Hecate, Goddess of Many Guises

Maximilian Pirner, Hecate, 1901

Since Shakespeare's time we have mostly associated Hecate with magic, witchcraft, and the moon. But one of the striking things about ancient paganism, once you delve into it, is how many different powers a goddess might have. Hecate was associated, at various times, with household economy, dogs, keys, doorways, weasels, torchlit processions, crossroads, ghosts, wealth, childbirth, maidenhood, good fortune, the entrance to the underworld, and victory in battle.

So far as I can tell, Hecate *was* strongly associated with magic and the moon in western Europe by late Roman times, and it was certainly how Europeans saw Hecate in the Renaissance. But farther east, and further back in time, she seems to have been seen quite differently.

Temple of Hecate in Lagina, Turkey

Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700 BC) includes a long passage called The Hymn to Hecate. This begins with a description of her lineage among the titans

And Asteria conceived and bare Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honoured above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honour also in starry heaven, and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods. For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great honour comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favourably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her. For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. 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. Also, because she is an only child, the goddess receives not less honour, but much more still, for Zeus honours her. Whom she will she greatly aids and advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and in the assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people. And when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will.  . . .

Which makes Hecate seem like something much more than the shady goddess of crossroads and sorcery we read of later. Everything about Hesiod is disputed, but he may have been born east of the Aegean in Anatolia, and as I already suggested, Hecate's cult may have been different in the Greek east than the Roman west. In classical Athens Hecate still seems to have been an impeccably respectable deity, listed as one of the four protectors of the household and supplied with a small triangular temple adjacent to the Agora.

Enodia, relief from Macedon

One theory is that Hecate's identity gradually shifted because she merged with a Thessalian goddess called Enodia (meaning "traveller"), who wandered the earth with a retinue of ghosts and could be met at remote crossroads. Some things about Hecate's iconography, such as carrying two torches, seem to derive from older images of Enodia, so there certainly could be a connection. Enodia was associated with the Moon, and Hecate was often invoked alongside Artemis, another Lunar deity, so it is hardly surprising that Hecate was increasingly invoked via the Moon.

Hecate escorting Persephone from Hades, with her two torches; this scene appears in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.

Hecate was often depicted with three bodies, or three heads. We don't know why; Pausanius didn't either, merely noting in his ancient travelogue that some images showed her singly and others tripled. There is speculation that this represents her dominion, alluded to by Thesiod, over the three realms of earth, sea, and sky. But I can't find that this is mentioned in any ancient source. So maybe we should just attribute it to the ancient Indo-European habit of tripling goddesses, as in the three fates or the nine muses.

This image, from the Pergamon Altar, shows Hecate battling a giant. She has three bodies, equipped with torch, sword, and spear.

The Roman satirist Lucan (1st century AD) gives us our first look at Hecate's future career. His sinister witch calls on Hecate as "the goddess we witches revere" and describes her as a "pallid decaying body," so foul that she must wear a mask when she visits Olympus.

The magical papyri from Egypt and Syria invoke her often, usually for black magic but also sometimes as a protectress. Here is one, from the first century AD:

Lady Hekate of the heavens, Hekate of the underworld, Hekate of the crossroads, Hekate of the triple-face, Hekate of the single-face, cut the hearts of the thief or the thieves who took the items contained in this deposition. And let the earth not be walkable, the sea not sailable; let there be no enjoyment of life, no increase of children, but may utter destruction visit them or him.

Another:

Be bound before Hermes of the underworld and Hekate of the underworld… and just as this lead is worthless and cold, so let that man and his property be worthless and cold. And those who are with him who have spoken and counselled concerning me.

Hecate's prominence in the magical papyri confirms her transformation into a goddess mainly associated with sorcery. As this account has it, from being a goddess of great general power,

She became a goddess of ghosts, of necromancy, and the moon; Her torchlight no longer a symbol of life alone, but of traversal between life and death. 

In modern times of course, Hecate has changed again and she is now the patroness of many Wiccans. Her three faces are often interpreted as representing three stages in a woman's life, youth, mother, and crone, and her canine friends have lost their sinister associations with the underworld and become labradoodles. 

But she lives on, always changing to meet her worshippers' needs.

Mausoleum of Constantina

The Mausoleum of Constantina was built in the 4th century AD for Constantina, the daughter of the emperor Constantine I. It later became a church known as Santa Costanza. It is one of the best preserved buildings from Late Antiquity left in Rome. Not much on the outside, as you can see.

Although it looks somewhat better in this view.

Interior

The glory of the place is the wonderful mosaics, especially those in the ceiling of the ambulatory.

Lovely.

More in the niches.

This disputed object, now in the Vatican Museum, is thought to be the sarcophagus of Constantina. Many stories are told of it. According to official Italian tourism promoters,

During the 17th century, the Mausoleo is the meeting place of a bizarre association of Dutch and Flemish artists called Bent-vogels (birds of the band). Every time the group was enriched by a new member, a baptism party was celebrated with abundant libations, in a tavern on the Via Nomentana. After a night of debauchery the Bent-vogels made a last solemn toast in the temple of Bacchus in front of the porphyry sarcophagus, considered the sepulchre of the god. The feast could last up to three days and three nights. In 1720, Pope Clemente XI forbade this custom because it profaned the ancient Mausoleo. The names of some of these Bent-vogels, engraved in the niches of the ambulatory, are still visible today.

Cool.

Noah Smith: Are Our Problems Really Economic?

As my readers know, I have always maintained that we are not unhappy because of anything to do with economics. We are the richest people in history by a wide margin, and if money could make us happy, we would be drowning in happiness. It must be something else.

I go back and forth in my own mind between thinking that it must be something else about our society that saddens and angers us – mass media, rigid schedules, the decline of religion, living in huge, diverse cities, what have you – and thinking that we are just not wired for happiness.

Here is Noah Smith on this subject:

Every time a policy wonk thinks about some measure that would increase GDP by 0.4%, or create 200,000 jobs, or lower inflation by 40 basis points, they need to think about the unpleasant reality that Americans may simply not care very much. That doesn’t mean it’s bad to help people economically, but it means that economics may ultimately not be the lever we need to pull if we’re going to make the people of this country happy and satisfied again.

We should therefore think about whether our primary social problems are actually about material scarcity. The vast majority of Americans now possess not only the basic necessities of life, but a degree of economic security unimaginable to their forebears a century ago. It seems plausible to think that a great many Americans have climbed to the higher rungs of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs — that instead of where to get their next meal or how to save for retirement, they’re thinking about how to feel like they belong in their society, or how to get more status and respect.

A large contingent of Americans may now simply care less about adding to their bank accounts than about questions like “Who are the real Americans?”, or “Does one race deserve special treatment in the eyes of the law?”, or “Why do some of the people I went to college with have 10,000 times as much wealth as I do?”. As long as those questions remain unanswered, boosting Americans’ economic fortunes could have little effect on their happiness. . . .

Neither the discipline of economics nor our typical policy discourse is set up to deal with issues like belonging, social status, or respect. There’s no market for these things; people with wealth might be more respected, but you can’t buy respect on Amazon. And some of these psychological needs are positional goods — for the status of one person or group to be higher, someone else’s status often has to be diminished. . . .

And yet like it or not, this may now be the world in which we find ourselves. Just as the great challenge of the 20th century was to provide broad-based material plenty, the great challenge of the 21st century may be to make everyone feel high-status at the same time — or at least to create a world where status differences don’t lead to mass resentment.

I am sometimes baffled by the tendency of Americans to see all problems in terms of economics, when it seems obvious to me that money is the least of our worries.

Basilica di Saccargia, Sardinia

The Basilica della Santissima Trinità di Saccargia is a Romanesque church in the comune of Codrongianos, in the northern part of Sardinia. 

The church was completed in 1116. The style is Romanesque, specifically that of Pisa. This site had long been the location of a monastery, and bits of its ruins poke out around the church.

The stone is black basalt and white limestone, taken from two nearby quarries.

View of the setting.

Not many photos online of the interior; the date of these frescoes is disputed, but some sources say they go back to the 12th century.

The church was abandoned in the 16th century, but was restored and reopened in the early 20th century.

Wonderful.

Toxic Conflict Avoidance

From an interview in the NY Times with Priya Parker, an expert on corporate communications:

You used the term “unhealthy peace,” which could feel like an oxymoron, because what’s unhealthy about peace? Can you explain what you mean? 

I’ll start with a personal story. I’m half Indian, half white American, and both of my parents are very conflict-averse. When my parents separated and then divorced, everyone was shocked because they never fought. So I learned from a young age that there’s great loss in avoidance. I’m actually a third-generation conflict-avoidant person. When heat rises, we just stick our head in the sand and hope it will pass. And unhealthy peace is the idea that if we just pretend this conflict is not there, if we just shove it under the rug, everything will be fine. But actually, when we don’t have meaningful conversations, the relationship can end. Often you hear in the culture, “It’s not my labor,” “It’s not my burden,” “There’s too much baggage” — as if friends are supposed to just be fun. But because we’re so conflict-averse, we exit before we’re actually willing to engage. Our communities and our families are fracturing, in part because we’re not taught the skills of how to have those fights. 

I don't much care about corporate communications, but I think this is an important dynamic in more personal spheres. That is, I think one reason there is so much less romance among young Americans is fear of conflict. I have heard dozens of stories about people who left relationships rather than try to fix them, because that would involve conflict. "He kept doing this and I couldn't stand it." Did you consider asking him to stop? Um, no.

If you are afraid of conflict, you can't have a truly deep and important relationship with another person, and I see a lot of conflict avoidance among young Americans.

Links 21 August 2024

Bronze Head of a Goddess, from Ptolemaic Egypt

"Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie." 
—Miyamoto Musashi

The National Park Service finally gets around to announcing the recovery of a Union soldier's remains from the Manassas (Bull Run) battlefield; I was the director of the "professional archaeological excavations conducted in March 2024".

Anti-immigrant politics in South Africa.

Magical and religious amulets at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 15-minute video.

Mass grave of men who died in a Roman battle found in Austria.

The history of punctuation.

Why do some people who hate modern architecture love modernist bridges?

"Hunger Stones" are low water markers that were placed in European rivers during severe droughts; this year's severe drought has exposed many. (Guardian, wikipedia, dw.com)

Study finds that people on both sides of political issues mistrust moderates and think they belong to the other side.

A claim that a man killed by a Trebuchet has been identified at Stirling Castle.

Study finds that while men want happy women, women don't care if men are happy and instead want them to be proud and ambitious.

My entire fantasy novel, The Voice from the Darkness, is available now on Royal Road. I am planning to publish this on Amazon for fans of physical books.

Short videos of "eagle dancing" on Facebook: first, second.

Why are English villages beautiful? I would note that they used to contain a lot of flimsy structures that have been demolished or simply collapsed, so there is a selection effect.

UBI: an experiment in giving people $1,000 a month made them happier than the control group at first but then the effect disappeared. (Marginal Revolution)

Cool photographs from the Elements Art and Music Festival.

Georgia Meloni is about to become the longest-serving Prime Minister in post-WW II Italian history. Excellent interview at the NY Times.

All you wanted to know (or maybe a lot more) about sound wave therapy for erectile dysfunction.

Today's Place to Daydream about: Noto, Sicily

Noto Cathedral

Noto, near the southeastern corner of Sicily, is an ancient place. It was already old to the Romans, and local legend had it that Daedalus stayed in the city after his flight over the Ionian Sea. It was conquered by Arabs in 866 and prospered under their rule; it fell to the Normans in 1061, the last prominent place on the island to be retaken by Christians. One assumes this left quite a legacy of old buildings.

Ducal Palace

But in 1693 Sicily was struck by a terribly destructive earthquake, thought by some modern geologists to have been the most powerful in Italian history. At least 60,000 people were killed and 70 towns and cities destroyed, including Noto.

Church of the Red Madonna

It was decided – no online source says by whom – to rebuild the city on a new site across the Asinaro River from the old town center. This meant building all the major public buildings (cathedral, palace, parish churches) anew. Because of this, the city boasts a remarkable collection of buildings from the 1695 to 1800 period. The style is probably best described as Baroque.

Church of the Dominican friary

And the Franciscan

Shame about all the lost Roman and medieval buildings, but rebuilding the town in this consistent style did leave a remarkable monument to a certain period of Sicily's past.

mRNA is the Future of Medicine

Moderna's cancer vaccine reminds us of the vast potential of mRNA medicine:

An experimental mRNA vaccine allowed people with high-risk melanoma to live longer, cancer-free, the pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck announced Wednesday.

For decades, cancer vaccines have been one of the most tantalizing ideas in cancer treatment — offering the hope of harnessing a person’s own immune system to attack tumors. . . .

The mRNA technology that was instrumental in the rapid vaccine development in the Covid-19 pandemic added a new element of speed and flexibility to the quest for therapeutic cancer vaccines. Scientists can use the mRNA platform to create bespoke, individualized vaccines matched to the genetics of patients’ tumors.

Which makes the flaky, MAHA opposition to mRNA technology the absolute worst part of our contemporary politics. I have talked to people who are freaked out that this technology "changes your genetic code," which is completely wrong. It avoids messing with your genetic code by injecting pre-made mRNA molecules; your cellular DNA doesn't have to be involved. Summary here.

When a movement opposes the most exciting medical breakthrough in decades, you know that it is based mainly on ignorance and fear.

Ars Notoria

I just learned, via this delightful article by Anne Lawrence-Mathers, about a fascinating medieval manuscript called the Ars Notoria.

Mastering the full range of subjects taught in medieval universities normally required many years of hard and expensive study. From the thirteenth century on, however, an anonymous work known as the Ars notoria promised, through diagrams, incantations, and arcane rituals, to rapidly transmit to scholars the total knowledge of anything they might need. Condemned by church authorities, the fifty-six extant manuscripts nevertheless testify to the seductiveness of that offer.

The manuscript claimed, like many others in circulation at the time, to be an account of the secret, angelic magic revealed to King Solomon. The author asserted that by pondering the arcane diagrams in a ritualistic way, according to a calendrical progression, one could shortcut the normal process of learning. 

Unlike diagrams in other magical texts, those in Ars Notoria do not illustrate what the text is seeking to communicate. Instead, they supposedly work almost in the same way as religious icons. That is, faithful possession and use of them can offer direct contact with powerful and benign supernatural forces — and ultimately even with God. The diagrams themselves are the route to magic and consist of arrangements of symbolic and geometric forms, patterns, and symbols, interspersed with “words”, which are frequently unintelligible combinations of letters. Practitioners who opened their minds to receive and imprint these labyrinthine images, while reciting complex verbal formulae and strings of mysterious, almost unpronounceable words and names, are engaging in a significant act of trust.

The manuscript presents itself as Christian, with a reverential attitude toward divine power. Yet the official church denounced the Ars Notoria. Thomas Aquinas seems to have been referencing it specifically when he wrote, in Question 96 of the Summa Theologica,

The magic art is both unlawful and futile. It is unlawful, because the means it employs for acquiring knowledge have not in themselves the power to cause science, consisting as they do in gazing certain shapes, and muttering certain strange words, and so forth. Wherefore this art does not make use of these things as causes, but as signs; not however as signs instituted by God, as are the sacramental signs. It follows, therefore, that they are empty signs, and consequently a kind of "agreement or covenant made with the demons for the purpose of consultation and of compact by tokens" [Augustine]

A quick search reveals that the Ars notoria still has a following among modern magical practitioners. Which I suppose means the idea of a shortcut to learning has eternal appeal.

Harry Clarke

Harry Clarke (1889-1931) was in Irish illustrator who is best known these days for his black and white illustrations to Edgar Allen Poe. I have some in this post and more here.

Here are some from Goethe's Faust, 1925

More Poe. Astounding.

But he also did color work, like these illustrations to Hans Christian Andersen.

And below, one in black and white, The Little Mermaid and the Sea Witch