Hekate

Goddess of witchcraft, ghosts, and necromancy. She is a psychopomp, meaning she leads the souls of the dead to the Underworld. She is mistakenly identified by many Wicca-influenced pagans as a "triple goddess" or crone; in reality, she is a virgin goddess of youthful appearance. Her threefold appearance mostly seemed to appear in the context of protecting three-way crossroads. She also protects the home, and was enshrined at the threshold in a shrine called the Hekataion.

Epithets

• Perseis: Destroyer
• Brimô: Terrible, Angry One
• Aidônaia: Of the Underworld
• Trimorphis: Three-Bodied
• Trioditis: Of the Three Way Crossroads
• Enodia: Of the Wayside/Crossroads

Offerings

Garlic
• Cypress
• Oak
• Saffron
• Rosemary
• Red mullet fish
• Amphiphon candies
• Styrax incense
• Bay laurel leaves
• Keys

Prayers and Hymns

“I call Einodian Hecate, lovely dame,

Of earthly, wat'ry, and celestial frame,

Sepulchral, in a saffron veil array’d,

Leas’d with dark ghosts that wander thro’ the shade;

Persian, unconquerable huntress hail!

The world’s key-bearer never doom’d to fail;

On the rough rock to wander thee delights,

Leader and nurse be present to our rites

Propitious grant our just desires success,

Accept our homage, and the incense bless.”

-Orphic Hymns

“Kourotrophe (Nurse of the Young) Hekate, give your ear to my prayer, and grant (your request here).”

-Homeric Epigrams

“Lady Hekate of the heavens, Hekate of the Underworld, Hekate of the Crossroads, Hekate of the Triple-face, Hekate of the Single Face (statement here).”

-Curse Tablet