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.