Goddess Hecate: Queen of Witches, Symbols, Mythology, Prayer and More!

According to Greek mythology, Hecate is the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, nature, the moon, ghosts and necromancy (a kind of magic capable of establishing communication with the dead).

The Goddess Hecate was the only daughter of the Titans Perses (the God of Destruction) and Asteria (the Goddess of shooting stars and astrology). There are still other versions about the origin of the Goddess Hecate that describe her as the daughter of Zeus (the God of climate, destiny and laws) with Demeter (the Goddess of agriculture).

In the most consecrated versions of Greek mythology, Hecate was a virgin goddess, who left no children. In some scriptures, however, Hecate is the mother of the sea monster Scylla, a creature with twelve feet and six hideous heads with sharp teeth.

In this article you will learn more about the goddess Hecate, her characteristics, the mythology around her, her symbols, and much more. Keep reading to know everything about this goddess.

The Goddess Hecate is described as a virgin goddess, similar to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Were you interested in knowing more characteristics of this deity? Below you will have access to its main characteristics, including its meaning, mythology and representations.

The etymology, that is, the origin of the word, of Hecate is not known by history. However, there are three known hypotheses for the meaning of the name Hecate. Let’s see what they are:

1 – According to studies of Hesiod’s work, Hecate corresponds to the Greek word that means “will”;

2 – The best known version of the meaning of the name Hecate associates it with the masculine word “Hekatos”, an epithet of the God Apollo (the God of music). In this conception, her name can be translated as “the one who works at a distance”, “the one who removes or moves”, “the one who has a long reach” or even “the one who throws darts at a distance”;

3 – The name Hecate may also be a correspondence to Heket, the Egyptian goddess of birth.

The Goddess Hecate starred in two important episodes of Greek mythology: the Abduction of Persephone (the queen of the underworld) and the War of the Giants.

The Abduction of Persephone:

The Rape of Persephone narrates the episode in which Persephone, daughter of Demeter and Zeus, is kidnapped by the God Hades to the dimension of the underworld, which he ruled. Her cries and cries for help were not heard by any deity, not even by her powerful parents. The only deities who heard Persephone’s cry were Hecate and Helios (the personification of the Sun).

Desperate because of the disappearance of her daughter, Demeter wandered the Earth for nine days and nine nights in search of Persephone. Without stopping for a single moment, the Goddess did not eat, drink or sleep, until Hecate appeared before her holding two torches and bringing news.

Hecate heard Persephone’s pleas for help and, together with Demeter, they went to Helios, the one who watched over all men and all the gods, who informed them about Persephone’s location. Hecate and Demeter went to the underworld to rescue Persephone from Hades. Since her return, Hecate has become Persephone’s companion, protecting her at all times.

The War of the Giants:

Legend has it that Gaia (the goddess of the Earth) was so infuriated by Zeus’ actions that she decided to imprison all the Titans to ensure her ultimate power as God. To take revenge on his own son, Gaia and Uranus (the God of Heaven) created the Giants. These creatures were unsurpassed both in their size, strength and power. With invincible bodies, the Giants possessed a frightening appearance, with long hair and serpentine scales covering their legs.

The Giants started a war against the gods, throwing stones and fireballs towards the sky. According to the oracle of the gods, the defeat of Zeus was certain. The only way for the gods to win this battle was through an alliance with a mortal, Hercules. Thanks to Athena (the Goddess of Wisdom), Zeus managed to form an alliance with Hercules before Gaia could do anything. Thanks to the mortal’s unrivaled strength, the most powerful Giants were destroyed.

In this war, the Goddess Hecate was an ally of Zeus and also fought against the Giants. She was responsible for the death of the Giant Klytios, burned by her fire torches.

Depictions of the Goddess Hecate were common in both ceramic painting and sculpture. In paintings, Hecate was usually depicted as a woman holding two identical torches, one in each hand. She wears a knee-length skirt and hunting shoes, just like the goddess Artemis.

In statues, Hecate was often carved in her triple form, with three female bodies back to back, in which one of the bodies held torches, the second held a rope, and the third held a dagger.

The Goddess Hecate has a set of qualities that can be grouped between positive and negative. Goddess Hecate’s positive qualities include independence, compassion, justice, courage and wisdom.

She is one of the few goddesses who does not depend on men to guide her on her journey, nor does she allow herself to be threatened by authorities and forces of the unknown, pushing human beings towards knowledge and freedom.

Your negative qualities are found in your mood and sexuality. There is no mention in ancient texts about their temperament and their love relationships. Most likely, Hecate was an apathetic and virgin deity who was not influenced by passions and fun.

Most of the teachings associated with the Goddess Hecate dialogue with the virtue of charity. In some traditions, offering a supper in her honor is, in fact, an invitation to practice the act of charity, so that her faithful can feed the most needy.

Throughout history, many distortions were made about the image and meaning of the Goddess Hecate, most of them due to the expansion of Christianity and the Middle Ages.

The main confusion claims that Hecate was an evil goddess, due to her popularity in the ancient world. The church was forced to associate its worship with evil practices, since people should only worship their One God, omnipotent and omniscient.

Since the idea of ​​the underworld became a synonym for hell, Hecate suffered the consequences of this confusion, being associated with evil and dark practices. The immature associations between night, death and ghosts with evil things also contributed to distorting their true power and meaning.

The Goddess Hecate left us an important legacy for witchcraft, sorcery and magical rituals. Furthermore, features of it are one of the theological bases for various mythologies around the world. Check out the legacy of Hecate in three important perspectives below.

The triple deities, or Trinidads, are goddesses from different mythologies around the world who share a common characteristic: although they are divided into three deities, they are generally worshiped as one. In Greek mythology, the Goddess Hecate is the representative of this phenomenon of the tripartition of the goddesses.

Some studies point out that the triple deities are one of the bases for all the religions that exist. Therefore, all variations of the trinities would have a common origin that branches out into various cults over time.

In classical tradition, Hecate represents the goddess of the hunt, the goddess of the moon, and the goddess of the underworld. Its Roman counterpart is the Goddess Diana, who was worshiped as the union between Luna (Heaven), Diana (Earth) and Proserpina (Hell).

Also examples of triple deities are:

Goddess Hecate is the mistress of all magic and spells. She witnessed the abduction of Demeter’s daughter Persephone to the underworld and, armed with two torches in hand, aided Demeter in her search for her daughter. As a result, pillars in her honor were built at the crossroads and at the doors, to ward off evil spirits.

So that the Goddess Hecate could look in all directions from a crossroads, her representation as a triple deity became common, in which each of their bodies turned their backs to each other, holding lit torches. Still according to mythology, Hecate was always accompanied by a pack of dogs.

Hecate is the goddess of magic and sorcery. In view of this, there are many ways for you to establish a bond with this deity, one of them is from the magic and enchantment rituals themselves.

The rituals you can do to honor Hecate should always take place during the night, during the new, full, and waning moon phases. Rites involving divination, healing, banishing and spiritual cleansing are most effective in the domain of the Goddess Hecate.

Be sure to leave your offerings at the entrance, as Hecate is the goddess of doors. Having a permanent altar near the door dedicated to Hecate will allow her to look over your visits. She will banish those with bad intentions and welcome those who bring good energy to you.

The ancients held large feasts in honor of the Goddess Hecate and offered foods associated with her, such as chicken hearts and honey buns.

Many natural elements, dates, and even other deities are connected to the Goddess Hecate because of the many mythological traditions that have dealt with her narrative. Below you will find the complete list of these elements.

There are some animals usually linked to the Goddess Hecate, such as the bull, the horse, the goat, the dog, the black sheep, the bat, the serpent, the lizard, the owl, the dragon and the fish.

Of these animals, lizards and sheep were used for sacrificial purposes. The rest were part of some pagan representations of Hecate, which imagined her with the body of a woman and the head of an animal, mainly with the head of a dog, her most common attribution.

The main stones and minerals associated with the Goddess Hecate are bronze, gold, iron, lapis lazuli and any other stone and crystal that is black in color (onyx and tourmaline, for example). As for colors, the Goddess Hecate is linked to shades of black, red, silver, gold and white.