Editing Hecate (section)

==Cult==
[[File:Hekate BM G17.jpg|thumb|left|Hecate holding two torches and dancing in front of an altar, beyond which is a cult statue, c.&nbsp;350–300 BC, red-figure vase, [[Capua]], Italy]]

Worship of Hecate existed alongside other deities in major public shrines and temples in antiquity, and she had a significant role as household deity.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aune|first=David Edward|title=Apocalypticism, Prophecy and Magic in Early Christianity: Collected Essays|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|year=2006|isbn=3161490207|pages=356ff}}</ref> Shrines to Hecate were often placed at doorways to homes, temples, and cities with the belief that it would protect from restless dead and other spirits. Home shrines often took the form of a small ''Hekataion'', a shrine centred on a wood or stone carving of a triple Hecate facing in three directions on three sides of a central pillar. Larger Hekataions, often enclosed within small walled areas, were sometimes placed at public crossroads near important sites – for example, there was one on the road leading to the [[Acropolis]].<ref>Wycherley, R. (1970). Minor Shrines in Ancient Athens. Phoenix, 24(4), 283–295. doi:10.2307/1087735</ref> Likewise, shrines to Hecate at three way crossroads were created where food offerings were left at the new Moon to protect those who did so from spirits and other evils.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theoi.com/Cult/HekateCult.html |title=CULT OF HEKATE : Ancient Greek religion |publisher=Theoi.com |access-date=24 September 2012}}</ref> In [[Zerynthus]] there was a cave dedicated to Hecate.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=zerynthus-geo Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Zerynthus]</ref>

Dogs were sacred to Hecate and associated with roads, domestic spaces, purification, and spirits of the dead. Dogs were also sacrificed to the road.<ref>As Sterckx (2002) observes, "The use of dog sacrifices at the gates and doors of the living and the dead as well as its use in travel sacrifices suggest that dogs were perceived as daemonic animals operating in the liminal or transitory realm between the domestic and the unknown, danger-stricken outside world". Roel Sterckx, ''The Animal and The Daemon in Early China'', State University of New York Press, 2002, pp 232–233. Sterckx explicitly recognizes the similarities between these ancient Chinese views of dogs and those current in Greek and Roman antiquity, and goes on to note "Dog sacrifice was also a common practice among the Greeks where the dog figured prominently as a guardian of the underworld." (Footnote 113, p318)</ref>
This can be compared to Pausanias' report that in the Ionian city of Colophon in Asia Minor a sacrifice of a black female puppy was made to Hecate as "the wayside goddess", and Plutarch's observation that in Boeotia dogs were killed in purificatory rites. Dogs, with puppies often mentioned, were offered to Hecate at crossroads, which were sacred to the goddess.<ref>{{cite book|first=Frederick J.|last=Simoons|title=Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present|publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]]|location=Madison, Wisconsin|date=1994|isbn=978-0299142544|pages=233–234}}</ref>

===History===
The earliest definitive record of Hecate's worship dates to the 6th century BCE, in the form of a small [[terracotta]] statue of a seated goddess, identified as Hecate in its inscription. This and other early depictions of Hecate lack distinctive attributes that would later be associated with her, such as a triple form or torches, and can only be identified as Hecate thanks to their inscriptions. Otherwise, they are typically generic, or [[Artemis]]-like.<ref name=rotting/>

Hecate's cult became established in [[Athens]] about 430&nbsp;BCE. At this time, the sculptor [[Alcamenes]] made the earliest known triple-formed Hecate statue for use at her new temple. While this sculpture has not survived to the present day, numerous later copies are extant.<ref name=rotting/> It has been speculated that this triple image, usually situated around a pole or pillar, was derived from earlier representations of the goddess using three masks hung on actual wooden poles, possibly placed at crossroads and gateways.<ref name=rotting/>

===Sanctuaries===
{{Ancient Greek religion}}Hecate was a popular divinity, and her cult was practiced with many local variations all over Greece and Western Anatolia. [[Caria]] was a major center of worship and her most famous temple there was located in the town of [[Lagina]]. The oldest known direct evidence of Hecate's cult comes from [[Selinunte]] (near modern-day [[Trapani]] in Sicily), where she had a temple in the 6th–5th centuries BCE.<ref>Redazione ANSA. [http://www.ansa.it/english/news/lifestyle/arts/2018/01/16/oldest-ever-trace-of-hekate-cult-found-2_fadc3aa0-c134-4ccd-815f-16eb1895f54d.html "Oldest ever trace of Hekate cult found"]. 16 January 2018.</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2025}}

There was a Temple of Hecate in [[Argolis]]:<blockquote>Over against the sanctuary of [[Eileithyia]] is a temple of Hecate [the goddess probably here identified with the [[apotheosis|apotheosed]] [[Iphigenia]], and the image is a work of [[Skopas]]. This one is of stone, while the bronze images opposite, also of Hecate, were made respectively by [[Polykleitos]] and his brother [[Naukydes]].<ref>Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 22. 7</ref></blockquote> There was also a shrine to Hecate in [[Aigina]], where she was very popular:

<blockquote>Of the gods, the Aiginetans worship most Hecate, in whose honour every year they celebrate mystic rites which, they say, [[Orpheus]] the Thrakian established among them. Within the enclosure is a temple; its wooden image is the work of [[Myron]], and it has one face and one body. It was [[Alkamenes]], in my opinion, who first made three images of Hecate attached to one another [in Athens].<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.30.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 2.30.2] (trans. Jones)</ref></blockquote>

Aside from her own temples, Hecate was also worshipped in the sanctuaries of other gods, where she was apparently sometimes given her own space. A round stone altar dedicated to the goddess was found in the [[Delphinion]] (a temple dedicated to [[Apollo]]) at [[Miletus]]. Dated to the 7th century BCE, this is one of the oldest known artefacts dedicated to the worship of Hecate.<ref name=mooney/> 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 γυλλοι (''gylloi'') as protective offerings at the door or gateway.<ref name=mooney/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be|title=CGRN Collection of Greek Ritual Norms|website=cgrn.ulg.ac.be|accessdate=16 January 2023}}</ref> There was an area sacred to Hecate in the precincts of the [[Temple of Artemis at Ephesus]], where the priests, ''megabyzi'', officiated.<ref>Strabo, ''Geography'', 14.1.23</ref> This sanctuary was called ''Hecatesion'' (Shrine of Hecate).<ref>Strabo, ''Geography'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+14.1.23&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198 14. 1. 23] (trans. Jones)</ref> Hecate was also worshipped in the Temple of Athena in Titane: "In Titane there is also a sanctuary of Athena, into which they bring up the image of Koronis [mother of Asklepios] ... 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. He also performs other secret rites [of Hecate] at four pits, taming the fierceness of the blasts [of the winds], and he is said to chant as well the charms of Medea."<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.12.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 2.12.1]</ref> She was most commonly worshipped in nature, where she had many natural sanctuaries. An important sanctuary of Hecate was a holy cave on the island of [[Samothrake]] called Zerynthos:

<blockquote>In Samothrake there were certain initiation-rites, which they supposed efficacious as a charm against certain dangers. In that place were also the mysteries of the Korybantes [Kabeiroi] and those of Hekate and the Zerinthian cave, where they sacrificed dogs. The initiates supposed that these things save [them] from terrors and from storms.<ref>Suidas s.v. All' ei tis humôn en Samothraikei memuemenos esti</ref></blockquote>

====Cult at Lagina====
Hecate's most important sanctuary was [[Lagina]], a theocratic city-state in which the goddess was served by [[Eunuch (court official)|eunuchs]].<ref name="Burkert, p. 171"/>

The temple is mentioned by [[Strabo]]:

<blockquote>Stratonikeia [in Karia, Asia Minor] is a settlement of Makedonians ... There are two temples in the country of the Stratonikeians, of which the most famous, that of Hecate, is at Lagina; and it draws great festal assemblies every year.<ref>Strabo, ''Geography'' 14.2.15 (trans. Jones)</ref></blockquote>

Lagina, where the famous temple of Hecate drew great festal assemblies every year, lay close to the originally [[Macedon]]ian [[colonies in antiquity|colony]] of [[Stratonicea (Caria)|Stratonikeia]], where she was the city's patron.<ref>Strabo, ''Geography'' 14.2.25; Kraus 1960.</ref> In Thrace she played a role similar to that of lesser-[[Hermes]], namely a ruler of [[Liminality|liminal]] regions, particularly gates, and the wilderness.

====Cult at Byzantium====
[[File:Wood statuette of Hekate MET DP145604.jpg|thumb|right|Juniper wood Hekataion. Ptolemaic Egypt, c.&nbsp;304–330 BCE.]]
Hecate was greatly worshipped in [[Byzantium]]. She was said to have saved the city from [[Philip II of Macedon]], warning the citizens of a night time attack by a light in the sky, for which she was known as ''Hecate Lampadephoros''. The tale is preserved in the [[Suda]].{{efn|
"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. In the course of this beleaguerment, it is related, on a certain wet and moonless night the enemy attempted a surprise, but were foiled by reason of a bright light which, appearing suddenly in the heavens, startled all the dogs in the town and thus roused the garrison to a sense of their danger. To commemorate this timely phenomenon, which was attributed to Hecate, they erected a public statue to that goddess [...]".<ref>{{cite book |first=William Gordon |last=Holmes |title=The Age of Justinian and Theodora |year=2003 |pages=5–6}}</ref>
:
"If any goddess had a connection with the walls in Constantinople, it was Hecate.
Hecate had a cult in Byzantium from the time of its founding. Like Byzas in one legend, she had her origins in Thrace. Since Hecate was the guardian of "liminal places", in Byzantium, small temples in her honor were placed close to the gates of the city. Hecate's importance to Byzantium was above all as deity of protection. When Philip of Macedon was about to attack the city, according to the legend, she alerted the townspeople with her ever-present torches, and with her pack of dogs, which served as her constant companions.
Her mythic qualities thenceforth forever entered the fabric of Byzantine history."<ref name=Liberis-1994/>
:
"A statue known as the 'Lampadephoros' was erected on the hill above the Bosphorous to commemorate Hecate's defensive aid."<ref name=Liberis-1994>{{cite book |first=Vasiliki |last=Limberis |title=Divine Heiress |publisher=Routledge |year=1994 |pages=126–127}}</ref>
:
This story apparently survived in the works [[Hesychius of Miletus]], who in all probability lived in the time of [[Justinian]]. His works survive only in fragments preserved in Photius and the ''[[Suda]]'', a Byzantine lexicon of the 10th&nbsp;century&nbsp;AD. The tale is also related by [[Stephanus of Byzantium]] and [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]].
}}

As Hecate Phosphorus (the 'star' [[Venus]]) she is said to have lit the sky during the Siege of Philip&nbsp;II in 340&nbsp;BCE, revealing the attack to its inhabitants. The Byzantines dedicated a statue to her as the "lamp carrier".<ref>{{cite book |last=Russell |first=Thomas James |year=2017 |page=184 |title=Byzantium and the Bosporus |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |place=Oxford, UK |isbn=9780198790525 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZD1uDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA184}}</ref> According to [[Hesychius of Miletus]] there was once a statue of Hecate at the site of the [[Hippodrome of Constantinople|Hippodrome]] in [[Constantinople]].<ref>''[[Patria of Constantinople]]''</ref>

====Hecate's island====
Hecate's island (Ἑκάτης νήσου), also called Psamite (Ψαμίτη), was an islet in the vicinity of [[Delos]]. It was called Psamite because Hecate was honoured with a cake, which was called psamiton (ψάμιτον).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/epsilon/365|title=SOL Search|website=www.cs.uky.edu|accessdate=16 January 2023}}</ref> The island is the modern Megalos (Great) Reumatiaris.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aVEMAAAAYAAJ|title=Travels in Greece and Turkey: Undertaken by Order of Louis XVI, and with the Authority of the Ottoman Court|first=Charles Sigisbert|last=Sonnini|date=16 January 1801|publisher=T. N. Longman & O. Rees|accessdate=16 January 2023|via=Google Books}}</ref>

===Deipnon===
The Athenian Greeks honoured Hecate during the [[Deipnon]]. In Greek, deipnon means the evening meal, usually the largest meal of the day. Hecate's Deipnon is, at its most basic, a meal served to Hecate and the restless dead once a lunar month<ref>The play Plutus by Aristophanes (388 BCE), line 594 any translation will do or [[Benjamin Bickley Rogers]] is fine</ref> during the [[Dark Moon]]. On the night of the dark moon, a meal would be set outside, in a small shrine to Hecate by the front door; as the street in front of the house and the doorway create a crossroads, known to be a place Hecate dwelled. Food offerings might include cake or bread, fish, eggs and honey.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=Sarah |title=Kitchen Witch: Food, Folklore & Fairy Tale |publisher=Womancraft Publishing |year=2022 |isbn=978-1910559697 |pages=32}}</ref> The Deipnon is always followed the next day by the [[Noumenia]],<ref>''Harvard Theological Review'', Vol. 65, No.2, 1972 pages 291–297</ref> when the first sliver of the sunlit New Moon is visible, and then the Agathos Daimon the day after that.

The main purpose of the Deipnon was to honour Hecate and to placate the souls in her wake who "longed for vengeance."<ref>These are the biaiothanatoi, aoroi and ataphoi (cf. Rohde, i. 264 f., and notes, 275–277, ii. 362, and note, 411–413, 424–425), whose enthumion, the quasi-technical word designating their longing for vengeance, was much dreaded. See Heckenbach, p. 2776 and references.</ref> 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 Deipnon consists of three main parts: 1) the meal that was set out at a crossroads, usually in a shrine outside the entryway to the home<ref>Antiphanes, in Athenaeus, 313 B (2. 39 K), and 358 F; Melanthius, in Athenaeus, 325 B. Plato, Com. (i. 647. 19 K), Apollodorus, Melanthius, Hegesander, Chariclides (iii. 394 K), Antiphanes, in Athenaeus, 358 F; Aristophanes, Plutus, 596.</ref> 2) an expiation sacrifice,<ref>Hekate's Suppers, by K. F. Smith. Chapter in the book The Goddess Hekate: Studies in Ancient Pagan and Christian Philosophy edited by Stephen Ronan. Pages 57 to 64</ref> and 3) purification of the household.<ref>Roscher, 1889; Heckenbach, 2781; Rohde, ii. 79, n. 1. also Ammonius (p. 79, Valckenaer)</ref>

===Epithets===
[[File:AN01020070 001 l.jpg|thumb|Sketch of a stone Hecataion. Richard Cosway, British Museum.]]
Hecate was known by a number of epithets:
<!--these need a little explication and a mention of sources where they appear-->
* '''Aionios''', or '''Aenaos''' (Aἰώνιος), eternal, agelong, ever-flowing.<ref>[[Greek Magical Papyri]]/PGM IV 2785-2890</ref>
* '''Aglaos''' (Αγλάος), beautiful, bright, pleasing.<ref>[[Greek Magical Papyri]]/PGM IV 2241-2358</ref>
* '''Apotropaia''' (Ἀποτρόπαια), the one that turns away/protects.<ref>Alberta Mildred Franklin, ''The Lupercalia'', Columbia University, 1921, p. 68.</ref>
* [[Brimo]] (Βριμώ), the furious, the avenging, the dreaded, crackling flame.<ref>[[Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' 3.1194</ref>
* [[Chthonia]] (Χθωνία), of the earth/[[Greek underworld|underworld]].<ref>Jon D. Mikalson, ''Athenian Popular Religion'', UNC Press, 1987, p. 76.</ref>
* [[Enodia]] (Ἐννοδία), she on the way/road.<ref>Sarah Iles Johnston, ''Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece'', University of California Press, 1999, pp. 208–209.</ref>
*'''Erototokos''' (Ερωτοτόκος), producing love, bearer of love.<ref>[[Greek Magical Papyri]]/PGM IV 2441-2621.</ref>
* '''Indalimos''' (Ινδαλίμος), the beautiful.<ref>Betz, Hans Dieter, ' The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells'', 2nd ed. Univ. Chicago, 1992.</ref>
* '''Klêidouchos''' (Κλειδοῦχος), holding the keys.<ref name="liddell" /> As the keeper of the keys of Hades.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:entry=claviger-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Claviger]</ref>
* '''[[Kourotrophos]]''' (Κουροτρόφος), nurse of children.<ref name="liddell">Liddell-Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon''.</ref>
* '''Krokopeplos''' (Κροκόπεπλος), saffron cloaked.<ref name="Forrest">Adam Forrest, ''The Orphic Hymn to Hekate'', Hermetic Fellowship, 1992.</ref>
* [[Melinoe]] (Μηλινόη).<ref>Ivana Petrovic, ''Von den Toren des Hades zu den Hallen des Olymp'' (Brill, 2007), p. 94; W. Schmid and O. Stählin, ''Geschichte der griechischen Literatur'' (C.H. Beck, 1924, 1981), vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 982; [[Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher|W.H. Roscher]], ''Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie'' (Leipzig: Teubner, 1890–94), vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 16.</ref>
* [[Phosphoros]], '''Lampadephoros''' (Φωσφόρος, Λαμπαδηφόρος), bringing or bearing light.<ref name="liddell" />
* '''Propolos''' (Πρόπολος), who serves/attends.<ref name="liddell" />
* '''Propulaia/Propylaia''' (Προπύλαια), before the gate.<ref>Sarah Iles Johnston, ''Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece'', University of California Press, 1999, p. 207.</ref>
* [[Soteria (mythology)|Soteria]] (Σωτηρία), savior.<ref name="Johnston 1990"/>
* '''Trimorphe''' (Τρίμορφη), three-formed.<ref name="liddell" />
* '''Triodia/Trioditis''' (Τριοδία, Τριοδίτης), who frequents crossroads.<ref name="liddell" />