(1971). She was also the divine mother of every pharaoh of Egypt, and ultimately of Egypt itself. William F. Albright proposed in 1939 that she was a form of the "lady of Byblos" (Baalat Gebal), while Ren Dussard suggested a connection to "Asherat" (e.g. [7] A connection with Ptah or Ra evident in her epithets is also known from Egyptian texts about Anat and Astarte. As the holder of the keys that can unlock the gates between realms, she can unlock the gates of death, as described in a 3rd-century BCE poem by Theocritus. I worship Hekate but have not worked with her personally. [164] Such derivations are today proposed only by a minority[165][166] The oldest known direct evidence of Hecate's cult comes from Selinunte (near modern-day Trapani in Sicily), where she had a temple in the 6th5th centuries BCE. [12] However, no sources suggested list will or willingness as a major attribute of Hecate, which makes this possibility unlikely. The eye of Horus 1 (2002): Bergmann, Bettina, Joseph Farrell, Denis Feeney, James Ker, Damien Nelis, and Celia Schultz. The origin of the name Hecate (, Hekt) and the original country of her worship are both unknown, though several theories have been proposed. "[34] The sacrifice of dogs to Hecate is attested for Thrace, Samothrace, Colophon, and Athens. Hecate, goddess accepted at an early date into Greek religion but probably derived from the Carians in southwest Asia Minor. Fragmentary Egyptian literary sources spread across thousands of years make reconstructing a unitary, comprehensive narrative difficult. Lady of Life: Spells exist that regard plagues as brought by the messengers of Sekhmet. Hecate or Hekate [a] is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, [1] and in later periods depicted as three-formed or triple-bodied. As Sterckx (2002) observes, "The use of dog sacrifices at the gates and doors of the living and the dead as well as its use in travel sacrifices suggest that dogs were perceived as daemonic animals operating in the liminal or transitory realm between the domestic and the unknown, danger-stricken outside world". Lady of bright red linen: Red is the color of lower Egypt, the blood-soaked garments of her enemies. (Most Americans today know them better by the names the Greeks gave them: Osiris, Isis, and Horus, respectively.) [76] Karl Kerenyi noted the similarity between the names, perhaps denoting a chthonic connection among the two and the goddess Persephone;[77] it is possible that this epithet gives evidence of a lunar aspect of Hecate. [80], Worship of Hecate existed alongside other deities in major public shrines and temples in antiquity, and she had a significant role as household deity. [17] The word "heka" in the Egyptian language is also both the word for "magic" and the name of the god of magic and medicine, Heka. Each aspect within the Triple Goddess is . [18], Hecate possibly originated among the Carians of Anatolia,[6] the region where most theophoric names invoking Hecate, such as Hecataeus or Hecatomnus, the father of Mausolus, are attested,[19] and where Hecate remained a Great Goddess into historical times, at her unrivalled[b] But what we do know is that this fascinating goddess held dominion over contradictory themes: war (and violence and death), plagues (diseases), and healing and medicine. The cult of Sekhmet declined in the New Kingdom. An annual festival was celebrated in honor of Sekhmet. The pharaohs wore the uraeus as a head ornament: either with the body of Wadjet . While disclaiming all his paternal care for Cordelia, Lear says, "The mysteries of Hecate and the night, 264 f., and notes, 275277, ii. Her approach was heralded by the howling of a dog. Antoninus Liberalis used a myth to explain this association: Aelian told a different story of a woman transformed into a polecat: Athenaeus of Naucratis, drawing on the etymological speculation of Apollodorus of Athens, notes that the red mullet is sacred to Hecate, "on account of the resemblance of their names; for that the goddess is trimorphos, of a triple form". thou who are pre-eminent, who riseth in the seat of silence who is mightier than the gods who are the source, the mother, from whence souls come and who makest a place for them in the hidden underworld And the abode of everlastingness. This description matches completely with that of the Triple Goddess, a deity who presides over birth, life, and death.[4]. A digital collage showing an image of Qetesh together with hieroglyphs taken from a separate Egyptian relief, Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East, Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archologie, A Reconsideration of the Aphrodite-Ashtart Syncretism, Transformation of a Goddess. In the 1st century CE, Virgil described the entrance to hell as "Hecate's Grove", though he says that Hecate is equally "powerful in Heaven and Hell." [Hekate] teaches the, Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in, Magliocco, Sabina. [25]Webster's Dictionary of 1866 particularly credits the influence of Shakespeare for the then-predominant disyllabic pronunciation of the name. (2009). In the Michigan magical papyrus (inv. 6. One theory is that Hesiod's original village had a substantial Hecate following and that his inclusion of her in the Theogony was a way of adding to her prestige by spreading word of her among his readers. The one who loves Maat and who detests evil. Barret Clive (1996) The Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Diamond Books, 10. Mason-Dixon Line So from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her honours. Subsequent studies tried to find further evidence for equivalence of Qetesh and Asherah, despite dissimilar functions and symbols. [15] Though often considered the most likely Greek origin of the name, the theory does not account for her worship 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 Hecate were themselves not originally part of her cult. Iusaas (Egyptian) Izanami-No-Kami (Shinto-Japanese) Mawu (West African) Nammu (Mesopotamian) Neith (Egyptian) Nu Kua (Chinese) Nut (Egyptian) White Buffalo Calf Woman (Native American) Yhi (Australian) Crones/Wise Women Baba Yaga (Slavic) Black Annis (Celtic) Cailleach (Celtic) Greine (Celtic) Hecate (Greek) Hel (Norse/Germanic) Oya (Santeria) She was associated with witchcraft, magic, the Moon, doorways, and creatures of the night like hell-hounds and ghosts. For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favor according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. In ancient Egyptor Kemet, as it was known to its people at the timeone key concept was the relationship among three deities, Asar, Aset, and Heru. For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. Religion in ancient Rome; Marcus Aurelius (head covered) . The triple goddess Mari-Anna-Ishtar was worshiped in Judea at the time of Christ. [13][89] There was an area sacred to Hecate in the precincts of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, where the priests, megabyzi, officiated. Sekhmet is the instrument of divine retribution. 19 K), Apollodorus, Melanthius, Hegesander, Chariclides (iii. [48], Hecate was closely associated with plant lore and the concoction of medicines and poisons. She holds a snake in one hand and a bouquet of lotus or papyrus flowers in the other. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Gods of Death Lady of the flame: Sekhmet is placed as the uraeus (serpent) on Ras brow where she guarded the sun gods head and shot flames at her enemies. [3], A passage from the Book of the Dead reads, superior to whom the gods cannot be . Because of this association, Hecate was one of the chief goddesses of the Eleusinian Mysteries, alongside Demeter and Persephone,[1] and there was a temple dedicated to her near the main sanctuary at Eleusis. According to a New Kingdom story, as 'Lady of the Sycamore', she heals the eye of Horus with milk from a gazelle. Though such gifts varied in value and substance, it is nevertheless clear that the kings, chiefs, and Ollam of the Tuatha D Danann all drew their power . [28] The frog, which was also the symbol of the similarly named Egyptian goddess Heqet,[46] has also become sacred to Hecate in modern pagan literature, possibly due in part to its ability to cross between two elements. [75] In one version of Hecate's parentage, she is the daughter of Perses not the son of Crius but the son of Helios, whose mother is the Oceanid Perse. Beginning during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, a Semitic goddess named Qetesh ("holiness", sometimes reconstructed as Qudshu) appears prominently. [d] It shows Hecate, with a hound beside her, placing a wreath on the head of a mare. [28], Hecate was a popular divinity, and her cult was practiced with many local variations all over Greece and Western Anatolia. [3], The 2nd-century travel writer Pausanias stated that Hecate was first depicted in triplicate by the sculptor Alcamenes in the Greek Classical period of the late 5th century BCE,[4] whose sculpture was placed before the temple of the Wingless Nike in Athens. Such deities may sometimes be referred to as threefold, tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune, triadic, or as a trinity. Once, Hermes chased Hecate (or Persephone) with the aim to rape her; but the goddess snored or roared in anger, frightening him off so that he desisted, hence her earning the name "Brimo" ("angry"). In ancient Egyptian mythology, Horus injured his left eye during his battles with the god Set, and thus his left eye represents the waxing and waning of the moon. She appears to have been particularly associated with being 'between' and hence is frequently characterized as a "liminal" goddess. "[49], The goddess is described as wearing oak in fragments of Sophocles' lost play The Root Diggers (or The Root Cutters), and an ancient commentary on Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica (3.1214) describes her as having a head surrounded by serpents, twining through branches of oak.[50]. [10] In what appears to be a 7th-century indication of the survival of cult practices of this general sort, Saint Eligius, in his Sermo warns the sick among his recently converted flock in Flanders against putting "devilish charms at springs or trees or crossroads",[62] and, according to Saint Ouen would urge them "No Christian should make or render any devotion to the deities of the trivium, where three roads meet". Hecate was associated with borders, city walls, doorways, crossroads and, by extension, with realms outside or beyond the world of the living. iPhone History: A Timeline of Every Model in Order [58], It was probably her role as guardian of entrances that led to Hecate's identification by the mid fifth century with Enodia, a Thessalian goddess. On the night of the new moon, a meal would be set outside, in a small shrine to Hecate by the front door; as the street in front of the house and the doorway create a crossroads, known to be a place Hecate dwelled. Ishtar Astarte Aphrodite, The Myth of Asherah: Lion Lady and Serpent Goddess, KTU 1.107: A miscellany of incantations against snakebite, A Reassessment of Asherah: With Further Considerations of the Goddess, A Reassessment of Tikva Frymer-Kensky's Asherah, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Qetesh&oldid=1142869786, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles having different image on Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Lion, snake, a bouquet of papyrus or Egyptian lotus, Hathor wig, This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 20:11. He is told to sweeten the offering with a libation of honey, then to retreat from the site without looking back, even if he hears the sound of footsteps or barking dogs. by Michael Jordan, which is also a comprehensive encyclopedia of Goddesses. The Byzantines dedicated a statue to her as the "lamp carrier". What's interesting about this deity is that Isis has mothered more religions than you may think. [90] This sanctuary was called Hecatesion (Shrine of Hecate). Danu was the source of the tribe's common heritage, as well as its nobility, unity, and power. Adopted by the pharaohs as a symbol of their own unvanquishable heroism in battle, she breathes fire against the kings enemies. Hecate's Deipnon is, at its most basic, a meal served to Hecate and the restless dead once a lunar month[102] during the New Moon. The possibility of not to be, of returning to nothingness, distinguishes Egyptian gods and goddesses from deities of all other pagan pantheons.[1]. 5. "In Byzantium small temples in her honour were placed close to the gates of the city. The yawning gates of Hades were guarded by the monstrous watchdog Cerberus, whose function was to prevent the living from entering the underworld, and the dead from leaving it."[64]. [63], Thanks to her association with boundaries and the liminal spaces between worlds, Hecate is also recognized as a chthonic (underworld) goddess. Isis, Egyptian Aset or Eset, one of the most important goddesses of ancient Egypt. Lionesses are rarely depicted in the pre-dynastic period of Egypt yet in the early pharaonic period the lioness goddesses are already well established and important. The ancient text is corrupted; an alternative correction of the name into 'Phoebus' (that is, Apollo) has been also suggested. Otherwise, they are typically generic, or Artemis-like. "[135] This appears to refer to a variant of the device mentioned by Psellus.[136]. "[37] The association with dogs, particularly female dogs, could be explained by a metamorphosis myth in Lycophron: the friendly looking female dog accompanying Hecate was originally the Trojan Queen Hecuba, who leapt into the sea after the fall of Troy and was transformed by Hecate into her familiar.[38]. cult site in Lagina. I have worked with Selene and still work with Persephone. As a goddess of sovereignty and power, Danu would grant gifts to rulers and those of noble birth. The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less. [84] Inscriptions of many of the statues declare that Sekhmet and Bastet are different aspects of Hathor. [citation needed], During the Gigantomachy, Hecate fought by the side of the Olympian gods, and slew the giant Clytius using her torches. In Neopaganism, the triple goddess appears in the form of three aspects of womanhood, representing the maiden, the mother, and the crone. That dynasty follows expulsion of occupying foreigners from an intermediary period. Isis, for instance, was a mother goddess in ancient Egypt. Goddess of boundaries, transitions, crossroads, magic, the New Moon, necromancy, and ghosts. Qetesh's sexuality led to a natural association with the Egyptian goddess Hathor. The Origin of Hotdogs, The History of Boracay Island in The Philippines. "[105] A secondary purpose was to purify the household and to atone for bad deeds a household member may have committed that offended Hecate, causing her to withhold her favour from them. [3] Her fight with the Giant appears in a number of ancient vase paintings and other artwork. An Exciting Provocation: John F. Millers Apollo, Augustus, and the Poets. Vergilius (1959-) 58 (2012): Wycherley, R. (1970). These statues are rarely discovered in complete form. "[60] This suggests that Hecate's close association with dogs derived in part from the use of watchdogs, who, particularly at night, raised an alarm when intruders approached. By all the operations of the orbs This aligns with the pyramid texts mentioning that Sekhmet conceived the king. All' ei tis humn en Samothraikei memuemenos esti, The play Plutus by Aristophanes (388 BCE), line 594 any translation will do or. An inscription on the statue is a dedication to Hecate, in writing of the style of the 6th century, but it otherwise lacks any other symbols typically associated with the goddess. The sanctuary is built upon a hill, at the bottom of which is an Altar of the Winds, and on it the priest sacrifices to the winds one night in every year. However, have you ever come across a single deity, who is not the creator or primordial deity, and yet presides over opposing qualities? Mastery over the suns power. Looking at Egypt, Isis is the only deity that one can conceive of as being esoteric because she brought back her husband from the dead. She was worshipped widely in Lower Egypt as a great Mother Goddess in the Predynastic Period (c. 6000- c. 3150 BCE) and so is among the older deities of Egypt. [16], A strong possibility for the foreign origin of the name may be Heqet (qt), a frog-headed Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth, who, like Hecate, was also associated with q, ruler. Roel Sterckx, Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. The initiates supposed that these things save [them] from terrors and from storms. Her name was likely developed by the Egyptians based on the Semitic root Q-D- meaning 'holy' or 'blessed,'[2] attested as a title of El and possibly Athirat and a further independent deity in texts from Ugarit. However, there is indeed a definitive Egyptian frog deity in the form of Goddess Heqet. Crowned with leafy branches as in later descriptions, she is depicted offering a "maternal blessing" to two maidens who embrace her. In Sanskrit it's Medha, in Greek Metis, and in Egyptian she is Ma'at herself. This one is of stone, while the bronze images opposite, also of Hecate, were made respectively by Polykleitos and his brother Naukydes.[87]. A Handbook of Greek Religion. When the center of power shifted from Memphis to Thebes during the New Kingdom, her attributes were absorbed into Mut. Later poets and historians looked to Diana's identity as a triple goddess to merge her with triads heavenly, earthly, and underworld (cthonic) goddesses. These are the biaiothanatoi, aoroi and ataphoi (cf. Well, then it is time to take a look at Sekhmet the Egyptian goddess of fire, hunting, wild animals, death, war, violence, retribution, justice, magic, heaven and hell, plague, chaos, the desert/mid-day sun, and medicine and healing Egypts most peculiar goddess. Phoenix, 24(4), 283295. During the New Kingdom (18th and 19th dynasty), when Memphis was the capital of the Egyptian empire; Ra, Sekhmet, and Nefertum were known as the Memphite Triad. From the abundant number of amulets and sculptures of Sekhmet discovered at various archaeological sites, it is evident that the goddess was popular and highly important. [169] Researcher Samuel Fort noted additional parallels, to include the cult's focus on mystic and typically nocturnal rites, its female dominated membership, the sacrifice of other animals (to include horses and mules), a focus on the mystical properties of roads and portals, and an emphasis on death, healing, and resurrection. 362, and note, 411413, 424425), whose enthumion, the quasi-technical word designating their longing for vengeance, was much dreaded. We are well aware of dualities existing in the world of mythology. In the Argolid, near the shrine of the Dioscuri, Pausanias saw the temple of Hecate opposite the sanctuary of Eileithyia; He reported the image to be the work of Scopas, stating further, "This one is of stone, while the bronze images opposite, also of Hecate, were made respectively by Polycleitus and his brother Naucydes, son of Mothon. [13], R. S. P. Beekes rejected a Greek etymology and suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In the 1st century CE, Ovid wrote: "Look at Hecate, standing guard at the crossroads, one face looking in each direction. Sekhmet is believed to have 4000 names that described her many attributes. [2] https://arce.org/resource/statues-sekhmet-mistress-dread/#:~:text=A%20mother%20goddess%20in%20the,as%20a%20lion%2Dheaded%20woman. 79, n. 1. also Ammonius (p. 79, Valckenaer), Betz, Hans Dieter, ' The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells, Foreign Influence on Ancient India, Krishna Chandra Sagar, Northern Book Centre, 1992, Household and Family Religion in Antiquity by John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan, page 221, published by John Wiley & Sons, 2009, d'Este & Rankine, Hekate Liminal Rites, Avalonia, 2009. [Diviners] spin this sphere and make invocations. [21], William Berg observes, "Since children are not called after spooks, it is safe to assume that Carian theophoric names involving hekat- refer to a major deity free from the dark and unsavoury ties to the underworld and to witchcraft associated with the Hecate of classical Athens. Her cult subsequently spread . Dated to the 7th century BCE, this is one of the oldest known artefacts dedicated to the worship of Hecate. [10][11], Early researchers attempted to prove Qetesh was simply a form of a known Canaanite deity, rather than a fully independent goddess. "Hekate: Representations in Art", Hekate Her Sacred Fires, ed. The center of her cult was in Per-Wadjet, later called Buto by the Greeks. Goddess of Fertility, Rebirth, and Magic In addition to being the fertile wife of Osiris, Isis is honored for her role as the mother of Horus, one of Egypt's most powerful gods. The first literature mentioning Hecate is the Theogony (c. 700 BCE) by Hesiod: And [Asteria] conceived and bore Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honored above all. The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea.[122]. 7, Suidas s.v. 1. From the tomb of Kenamun quoted from Alix Wilkinson The Garden In Ancient Egypt Hathor is the tree goddess of Memphis and is often known as 'Lady of the sycamore'. [28] Like Hermes, Hecate takes on the role of guardian not just of roads, but of all journeys, including the journey to the afterlife. "[30], While Greek anthropomorphic conventions of art generally represented Hecate's triple form as three separate bodies, the iconography of the triple Hecate eventually evolved into representations of the goddess with a single body, but three faces. For example, "willing" (thus, "she who works her will" or similar), may be related to the name Hecate. Pages 57 to 64, Roscher, 1889; Heckenbach, 2781; Rohde, ii. In her book The Dark Goddess: Dancing with the Shadow, Marcia Stark describes Sekhmet as Lady of the beginning / Self-contained / She who is the source / Destroyer of appearances / Devourer and creator / She who is and is not. Similar descriptions are used for many lunar goddesses serving esoteric functions. [70] Hecate and the moon goddess Selene were frequently identified with each other and a number of Greek and non-Greek deities;[71] the Greek Magical Papyri and other magical texts emphasize a syncretism between Selene-Hecate with Artemis and Persephone among others. [61], Cult images and altars of Hecate in her triplicate or trimorphic form were placed at three-way crossroads (though they also appeared before private homes and in front of city gates). [14] 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. Paired torches, dogs, serpents, keys, daggers, and Hecate's wheel is known as a stropholos. In other representations, her animal heads include those of a cow and a boar. She was worshipped as a nature goddess, and a goddess of sacred ecstasy and sexual pleasure. Supporters of this etymology suggest that Hecate was originally considered an aspect of Artemis prior to the latter's adoption into the Olympian pantheon. [155], Strmiska (2005) claimed that Hecate, conflated with the figure of Diana, appears in late antiquity and in the Early Middle Ages as part of an "emerging legend complex" known as "The Society of Diana"[161] associated with gatherings of women, the Moon, and witchcraft that eventually became established "in the area of Northern Italy, southern Germany, and the western Balkans. There are three different ways you can cite this article. According to Memphite theology, Sekhmet was the first-born daughter of Ra. The crone symbolizes elderly women and the wisdom which comes with aging. It remained common practice in English to pronounce her name in two syllables, even when spelled with final e, well into the 19th century. [137], In the syncretism during Late Antiquity of Hellenistic and late Babylonian ("Chaldean") elements, Hecate was identified with Ereshkigal, the underworld counterpart of Inanna in the Babylonian cosmography.

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