The Goddess Hekate ~ .

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Hekate is a greek goddess mainly associated with witchcraft, ghosts, the moon and mystery but she's much more than this. Hecate is the only daughter of the Titans Perses and Asteria. She helped the Olympians in the war of the giants (there's a vase, where she's depicted slaying Clytius the giant with a pair of flaming torches) so Zeus favored her by letting her keep her powers and not only that but he gave her dominion over the Heavens, the Earth and the Sea. She also comes up in various myths, with the most infamous being the myth of the abduction of Persephone, where she assisted Demeter to find her daughter guiding her through the night with flaming torches. After the mother-daughter reunion she became Persephone's minister and companion in Hades. Some say she was mother to both Midea and Circe while others say she was just their spiritual mother. She also plays a dominant role in the Chaldean oracles where she is depicted as the world soul and the universal keeper of the keys. Some of her companions are black dogs and ghosts and some of her symbols are keys,dogs,the strophalos and the moon, especially the dark moon. Speaking of the dark moon, suppers were left at the crossroads as offerings to her which included of moon like shaped cakes (sometimes with torches on them),garlic,red mullets and others. Those offerings sadly didn't always come from a place of love and appreciation for the goddess but from a place of fear, were they viewed her as mischievous and trouble causing goddess. Plenty of times, those offerings left at the crossroads were consumed by the homeless, poor and ostasized people (giving her a role as the protectress of the marginalized) and by animals. Her cult was very prominent in ancient Greece,most of the citizens kept a statue of her next to their door to warn evil spirits and illness out and statues of her, mostly in her three faced form were placed at crossroads symbolising except her dominion over the three kingdoms of earth,sky and sea her power to see in the same time at all of the 3 directions of past, present and future. She's considered a chtonic deity by many (of the underworld) but she's not only that, which we can clearly see by her many epithets which attribute many diffrent qualities and power to her. For example we have her being fierce and scary looking as "Brimo" but also caring and nurturing as "Kourotrophos" (nurtured of children). Ohh i also forgot to mention that her name most likely means the distant one and is considered by many to be a mediator between the mortal realm and the world of the gods/spirits. I believe that is about enough for now, that being said if you're interested in this very complex, but really fascinating i encourage you to do your own research on her. Good luck :)

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