Greece during the Archaic period, after the age of the epic heroes described in the Homeric epics, from which she is conspicuously absent.

That Hecate, also called Hekate, was an import into Greek mythology could explain why she does not seem to have a comfortable or consistent position in Greek literature and was often conflated with other goddesses.

In the ancient sources, Hecate first appears in Hesiod’s Theogony in the 7th century BCE. He mentions her parentage and role in the Gigantomachy as the slayer of Clytius. He also said that Zeus honored Hecate “above all.” He is said to have given her a share of the earth and the sea, a portion of the starry heaven. As a result, Hesiod said that men often sacrificed to her because she bestows wealth and good fortune (411-425). This passage reflects the belief that Hecate had power in all domains, even though other deities ruled over those domains.

Some myths suggest that Hecate is the mother of various characters from Greek mythology, including the witches Circe and Medea, Medea’s younger brother Aegialeus, the shape-shifting Empusa, and the legendary man-eating monster Scylla.

Hecate’s depiction in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter is perhaps her most well-known literary appearance. In the hymn, Hecate and the sun god, Hyperion, hear Persephone’s cries when Hades abducts her. After Demeter had searched for her daughter for nine days, Hecate came to her on the tenth with a torch in her hands. The goddess told Demeter all she had heard but did not know who had taken her daughter. Once Persephone was reunited with Demeter, Hecate embraced the girl. She would become Persephone’s companion in the underworld when the girl returned to Hades each year. A standard iconographic reference to this myth is Hecate carrying twin torches.

Several different accounts of Hecate’s parentage are given in the surviving myths. Hesiod says that she is the daughter of the Titans Perses and Asteria. Elsewhere, she is described as a daughter of Zeus with one of many of his lovers, or even his wife, Hera. There are also accounts that suggest she is the daughter of Demeter, Nyx (night), or even Tartarus.

Like many Greek gods and goddesses, the Hecate goddess had several overlapping domains. She was most notably the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, light, ghosts, necromancy, and a moon goddess. Further, she was the goddess and protector of the oikos (household) and entranceways.

Household Protection and the Crossroads

The Hecate goddess was often depicted as a triple-goddess, in which form she was strongly associated with crossroads and other liminal areas and boundaries. This liminality is attested to by her epithets and cult titles such as Enodia (on the way), Trodia (frequenter of the crossroads), and Propylaia (of the gates). The entrance to the household was another liminal space, and Hecate was often included in the household cults alongside other protective daemons.

Cthonic Goddess

Hecate was also considered a goddess of the underworld who could easily move through the void between life and death. Some ancient authors, including Lucan, Plutarch, and Theocritus, describe her as being terrible to look upon. She is pallid and sickly looking, bathed in blood, and feasts on graves. She was sometimes called the blood-eating goddess Hecate. However, most depictions show Hecate as a beautiful woman, sometimes in the short robes of a maiden, in reference to the fact that she is a virgin goddess.

Witchcraft and Magic

By the 1st century CE, Hecate’s role as a goddess of magic and witchcraft was well established by Lucan’s Pharsalia. In the Pharsalia, the witch, Erichtho, invokes Persephone as the lowest aspect of Hecate. In the story of Jason of the Argonauts, she taught Circe, her high priestess, the art of magic. Circe, in turn, taught this witchcraft to her niece Medea, who made trouble with Jason through sorcery and her knowledge of sacred plants.

Hecate is also one of the Greek goddesses associated with the moon. The night was her domain and was considered another liminal space. Hecate was often depicted as accompanied by dogs, who could act as protectors, especially for those traveling at night. Dogs were considered sacred animals by her followers. She was also accompanied by the Lampades (underworld nymphs), carrying torches to light her way. According to mythology, the Lampades were a gift from Zeus after her loyalty to him during the Titanomachy.

Depictions of the Goddess in Ancient Art

Hecate was commonly depicted in Greek pottery in singular form, wearing a long robe and holding burning torches in her hands. Later, Hecate’s most prevalent iconographic representation was as a triple-formed goddess, with three bodies standing back-to-back, looking at each direction of a crossroads. They were often placed around pillars and called Hecataea, which were placed both at the crossroads and in the entry to the home.

Some of her statuary votive offerings included the addition of the Graces dancing between the three versions of the goddess. In other representations, she is accompanied by a pack of dogs. In his Description of Greece, Pausanias posits that Hecate’s triple-form representation was first depicted by the sculptor Alcamenes in the 5th century BCE. He also states that a sculpture of the goddess called Hecate Epipurgidia (on the tower) was in Athens beside Wingless Victory’s temple on the Acropolis.

On the famous Pergamon Altar (c. 2nd century BCE), Hecate is represented as trimorphic while attacking a serpent-like giant with a dog’s help. Throughout antiquity, Hecate’s triple form was portrayed as three separate bodies around a central column. Yet, in late antiquity, this representation transformed into a single goddess with three heads. Esoteric literature from this time describes Hecate as having three heads: that of a dog, a snake, and a horse. Hecate was also identified with many goddesses from surrounding pantheons.

Due to their overlapping realms of influence, Hecate was often associated with other goddesses, both from within the Greek pantheon and beyond.

Identification With Artemis

The name of Hecate or Ἑκατη means “worker from afar” from the Greek word hekatos. The masculine form Hekatos is a common epithet used for Apollo. According to scholars, this Apolline epithet links Hecate to Artemis, a goddess with similar spheres of influence. The goddesses were characterized in much the same fashion.

Both goddesses were generally portrayed as wearing hunting boots, carrying two torches, and being accompanied by dogs. They were often conflated to make a dual goddess, or example, in Aeschylus’ Suppliants. In Aeschylus’ play, the two goddesses are called to as one by the chorus. This consolidation of the goddesses occurs again in Aristophanes’ Frogs (1358f), in which the character of Aeschylus invokes the goddesses.

Early ancient sources connected Hecate with Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon. According to Pausanias, Hesiod stated that Iphigenia was not killed, as her father assumed, but rather became Hecate by the will of Artemis.

Identification With Artemis-Selene

In the Roman era, Hecate became amalgamated with the goddesses Artemis and Selene in their roles as moon goddesses, particularly in Roman poetry. Apart from her combined triple form, she became known by her Roman name, Trivia. The Roman poets encouraged Hecate’s trimorphic depictions by calling her Hecate-Selene and similar variations. Seneca often refers to Hecate in conjunction with her lunar counterparts and even connects Medea to the goddess.

Identification with Isis

When Egyptian gods became more popular in the Greek world following the rise of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, Hecate also became identified with Queen Isis, the most important female goddess in the Egyptian pantheon at the time. Isis was the wife of Osiris, who used her magical abilities to restore him to life, impregnate herself with his son Horus, and create the underworld for him to dwell. Therefore, like Hecate, she was a goddess of magic and the underworld. She was also considered the mother and wife of the pharaoh and a protective goddess, much like Hecate.

Hermes similarly occupied Chthonic characteristics, guiding the living into the land of the dead, and some ancient sources described Hecate as being the consort of this Chthonic Hermes. Both Hecate and Hermes were gods of the dead and could transcend liminal spaces and boundaries between worlds. The connection between these two gods was first offered by the Roman poet Propertius in the 1st century BCE.

Hecate’s Sacred Animals

As previously mentioned, Hecate’s most sacred animal was the dog. In a description offered by Apollonius of Rhodes, Hecate’s presence is accompanied by the sound of barking dogs from the underworld.

Ancient authors, such as Ovid and Pausanias, indicate that dogs – particularly black dogs – were sacrificed to the goddess. Scholars have also suggested that Hecate’s association with dogs points to her role as a goddess of birth. This is because dogs were also the sacred animals of other birth goddesses, such as Eileithyia and Genetyllis. Many moon goddesses were also associated with childbirth due to the connection between the cycles of the moon and the female cycle.

In later antiquity, Hecate’s dogs became associated with the restless souls of the dead who accompanied the goddess. The myth of Queen Hecuba’s metamorphosis into a dog is linked to the goddess Hecate. According to the legend, Odysseus received Hecuba as his captive after the fall of Troy. But the Trojan queen murdered a Thracian king on her voyage to Greece. As punishment, Hecuba was transformed into a black dog and became the companion of Hecate.

Another sacred animal of the goddess Hecate was the polecat or weasel. According to the myth told by Antonius Liberalis, Alcmena’s midwife, Galinthias, had deceived the gods during the birth of Heracles. While seeing Alcmena in labor pains, Galinthias went to the goddess of childbirth, Eileithyia, and the Fates – who prolonged the labor as a favor for Hera – told them the child had been born. In retribution for deceiving the gods, Galinthias was transformed into a polecat. Hecate pitied her transformation and appointed Galinthias as her servant and companion.

The cult of the goddess in mainland Greece was not as popular as the worship of the Olympians. The goddess had few dedicated temples throughout the ancient world. However, it was common practice to include her smaller household shrines. These shrines were erected to ward off evil and protect the individual from witchcraft. In the Greek world, Hecate’s most prominent cult centers were in Caria in Asia Minor, Eleusis, and the island of Samothrace.

In Samothrace, the goddess was worshipped as a goddess of the Mysteries. Evidence of her worship has likewise been discovered in Thessaly, Thrace, Colophon, and Athens, but with her cult carried out in the temples of other gods. The latter two cities bear evidence of the sacrifice of dogs in the goddess’ honor. Pausanias offers that Hecate was the goddess most worshipped by the people of Aegina who believed that Orpheus established the rites of the goddess on their island. Pausanias also describes a wooden image of Hecate located in the Aeginetan temple.

Although Hecate does not have a Homeric Hymn in her honor, she has several Orphic Hymns. In fact, the collection of Orphic Hymns opens with a hymn dedicated to the goddess. This is significant because of her role as a goddess of entryways.  The Orphic Hymn to Hecate reveals a lot about her spheres of influence as perceived by the Orphics. In their mysteries, she was the goddess of roads and the crossroads and invoked as such.

In the Chaldean Oracles, Neoplatonist texts written in the 2nd or 3rd centuries CE, further ancient doctrine related to Hecate survive. The text focuses on the world being dual in nature. One part is the transcendent mind, while the other is the physical creator. Hecate is described as a membrane that separates these powers of thought and the physical world. As such, she is described as the “world soul.”

In a sense, this seems to describe Hecate as the embodiment of the spiritual realm. She is what exists between the physical mundane world and the divine. Thus, she seems to represent the spiritual energy that mankind can tap into and, therefore, ideas of magic and witchcraft.

Today, Hecate is one of the most popular goddesses from the Greek world since, as a goddess of witchcraft,t she has been adopted into modern-day Wicca and occult practices. Hecate, and other triple goddesses like her, are the inspiration for the maiden-mother-crone goddess of modern Wicca.

How is Hecate pronounced?

The name Hecate is commonly pronounced HEK-A-TEE, which is consistent with the ancient Greek spelling and pronunciation. However, in Early Middle English, in particular Shakespeare’s plays, her name was pronounced “HEK-AT,” even though it was spelled with the final E. Shakespeare was so influential that it influenced translations of ancient texts with “Hecat” well into the 19th century, even though both the Greek (Ἑκάτη) and Latin (Hecatē) included the E.

Who was Hecate in Greek mythology?

Hecate is a goddess in Greek mythology associated with magic and witchcraft. She was considered thee teacher of witches, but also had the power to protect against witchcraft. She was considered to occupy liminal spaces, including crossroads and gateways, and thus often functioned as the protector of both crossroads and the home. As a liminal goddess, she could also move between the world of the living and the underworld, making her a chthonic goddess associated with necromancy. She was also a goddess of the night, with darkness considered a liminal area, and was thus often considered a moon goddess and associated with other lunar goddesses such as Artemis and Selene.

What are the symbols and attributes of Hecate?

The Hecate symbols included two torches, representing the way she brings light to darkness, keys, representing gateways, and dogs, often associated with both the underworld and protection. She was often represented as a triple goddess, with one face looking out in each direction at the crossroads. Hecate and other triple goddesses inspired the “maiden, mother, crone’ goddess in modern Wicca, with Hecate often representing the crone.

How was Hecate worshipped in ancient Greece?

Hecate was worshipped in the household shrine alongside the other household gods and at shrines of the crossroads. Both of these shrines were often called Hekataion, representing her central role. It is recorded that food offerings were often made during the dark of the new moon to protect against evil spirits. While she had a few dedicated shrines, she was mostly placed in the shrines of other gods and worshipped alongside them. Dogs, especially puppies, seem to have been a preferred offering for the goddess.

Originally published: June 13, 2024. Last update: February 10, 2025, by Jessica Suess.