You find her in the labyrinthine places of Minoan Crete. Known to represent the three stages of man, Youth, Father, and Sage, the Horned God symbolizes the good intent. Regarding the nature of her cult, it has been remarked, "she is more at home on the fringes than in the centre of Greek polytheism. She received honor also in starry heaven, and is honored exceedingly by the deathless gods. [98] According to Hesychius of Miletus there was once a statue of Hecate at the site of the Hippodrome in Constantinople. She was associated with witchcraft, magic, the Moon, doorways, and creatures of the night like hell-hounds and ghosts. [13][89] There was an area sacred to Hecate in the precincts of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, where the priests, megabyzi, officiated. Heqet - The Egyptian Frog Goddess It should be noted that in spite of popular culture, the 'connection' of Kek to frogs is quite obscure, given the ambiguous nature of primordial gods in Egyptian mythology. Moreover is Qadesh, also called Qwynn, a character in Holly Roberds' fantasy novel "Bitten by Death", published in 2021. "In Byzantium small temples in her honour were placed close to the gates of the city. 7. Pages 57 to 64, Roscher, 1889; Heckenbach, 2781; Rohde, ii. [6] Her oldest known representation was found in Selinunte, in Sicily. "page21 (image of Hecate attended by a dog)", "CULT OF HEKATE: Ancient Greek religion", "Travels in Greece and Turkey: Undertaken by Order of Louis XVI, and with the Authority of the Ottoman Court", Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Claviger, "Baktria, Kings, Agathokles, ancient coins index with thumbnails", "No Fear Shakespeare: Macbeth: Act 2, Scene 1, Page 2", Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Much like Shiva did with Kali, Ra had to resort to trickery to calm Sekhmets anger and bring her out of her killing spree. The cult of Sekhmet declined in the New Kingdom. Horus was an ancient Egyptian God of the sky, and he is typically depicted as a falcon. "[30], While Greek anthropomorphic conventions of art generally represented Hecate's triple form as three separate bodies, the iconography of the triple Hecate eventually evolved into representations of the goddess with a single body, but three faces. These are the biaiothanatoi, aoroi and ataphoi (cf. The Athenian Greeks honoured Hecate during the Deipnon. Is it a coincidence that the mother of the Virgin Mary is called Anna and that there is a Mary of . Known sources do not associate her with fertility or sex, and theories presenting her as a "sacred harlot" are regarded as obsolete in modern scholarship due to lack of evidence. 1. The yawning gates of Hades were guarded by the monstrous watchdog Cerberus, whose function was to prevent the living from entering the underworld, and the dead from leaving it."[64]. All' ei tis humn en Samothraikei memuemenos esti, The play Plutus by Aristophanes (388 BCE), line 594 any translation will do or. Dated to the 7th century BCE, this is one of the oldest known artefacts dedicated to the worship of Hecate. Artemis would have, at that point, become more strongly associated with purity and maidenhood, on the one hand, while her originally darker attributes like her association with magic, the souls of the dead, and the night would have continued to be worshipped separately under her title Hecate. The number three has a long history of mythical associations and triple deities are common throughout world mythology. The Triple Goddess is arguably the most important deity in the vast majority of Pagan and Wiccan pantheons. There are three different ways you can cite this article. "Hekate: Representations in Art", Hekate Her Sacred Fires, ed. roads, which she carries as she attends her mistress in the sky[68], This speech from the Root Cutters may or may not be an intentional association of Hecate with the Moon. The possibility of not to be, of returning to nothingness, distinguishes Egyptian gods and goddesses from deities of all other pagan pantheons.[1]. Osiris, one of Egypt's most important deities, was god of the underworld. In ancient Egyptor Kemet, as it was known to its people at the timeone key concept was the relationship among three deities, Asar, Aset, and Heru. Archaeologists have discovered approximately 700 larger-than-life granite statues of Sekhmet dated to the reign of Amenhotep III (18th Dynasty). Berg 1974, p. 128: Berg comments on Hecate's endorsement of Roman hegemony in her representation on the pediment at Lagina solemnising a pact between a warrior (Rome) and an. [29][28] Some hekataia, including a votive sculpture from Attica of the 3rd century BCE, include additional dancing figures identified as the Charites circling the triple Hecate and her central column. (2009). Goddess of boundaries, transitions, crossroads, magic, the New Moon, necromancy, and ghosts. Memphis and Leontopolis were the major centers of the worship of Sekhmet, with Memphis being the principal seat. William F. Albright proposed in 1939 that she was a form of the "lady of Byblos" (Baalat Gebal), while Ren Dussard suggested a connection to "Asherat" (e.g. Hecate was known by a number of epithets: Hecate has been characterized as a pre-Olympian chthonic goddess. She seems to have been born in the Delta region, a place where lions were rarely seen. [8][9], On a stele representing the deity, Qetesh is depicted as a frontal nude (an uncommon motif in Egyptian art, though not exclusively associated with her), wearing a Hathor wig and standing on a lion, between Min and the Canaanite warrior god Resheph. 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". So from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her honours. As a goddess expected to avert harmful or destructive spirits from the house or city over which she stood guard and to protect the individual as she or he passed through dangerous liminal places, Hecate would naturally become known as a goddess who could also refuse to avert the demons, or even drive them on against unfortunate individuals. It is difficult to distinguish Sekhmet from other feline goddesses, especially Bastet. Antoninus Liberalis used a myth to explain this association: Aelian told a different story of a woman transformed into a polecat: Athenaeus of Naucratis, drawing on the etymological speculation of Apollodorus of Athens, notes that the red mullet is sacred to Hecate, "on account of the resemblance of their names; for that the goddess is trimorphos, of a triple form". Shakespeare mentions Hecate also in King Lear. 2. "[162] This theory of the Roman origins of many European folk traditions related to Diana or Hecate was explicitly advanced at least as early as 1807[163] and is reflected[dubious discuss] in etymological claims by early modern lexicographers from the 17th to the 19th century, connecting hag, hexe "witch" to the name of Hecate. [d] It shows Hecate, with a hound beside her, placing a wreath on the head of a mare. Hecate was one of several deities worshipped in ancient Athens as a protector of the oikos (household), alongside Zeus, Hestia, Hermes, and Apollo. Caria was a major center of worship and her most famous temple there was located in the town of Lagina. She was also the divine mother of every pharaoh of Egypt, and ultimately of Egypt itself. See Heckenbach, p. 2776 and references. An inscription on the statue is a dedication to Hecate, in writing of the style of the 6th century, but it otherwise lacks any other symbols typically associated with the goddess. (1971). 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. Berg's argument for a Greek origin rests on three main points: "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. Lady of the mountains of the setting sun: Watcher and guardian of the west. Sekhmets father is Ra. Here, Hecate is a mortal priestess often associated with Iphigenia. Some triple goddess that I know of are the following: Greek: Hekate (Hecate), Selene, and Persephone. She was invoked to ward off diseases. In ancient Egyptian mythology, Horus injured his left eye during his battles with the god Set, and thus his left eye represents the waxing and waning of the moon. 19 K), Apollodorus, Melanthius, Hegesander, Chariclides (iii. She is believed to have caused plagues. Subsequent studies tried to find further evidence for equivalence of Qetesh and Asherah, despite dissimilar functions and symbols. In other representations, her animal heads include those of a cow and a boar. It was Alkamenes, in my opinion, who first made three images of Hecate attached to one another [in Athens].[88]. Her cult became popular in Egypt during the New Kingdom. . There are also many that are put together as triple Goddesses but as individuals, such as in Egyptian Mythology, Bast (Maiden), Hathor (Mother) and Sekhmet (Crone). [71] In Italy, the triple unity of the lunar goddesses Diana (the huntress), Luna (the Moon) and Hecate (the underworld) became a ubiquitous feature in depictions of sacred groves, where Hecate/Trivia marked intersections and crossroads along with other liminal deities. [citation needed], The spelling Hecat is due to Arthur Golding's 1567 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses,[24] and this spelling without the final E later appears in plays of the Elizabethan-Jacobean period. There she was worshipped with her consort Ptah. [28], By the 1st century CE, Hecate's chthonic and nocturnal character had led to her transformation into a goddess heavily associated with witchcraft, witches, magic, and sorcery. "[34] The sacrifice of dogs to Hecate is attested for Thrace, Samothrace, Colophon, and Athens. [43] After mentioning that this fish was sacred to Hecate, Alan Davidson writes, In her three-headed representations, discussed above, Hecate often has one or more animal heads, including cow, dog, boar, serpent, and horse. Isis often reminds one of Persephone or Psyche just as Hathor reminds one of Aphrodite or Venus. In the Argolid, near the shrine of the Dioscuri, Pausanias saw the temple of Hecate opposite the sanctuary of Eileithyia; He reported the image to be the work of Scopas, stating further, "This one is of stone, while the bronze images opposite, also of Hecate, were made respectively by Polycleitus and his brother Naucydes, son of Mothon. [28], Hecate's cult became established in Athens about 430 BCE. She was worshipped widely in Lower Egypt as a great Mother Goddess in the Predynastic Period (c. 6000- c. 3150 BCE) and so is among the older deities of Egypt. [3], The 2nd-century travel writer Pausanias stated that Hecate was first depicted in triplicate by the sculptor Alcamenes in the Greek Classical period of the late 5th century BCE,[4] whose sculpture was placed before the temple of the Wingless Nike in Athens. Sometimes she is also stated to be the mother (by Aetes[76]) of the goddess Circe and the sorceress Medea,[154] who in later accounts was herself associated with magic while initially just being a herbalist goddess, similar to how Hecate's association with Underworld and Mysteries had her later converted into a deity of witchcraft. Sekhmet represented the Lower Nile region (north Egypt). The monuments to Hecate in Phrygia and Caria are numerous but of late date. They have a son named Nefertem. Lesko Barbara (n.d) The Great Goddesses of Egypt, University of Oklahoma Press, [1] Marcia Stark & Gynne Stern (1993) The Dark Goddess: Dancing with the Shadow, The Crossing Press. Esoteric is that which is beyond the ordinary. The goddess is carved with a Uraeus raising at her forehead, holding a papyrus scepter (the symbol of lower / north Egypt), and an ankh (giver of fertility and life through the annual flooding of the Nile). [28] 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. [51], Hecate was said to favour offerings of garlic, which was closely associated with her cult. In the Michigan magical papyrus (inv. Mistress of Dread: She nearly destroyed human civilization and had to be drugged to sleep. 7, Suidas s.v. Such deities may sometimes be referred to as threefold, tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune, triadic, or as a trinity. In Egyptian-inspired Greek esoteric writings connected with Hermes Trismegistus, and in the Greek Magical Papyri of Late Antiquity, Hecate is described as having three heads: one dog, one serpent, and one horse. Qetesh is the name given to the Goa'uld that once possessed Vala Mal Doran, a recurring and then regular character in Seasons 9 and 10, respectively of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. The ancient text is corrupted; an alternative correction of the name into 'Phoebus' (that is, Apollo) has been also suggested. "[27] A 6th century fragment of pottery from Boetia depicts a goddess which may be Hecate in a maternal or fertility mode. "[57] This liminal role is reflected in a number of her cult titles: Apotropaia (that turns away/protects); Enodia (on the way); Propulaia/Propylaia (before the gate); Triodia/Trioditis (who frequents crossroads); Klidouchos (holding the keys), etc. 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. "[105] 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 History of Guns, Greek Mythology: Stories, Characters, Gods, and Culture, Aztec Mythology: Important Stories and Characters, Greek Gods and Goddesses: Family Tree and Fun Facts, Roman Gods and Goddesses: The Names and Stories of 29 Ancient Roman Gods, The Dark Goddess: Dancing with the Shadow, https://arce.org/resource/statues-sekhmet-mistress-dread/#:~:text=A%20mother%20goddess%20in%20the,as%20a%20lion%2Dheaded%20woman, https://egyptianmuseum.org/deities-sekhmet, Skadi: The Norse Goddess of Skiing, Hunting, and Pranks, Druids: The Ancient Celtic Class That Did It All, iPhone History: A Timeline of Every Model in Order, US History Timeline: The Dates of Americas Journey, Ancient Civilizations Timeline: The Complete List from Aboriginals to Incans, Why Are Hot Dogs Called Hot Dogs? [e], As Hecate Phosphorus (the 'star' Venus) she is said to have lit the sky during the Siege of PhilipII in 340BCE, revealing the attack to its inhabitants. 1. https://arce.org/resource/statues-sekhmet-mistress-dread/#:~:text=A%20mother%20goddess%20in%20the,as%20a%20lion%2Dheaded%20woman. Limestone fragments discovered from the valley temple of Sneferu (dynasty IV) at Dahshur depict the monarchs head closely juxtaposed to the muzzle of a lioness deity (presumed to be Sekhmet) as if to symbolize Sneferu breathing in the divine life force emanating from the goddesss mouth. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Gods of Death These typically depict her holding a variety of items, including torches, keys, serpents, and daggers. When the center of power shifted from Memphis to Thebes during the New Kingdom, her attributes were absorbed into Mut. [54] These include aconite (also called hecateis),[55] belladonna, dittany, and mandrake. An annual festival was celebrated in honor of Sekhmet. She became the patroness of the Nile Delta and the protector of all of Lower Egypt. [7] In the post-Christian writings of the Chaldean Oracles (2nd3rd century CE) she was also regarded with (some) rulership over earth, sea, and sky, as well as a more universal role as Savior (Soteira), Mother of Angels and the Cosmic World Soul. Sekhmet was worshipped along with Ra at the Heliopolis since the early Old Kingdom. 6. In the pyramid texts, Sekhmet is written to be the mother of the kings reborn in the afterlife. Qetesh is a goddess of Semetic origin. Open Access Dissertations and heses. Principally the Ethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me Queen Isis. To commemorate this timely phenomenon, which was attributed to Hecate, they erected a public statue to that goddess []". Qetesh's sexuality led to a natural association with the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Of the 200 books available in open source about Egyptian mythology, hardly seven or eight had anything substantial to say about Sekhmet. 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.[94]. One needs refined or higher-order capabilities to understand the esoteric phenomenon. the biblical Asherah) in 1941. [66] Nevertheless, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter shows Helios and Hecate informing Demeter of Persephone's abduction, a common theme found in many parts of the world where the Sun and the Moon are questioned concerning events that happen on earth based on their ability to witness everything[66] and implies Hecate's capacity as a moon goddess in the hymn. [100] The island is the modern Megalos (Great) Reumatiaris.[101]. [72], From her father Perses, Hecate is often called Perseis (meaning daughter of Perses)[73][74] which is also the name of one of the Oceanid nymphs, Helios wife and Circes mother in other versions.
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