§ 2.) This extensive power possessed by Hecate was probably the reason that subsequently she was confounded and identified with several other divinities, and at length became a mystic goddess, to whom mysteries were celebrated in Samothrace (Lycoph. She also assisted the gods in their war with the Gigantes, and slew Clytius. She was the only one among the Titans who retained this power under the rule of Zeus, and she was honoured by all the immortal gods. According to the most genuine traditions, she appears to have been an ancient Thracian divinity, and a Titan, who, from the time of the Titans, ruled in heaven, on the earth, and in the sea, who bestowed on mortals wealth, victory, wisdom, good luck to sailors and hunters, and prosperity to youth and to the flocks of cattle but all these blessings might at the same time be withheld by her, if mortals did not deserve them. 36) and others, lastly, say that she was a daughter of Leto or Tartarus. 12) others again make her a daughter of Zeus either by Pheraea or by Hera (Tzetz. 478.) Others describe her as a daughter of Zeus and Demeter, and state that she was sent out by her father in search of Persephone (Schol. HE′CATE (Hekatê), a mysterious divinity, who, according to the most common tradition, was a daughter of Persaeus or Perses and Asteria, whence she is called Perseis. KIRKE, MEDEA, AIGIALEUS (by Aeetes) (Diodorus Siculus 4.45.1) SKYLLA (by Phorkys) (Apollonius Rhodius 4.827) NONE (she was a virgin goddess) (Apollonius Rhodius 3.840, Lycophron 1174) DEMETER (Orphic Frag, Scholiast on Apoll. NYX (Bacchylides Frag 1B, Scholiast on Apoll. PERSES (Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter 24, Orphic Hymn 1, Lycophron 1174, Apollonius Rhodius 3.1036, Diodorus Siculus 4.45.1, Ovid Metamorphoses 7.74, Seneca Medea 812) PERSES & ASTERIA (Hesiod Theogony 404, Apollodorus 1.8) Hekate was identified with a number of other goddesses including Artemis, Selene (the Moon), Despoine, the sea-goddess Krataeis (Crataeis), the goddess of the Taurian Khersonese in Skythia, the Kolkhian (Colchian) nymph Perseis, the heroine Iphigeneia, the Thracian goddesses Bendis and Kotys (Cotys), the Euboian nymph Maira (the Dog-Star), the Eleusinian nymph Daeira and the Boiotian nymph Herkyna (Hercyna). The masculine form of the name, Hekatos, was a common epithet of the god Apollon. Her name means "worker from afar" from the Greek word hekatos. In statuary Hekate was often depicted in triple form as a goddess of crossroads. Sometimes she was dressed in a knee-length maiden's skirt and hunting boots, much like Artemis. Hekate was usually depicted in Greek vase painting as a woman holding twin torches. The polecat was either the witch Gale, turned as punishment for her incontinence, or Galinthias, midwife of Alkmene (Alcmena), who was transformed by the enraged goddess Eileithyia but adopted by the sympathetic Hekate. The dog was the Trojan Queen Hekabe (Hecuba) who leapt into the sea after the fall of Troy and was transformed by the goddess. Three metamorphosis myths describe the origins of her animal familiars: the black she-dog and the polecat (a mustelid house pet kept by the ancients to hunt vermin). After the mother-daughter reunion became she Persephone's minister and companion in Haides. Hekate assisted Demeter in her search for Persephone, guiding her through the night with flaming torches. She was the only child of the Titanes Perses and Asteria from whom she received her power over heaven, earth, and sea. HEKATE (Hecate) was the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy. Worker from Afar Hecate, Athenian red-figure bell krater C5th B.C., Metropolitan Museum of Art
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