Home Home  Article Index Article Index  
GuruPedia  

Hecate

In Greek mythology, Hecate (Greek Ἑκάτη Hekátē) (Roman equivalent: Trivia "of the three ways") was the goddess of witchcraft and sorcery, as well as crossroads. She has been appropriated by Wicca and other modern magic-practising religions.

She was usually portrayed as having three heads: one dog, one snake and one horse. She also had two ghostly dogs as servants by her side.

Hecate haunted three-way crossroads, where each of her heads faced different directions. She appeared when the "ebony moon" (new moon) shined.

In some versions of the myth, Hecate rescued Persephone from the underworld. Indeed, in the earliest records of her, Hecate bears little resemblance to the night-walking crone.

Medea was said to be a priestess, or avatar, of Hecate.

External links

Popular Topics

This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.  For the live article, click here.

Privacy