HECATE

HECATE.

Hecate would appear to have been originally a moon-goddess worshipped
by the Thracians. She became confounded, and eventually identified with
Selene and Persephone, and is one of those divinities of whom the
ancients had various conflicting accounts.

Hecate was the daughter of Perses and “gold-wreathed” Astræa (the
starry night^[32]), and her
sway extended over earth, heaven, and hell, for which reason she is
represented in works of art as a triple divinity, having three female
bodies, all young and beautiful, and united together.

In later times, when this divinity becomes identified with Persephone,
she is supposed to inhabit the lower world as a malignant deity, and
henceforward it is the gloomy, awe-inspiring side of her character which
alone [86]develops itself. She now presides over all
practices connected with witchcraft and enchantments, haunts sepulchres,
and the point where two roads cross, and lonely spots where murders have
been committed. She was supposed to be connected with the appearance of
ghosts and spectres, to possess unlimited influence over the powers of
the lower world, and to be able to lay to rest unearthly apparitions by
her magic spells and incantations.

Hecate appears as a gigantic woman, bearing a torch and a sword. Her
feet and hair are formed of snakes, and her passage is accompanied by
voices of thunder, weird shrieks and yells, and the deep baying and
howling of dogs.

Her favour was propitiated by offerings and sacrifices, principally
consisting of black lambs. Her festivals were celebrated at night, by
torchlight, when these animals were offered to her, accompanied by many
peculiar ceremonies. These ceremonies were carried out with the minutest
attention to details, as it was believed that the omission of the
slightest particular would afford to her ministers, the evil spirits of
the lower world, who hovered round the worshippers, an opportunity for
entering among them, and exerting their baneful influence. At the end of
every month food was placed wherever two roads met, in readiness for her
and other malignant divinities.

In studying the peculiar characteristics which Hecate assumes when she
usurps the place of Persephone, the rightful mistress of the lower world,
we are reminded of the various superstitions with regard to spectres,
witchcraft, &c., which have, even down to our own times, exerted so
powerful an influence over the minds of the ignorant, and which would
appear to owe their origin to a remote pagan source.