Marcia Stark & Gynne Stern (1993) The Dark Goddess: Dancing with the Shadow, The Crossing Press. Beginning during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, a Semitic goddess named Qetesh ("holiness", sometimes reconstructed as Qudshu) appears prominently. "page21 (image of Hecate attended by a dog)", "CULT OF HEKATE: Ancient Greek religion", "Travels in Greece and Turkey: Undertaken by Order of Louis XVI, and with the Authority of the Ottoman Court", Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Claviger, "Baktria, Kings, Agathokles, ancient coins index with thumbnails", "No Fear Shakespeare: Macbeth: Act 2, Scene 1, Page 2", Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Ankh This ancient Egyptian hieroglyph means life or living. Inscriptions of many of the statues declare that Sekhmet and Bastet are different aspects of Hathor. 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. In Neopaganism, the triple goddess appears in the form of three aspects of womanhood, representing the maiden, the mother, and the crone. [100] The island is the modern Megalos (Great) Reumatiaris.[101]. As a goddess expected to avert harmful or destructive spirits from the house or city over which she stood guard and to protect the individual as she or he passed through dangerous liminal places, Hecate would naturally become known as a goddess who could also refuse to avert the demons, or even drive them on against unfortunate individuals. 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[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. 39 K), and 358 F; Melanthius, in Athenaeus, 325 B. Plato, Com. Her cult subsequently spread . The figure is flanked by lions, an animal associated with Hecate both in the Chaldean Oracles, coinage, and reliefs from Asia Minor. She was one of the earliest Egyptian deities and was often depicted as a cobra, as she is the serpent goddess. 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. 264 f., and notes, 275277, ii. An Exciting Provocation: John F. Millers Apollo, Augustus, and the Poets. Vergilius (1959-) 58 (2012): Wycherley, R. (1970). 6. According to the myth, Osiris was a king of Egypt who was murdered and dismembered by his brother Seth. [28], Variations in interpretations of Hecate's roles can be traced in classical Athens. Serket (also known as Serqet, Selkis, and Selket) is an Egyptian goddess of protection associated with the scorpion. The possibility of not to be, of returning to nothingness, distinguishes Egyptian gods and goddesses from deities of all other pagan pantheons.[1]. Some think this deity is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name. 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. It is presumed that the latter were named after the tree because of its superiority for both bows and poison. In that place were also the mysteries of the Korybantes [Kabeiroi] and those of Hekate and the Zerinthian cave, where they sacrificed dogs. She was the wife of Ptah (patron god of artisans) and bore him a son Nefertum. 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. He noted that the cult regularly practiced dog sacrifice and had secretly buried the body of one of its "queens" with seven dogs. [28] Like Hermes, Hecate takes on the role of guardian not just of roads, but of all journeys, including the journey to the afterlife. The Athenian Greeks honoured Hecate during the Deipnon. [170], As a "goddess of witchcraft", Hecate has been incorporated in various systems of modern witchcraft, Wicca, and neopaganism,[171] in some cases associated with the Wild Hunt of Germanic tradition,[172] in others as part of a reconstruction of specifically Greek polytheism, in English also known as "Hellenismos". Hecate was one of several deities worshipped in ancient Athens as a protector of the oikos (household), alongside Zeus, Hestia, Hermes, and Apollo. Her breath is said to be the hot desert winds. These are the biaiothanatoi, aoroi and ataphoi (cf. She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock. She travelled a long way, and a long time, from further south in Africa. At Athens, it is said there stood a statue of Hecate Triglathena, to whom the red mullet was offered in sacrifice. [86], Over against the sanctuary of Eileithyia is a temple of Hecate [the goddess probably here identified with the apotheosed Iphigenia, and the image is a work of Skopas. Weird Rituals Laid to Primitive Minds, Los Angeles Examiner, 14 October 1929. [31], The east frieze of a Hellenistic temple of hers at Lagina shows her helping protect the newborn Zeus from his father Cronus; this frieze is the only evidence of Hecate's involvement in the myth of his birth. The tale is preserved in the Suda. [26], Hecate was generally represented as three-formed or triple-bodied, though the earliest known images of the goddess are singular. cult site in Lagina. Berg's argument for a Greek origin rests on three main points: "In 340 B.C., however, the Byzantines, with the aid of the Athenians, withstood a siege successfully, an occurrence the more remarkable as they were attacked by the greatest general of the age, Philip of Macedon. [13] In association with her worship alongside Apollo at Miletus, worshipers used a unique form of offering: they would place stone cubes, often wreathes, known as (gylloi) as protective offerings at the door or gateway. Osiris, one of Egypt's most important deities, was god of the underworld. To commemorate this timely phenomenon, which was attributed to Hecate, they erected a public statue to that goddess []". Pp. So, then, albeit her mother's only child, she is honored amongst all the deathless gods. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. [3], A passage from the Book of the Dead reads, superior to whom the gods cannot be . "[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. 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. [33][133], Hecate is the primary feminine figure in the Chaldean Oracles (2nd3rd century CE),[134] where she is associated in fragment 194 with a strophalos (usually translated as a spinning top, or wheel, used in magic) "Labour thou around the Strophalos of Hecate. Triple Goddess: origin stories. [2][3][4] Her earliest appearance in literature was in Hesiod's Theogony in the 8th century BCE[5] as a goddess of great honour with domains in sky, earth, and sea. She was also the divine mother of every pharaoh of Egypt, and ultimately of Egypt itself. 1. https://arce.org/resource/statues-sekhmet-mistress-dread/#:~:text=A%20mother%20goddess%20in%20the,as%20a%20lion%2Dheaded%20woman. [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. [123], Hesiod's inclusion and praise of Hecate in the Theogony has been troublesome for scholars, in that he seems to hold her in high regard, while the testimony of other writers, and surviving evidence, suggests that this may have been the exception. 7, Suidas s.v. Hecate, goddess accepted at an early date into Greek religion but probably derived from the Carians in southwest Asia Minor. Limestone fragments discovered from the valley temple of Sneferu (dynasty IV) at Dahshur depict the monarchs head closely juxtaposed to the muzzle of a lioness deity (presumed to be Sekhmet) as if to symbolize Sneferu breathing in the divine life force emanating from the goddesss mouth. Artemis would have, at that point, become more strongly associated with purity and maidenhood, on the one hand, while her originally darker attributes like her association with magic, the souls of the dead, and the night would have continued to be worshipped separately under her title Hecate. Horus was an ancient Egyptian God of the sky, and he is typically depicted as a falcon. Robert Graves called her by a few 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 . Lorna Oakes & Lucia Gahlin (2002) Ancient Egypt, Anness Publishing, 8. "[22] In particular, there is some evidence that she might be derived from the local sun goddesses (see also Arinna) based on similar attributes.[23]. [138] Schwemer believes that this use of Ereshkigal's name merely furnished "the Greek Netherworld goddess with a mysterious-sounding, foreign name". The one who loves Maat and who detests evil. 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. She became merely an aspect of Mut, Hathor, and Isis. "[162] This theory of the Roman origins of many European folk traditions related to Diana or Hecate was explicitly advanced at least as early as 1807[163] and is reflected[dubious discuss] in etymological claims by early modern lexicographers from the 17th to the 19th century, connecting hag, hexe "witch" to the name of Hecate. [Diviners] spin this sphere and make invocations. [125], In the Argonautica, a 3rd-century BCE Alexandrian epic based on early material,[129] Jason placates Hecate in a ritual prescribed by Medea, her priestess: bathed at midnight in a stream of flowing water, and dressed in dark robes, Jason is to dig a round pit and over it cut the throat of a ewe, sacrificing it and then burning it whole on a pyre next to the pit as a holocaust. [citation needed], One surviving group of stories[clarification needed] suggests how Hecate might have come to be incorporated into the Greek pantheon without affecting the privileged position of Artemis. The origin of the name Hecate (, Hekt) and the original country of her worship are both unknown, though several theories have been proposed. [10] A 4thcenturyBCE marble relief from Crannon in Thessaly was dedicated by a race-horse owner. Much like Shiva did with Kali, Ra had to resort to trickery to calm Sekhmets anger and bring her out of her killing spree. It has been claimed that her association with dogs is "suggestive of her connection with birth, for the dog was sacred to Eileithyia, Genetyllis, and other birth goddesses. If your web page requires an HTML link, please insert this code: . [63], Thanks to her association with boundaries and the liminal spaces between worlds, Hecate is also recognized as a chthonic (underworld) goddess. It is speculated that these statues were created to pacify the goddess and please her. Paired torches, dogs, serpents, keys, daggers, and Hecate's wheel is known as a stropholos. 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. In the New Kingdom funerary literature, Sekhmet is said to defend Ra from Apophis. It could also be that the fragment reads 'Phorcys', agreeing with Acusilaus' version. Archaeologists have discovered approximately 700 larger-than-life granite statues of Sekhmet dated to the reign of Amenhotep III (18th Dynasty). 1. In the 1st century CE, Ovid wrote: "Look at Hecate, standing guard at the crossroads, one face looking in each direction. Which of these is true, we do not know. Hecate was the chief goddess presiding over magic and spells. 9. In the Michigan magical papyrus (inv. 4060 in. "Beyond Erekigal? Good is she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: and he who by might and strength gets the victory wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings glory to his parents. Hart George (1986). Hecate was known by a number of epithets: Hecate has been characterized as a pre-Olympian chthonic goddess. [28], Hecate's cult became established in Athens about 430 BCE. [164] Such derivations are today proposed only by a minority[165][166] 7), dated to the late 3rd or early 4th century CE, Hecate Erschigal is invoked against fear of punishment in the afterlife.
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