translated by Apostolos N. Athanassakis and Benjamin M. Wolow, The Orphic Hymns, John Hopkins University press, Maryland, 2013,
To Hekate p.5.
Lovely Hecate of the roads
and the crossroads I invoke
In heaven, on earth,
then in the sea, saffron cloaked
tomb spirit revealing
in the souls of the dead
daughter of Perses, haunting deserted places
delighting in deer
nocturnal, dog-loving
monstrous queen
devouring wild beasts
ungirt and repulsive
Herder of bulls
queen and mistress of the whole world
leader-nymph,
mountain-roaming nurturer of youths
maiden, I beseech you to come
to these holy rites
ever with joyous heart
ever favouring the oxherd.
The monstrous queen - slightly different to the concept of the lovely queen, goddess, the beneficent goddesses of other religions.
Reminds me of the mother of the Mesopotamian god Marduk, Tiamat. (Enuma Elish). She was also described as monstrous, killed her husband and was killed by her son Marduk. Her body parts created the universe.
She may be monstrous if she is death personified.
crossroads may well mean the concrete concept of a road, journey, crossroad and directions
or the metaphor of crossroads in life, phases, decisions,
or a secret.......?
The authors say crossroads are 3 roads, reflects the magic number 3, Hecate being 3 bodies, 3triple faces. I presume, celestial, earth and the underworld. In heaven, on earth, then in the sea,
p. 73-5 The authors say she is from Asia Minor, originally a Titan, not stripped of her honours by Zeus
she is an only child
she is later identified with Artemis and the moon (saffron cloak), carrying the light in her hands and the other half to the Sun. She hears the screams of Persephone dragged into Hades. Her mother is Asteria (starry).
She has celestial connections but also chthonic related to fertility. She becomes related to Demeter and Persephone as a follower but she is demonic brining madness, suffering and death. Curse tablets curse her for efficacy.
Is she like Lilith?
She also had a positive following both civic and private, goddess of crossroads, with offerings of dog meat. She was part of the Orphic mystery religions.
She is described as wild Baccant, ie mountain roaming, herder of bulls.
from http://www.theoi.com/Cult/HekateCult.html
Pindar, Paean 2 (trans. Sandys) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysos, Apollon, Hekate, the Mousai, and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic or Bakkhic or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in initiations . . . And branch-bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common elements in the worship of these gods."
To Hekate p.5.
Lovely Hecate of the roads
and the crossroads I invoke
In heaven, on earth,
then in the sea, saffron cloaked
tomb spirit revealing
in the souls of the dead
daughter of Perses, haunting deserted places
delighting in deer
nocturnal, dog-loving
monstrous queen
devouring wild beasts
ungirt and repulsive
Herder of bulls
queen and mistress of the whole world
leader-nymph,
mountain-roaming nurturer of youths
maiden, I beseech you to come
to these holy rites
ever with joyous heart
ever favouring the oxherd.
The monstrous queen - slightly different to the concept of the lovely queen, goddess, the beneficent goddesses of other religions.
Reminds me of the mother of the Mesopotamian god Marduk, Tiamat. (Enuma Elish). She was also described as monstrous, killed her husband and was killed by her son Marduk. Her body parts created the universe.
She may be monstrous if she is death personified.
crossroads may well mean the concrete concept of a road, journey, crossroad and directions
or the metaphor of crossroads in life, phases, decisions,
or a secret.......?
The authors say crossroads are 3 roads, reflects the magic number 3, Hecate being 3 bodies, 3triple faces. I presume, celestial, earth and the underworld. In heaven, on earth, then in the sea,
p. 73-5 The authors say she is from Asia Minor, originally a Titan, not stripped of her honours by Zeus
she is an only child
she is later identified with Artemis and the moon (saffron cloak), carrying the light in her hands and the other half to the Sun. She hears the screams of Persephone dragged into Hades. Her mother is Asteria (starry).
She has celestial connections but also chthonic related to fertility. She becomes related to Demeter and Persephone as a follower but she is demonic brining madness, suffering and death. Curse tablets curse her for efficacy.
Is she like Lilith?
She also had a positive following both civic and private, goddess of crossroads, with offerings of dog meat. She was part of the Orphic mystery religions.
She is described as wild Baccant, ie mountain roaming, herder of bulls.
from http://www.theoi.com/Cult/HekateCult.html
Pindar, Paean 2 (trans. Sandys) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"It was the first of the month when this befell, and the gracious Hekata, the maid of the ruddy feet, was thereby sending us a message that was longing for fulfilment."
[N.B. Offerings were made to Hekate on the morning of the new moon]
[N.B. Offerings were made to Hekate on the morning of the new moon]
Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 18 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) :
"If you think Latona [Leto] a goddess, how can you not think that Hecate is one, who is the daughter of Latona's sister Asteria? Is Hecate a goddess too? We have seen altars and shrines belonging to her in Greece."
"If you think Latona [Leto] a goddess, how can you not think that Hecate is one, who is the daughter of Latona's sister Asteria? Is Hecate a goddess too? We have seen altars and shrines belonging to her in Greece."
HOUSEHOLD SHRINES
Small household shrines were erected to Hekate to ward of the harmful influences of witchcraft and the power of the evil eye.
Aeschylus, Fragment 216 (from Scholiast on Theocritus, Idyll 2. 36) (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :"Lady (despoina) Hekate, before the portal of the royal halls." [I.e. her shrine by the gates.]
Euripides, Medea 396 ff (trans. Vellacott) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :
"My chosen helper Hekate, who dwells in the inner chamber of my house [i.e. at the household shrine]."
"My chosen helper Hekate, who dwells in the inner chamber of my house [i.e. at the household shrine]."
Aristophanes, Plutus 410 ff (trans. O'Neill) (Greek comedy C5th to 4th B.C.) :
"Ask Hekate whether it is better to be rich or starving; she will tell you that the rich send her a meal every month [i.e. food placed inside her door-front shrines] and that the poor make it disappear before it is even served."
"Ask Hekate whether it is better to be rich or starving; she will tell you that the rich send her a meal every month [i.e. food placed inside her door-front shrines] and that the poor make it disappear before it is even served."
Aristophanes, Wasps 804 ff :
"I have heard it foretold, that one day the Athenians would dispense justice in their own houses, that each citizen would have himself a little tribunal constructed in his porch similar to the altars of Hekate (Hekataion), and that there would be such before every door."
[N.B. Hekataion were statues or chapels of Hekate, placed at the entrance of houses.]
"I have heard it foretold, that one day the Athenians would dispense justice in their own houses, that each citizen would have himself a little tribunal constructed in his porch similar to the altars of Hekate (Hekataion), and that there would be such before every door."
[N.B. Hekataion were statues or chapels of Hekate, placed at the entrance of houses.]
CROSSROAD SHRINES
Aristophanes, Frogs 440 ff (trans. O'Neill) (Greek comedy C5th to 4th B.C.) :
"The Lady Hekate's wayside shrine."
"The Lady Hekate's wayside shrine."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 30. 2 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"It was Alkamenes [of Athens], in my opinion, who first made three images of Hekate attached to one another."
"It was Alkamenes [of Athens], in my opinion, who first made three images of Hekate attached to one another."
Ovid, Fasti 1. 141 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"You see Hecate's faces turned in three directions so she can protect the triple crossroads."
"You see Hecate's faces turned in three directions so she can protect the triple crossroads."
Virgil, Aeneid 4. 609 ff (trans. Day-Lewis) (Roman epic C1st B.C.) :
"Hecate whose name is howled by night at the city cross-roads."
"Hecate whose name is howled by night at the city cross-roads."
CULT IN ATTICA (SOUTHERN GREECE)
I. ATHENS (ATHENAI) Main City of Attica (Attika)
Aristophanes, Wasps 799 ff (trans. O'Neill) (Greek comedy C5th to 4th B.C.) :
"Athenians . . . in their own houses . . . constructed in the porch . . . altars of Hecate . . . before every door."
"Athenians . . . in their own houses . . . constructed in the porch . . . altars of Hecate . . . before every door."
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 30. 2 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"It was Alkamenes, in my opinion, who first made three images of Hekate attached to one another, a figure called by the Athenians Epipurgidia (on the Tower); it stands beside the temple of Nike Apteron (Wingless Victory) [on the Akropolis]."
"It was Alkamenes, in my opinion, who first made three images of Hekate attached to one another, a figure called by the Athenians Epipurgidia (on the Tower); it stands beside the temple of Nike Apteron (Wingless Victory) [on the Akropolis]."
II. ELEUSIS Town in Attica
Hekate was one of the chief goddesses of the Eleusinian Mysteries, alongside Demeter and Persephone. The story of the Abduction of Persephone describes her role in the sagas of the Mysteries.
Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 280 ff (trans. O'Neill) (Greek comedy C5th to 4th B.C.) :
"[Description of the Thesmophoria festival held in honour of the Great Goddesses, Demeter and Persephone :]
Woman Herald : Silence! Silence! Pray to the Thesmophorai, Demeter and Koura [Persephone]; pray to Ploutos, Kalligeneia, Kourotrophos [Hekate], Ge (the Earth), Hermes and the Kharites (Graces), that all may happen for the best at this gathering, both for the greatest advantage of Athens and for our own personal happiness! May the award be given her who, by both deeds and words, has most deserved it from the Athenian people and from the women! Address these prayers to heaven and demand happiness for yourselves. Io Paean! Io Paean! Let us rejoice!"
Strabo, Geography 10. 3. 10 :"[Description of the Thesmophoria festival held in honour of the Great Goddesses, Demeter and Persephone :]
Woman Herald : Silence! Silence! Pray to the Thesmophorai, Demeter and Koura [Persephone]; pray to Ploutos, Kalligeneia, Kourotrophos [Hekate], Ge (the Earth), Hermes and the Kharites (Graces), that all may happen for the best at this gathering, both for the greatest advantage of Athens and for our own personal happiness! May the award be given her who, by both deeds and words, has most deserved it from the Athenian people and from the women! Address these prayers to heaven and demand happiness for yourselves. Io Paean! Io Paean! Let us rejoice!"
"Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysos, Apollon, Hekate, the Mousai, and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic or Bakkhic or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in initiations . . . And branch-bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common elements in the worship of these gods."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 3. 61 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Already the bird of morning was cutting the air with loud cries [on the island of Samothrake]; already the helmeted bands of desert-haunting Korybantes were beating on their shields in the Knossian dance, and leaping with rhythmic steps, and the oxhides thudded under the blows of the iron as they whirled them about in rivalry, while the double pipe made music, and quickened the dancers with its rollicking tune in time to the bounding steps. Aye, and the trees whispered, the rocks boomed, the forests held jubilee with their intelligent movings and shakings, and the Dryades did sing. Packs of bears joined the dance, skipping and wheeling face to face; lions with a roar from emulous throats mimicked the triumphant cry of the priests of the Kabeiroi, sane in their madness; the revelling pipes rang out a tune to honour of Hekate, divine friend of dogs, those single pipes, which the horn-polisher's art invented in Kronos's days."
"Already the bird of morning was cutting the air with loud cries [on the island of Samothrake]; already the helmeted bands of desert-haunting Korybantes were beating on their shields in the Knossian dance, and leaping with rhythmic steps, and the oxhides thudded under the blows of the iron as they whirled them about in rivalry, while the double pipe made music, and quickened the dancers with its rollicking tune in time to the bounding steps. Aye, and the trees whispered, the rocks boomed, the forests held jubilee with their intelligent movings and shakings, and the Dryades did sing. Packs of bears joined the dance, skipping and wheeling face to face; lions with a roar from emulous throats mimicked the triumphant cry of the priests of the Kabeiroi, sane in their madness; the revelling pipes rang out a tune to honour of Hekate, divine friend of dogs, those single pipes, which the horn-polisher's art invented in Kronos's days."
Suidas s.v. Zerynthia (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"Zerynthia : . . . Also Zerinthian cave, where they used to sacrifice dogs. There the mysteries of the Korybantes [Kabeiroi] and of Hekate took place."
"Zerynthia : . . . Also Zerinthian cave, where they used to sacrifice dogs. There the mysteries of the Korybantes [Kabeiroi] and of Hekate took place."
Suidas s.v. All' ei tis humôn en Samothraikei memuemenos esti :
"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."
"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."
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