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
0 kommentar(er)
