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Apollonius of Rhodes, in the Argonautica mentions that Medea was taught by Hecate, "I have mentioned to you before a certain young girl whom Hecate, daughter of Perses, has taught to work in drugs. Myths mention how an angry Ra, created Sekhmet out of Hathor and sent her to destroy mankind because it was not upholding the laws of Maat, the ancient Egyptian concept of order and justice. She was worshipped as a nature goddess, and a goddess of sacred ecstasy and sexual pleasure. . Martha Ann & Dorothy Myers Imel (1993) Goddesses in World Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 5. In that place were also the mysteries of the Korybantes [Kabeiroi] and those of Hekate and the Zerinthian cave, where they sacrificed dogs. In a middle kingdom treatise, the wrath of the pharaoh toward rebels is compared to the rage of Sekhmet. Accessed May 2, 2023. [33][133], Hecate is the primary feminine figure in the Chaldean Oracles (2nd3rd century CE),[134] where she is associated in fragment 194 with a strophalos (usually translated as a spinning top, or wheel, used in magic) "Labour thou around the Strophalos of Hecate. However, have you ever come across a single deity, who is not the creator or primordial deity, and yet presides over opposing qualities? She scorns and insults Artemis, who in retribution eventually brings about the mortal's suicide. In Early Modern English, the name was also pronounced disyllabically (as /hk.t/) and sometimes spelled Hecat. [137], In the syncretism during Late Antiquity of Hellenistic and late Babylonian ("Chaldean") elements, Hecate was identified with Ereshkigal, the underworld counterpart of Inanna in the Babylonian cosmography. What's interesting about this deity is that Isis has mothered more religions than you may think. The crone symbolizes elderly women and the wisdom which comes with aging. [3], The 2nd-century travel writer Pausanias stated that Hecate was first depicted in triplicate by the sculptor Alcamenes in the Greek Classical period of the late 5th century BCE,[4] whose sculpture was placed before the temple of the Wingless Nike in Athens. [13] However, while Ashtart (Astarte) and Anat were closely associated with each other in Ugarit, in Egyptian sources, and elsewhere,[14][15] there is no evidence for conflation of Athirat and Ashtart, nor is Athirat associated closely with Ashtart and Anat in Ugaritic texts. [28], Hecate was a popular divinity, and her cult was practiced with many local variations all over Greece and Western Anatolia. Hecate was a powerful goddess of uncertain origin. The number three has a long history of mythical associations and triple deities are common throughout world mythology. 2. Inscriptions of many of the statues declare that Sekhmet and Bastet are different aspects of Hathor. Her place of origin is debated by scholars, but she had popular followings amongst the witches of Thessaly[6] and an important sanctuary among the Carian Greeks of Asia Minor in Lagina. Such deities may sometimes be referred to as threefold, tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune, triadic, or as a trinity. He goes on to quote a fragment of verse: In relation to Greek concepts of pollution, Parker observes. Goddess of boundaries, transitions, crossroads, magic, the New Moon, necromancy, and ghosts. Qetesh's sexuality led to a natural association with the Egyptian goddess Hathor. The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea.[122]. [citation needed], The spelling Hecat is due to Arthur Golding's 1567 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses,[24] and this spelling without the final E later appears in plays of the Elizabethan-Jacobean period. [95] In Thrace she played a role similar to that of lesser-Hermes, namely a ruler of liminal regions, particularly gates, and the wilderness. It is speculated that these statues were created to pacify the goddess and please her. [Diviners] spin this sphere and make invocations. (1971). The pharaohs wore the uraeus as a head ornament: either with the body of Wadjet . [28] In artwork, she is often portrayed in three statues standing back to back, each with its own special attributes (torch, keys, daggers, snakes, dogs). Though such gifts varied in value and substance, it is nevertheless clear that the kings, chiefs, and Ollam of the Tuatha D Danann all drew their power . This one is of stone, while the bronze images opposite, also of Hecate, were made respectively by Polykleitos and his brother Naukydes.[87]. [13] In association with her worship alongside Apollo at Miletus, worshipers used a unique form of offering: they would place stone cubes, often wreathes, known as (gylloi) as protective offerings at the door or gateway. This aligns with the pyramid texts mentioning that Sekhmet conceived the king. Esoteric is that which is beyond the ordinary. (i. Memphis and Leontopolis were the major centers of the worship of Sekhmet, with Memphis being the principal seat. Lionesses are rarely depicted in the pre-dynastic period of Egypt yet in the early pharaonic period the lioness goddesses are already well established and important. "[105] A secondary purpose was to purify the household and to atone for bad deeds a household member may have committed that offended Hecate, causing her to withhold her favour from them. [141][142] In various later accounts, Hecate was given different parents. [86], Over against the sanctuary of Eileithyia is a temple of Hecate [the goddess probably here identified with the apotheosed Iphigenia, and the image is a work of Skopas. In common Neopagan usage, the Triple Goddess is viewed as a triunity of three distinct aspects or figures united in one being. Some think this deity is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name. There were over 2,000 deities in the Egyptian pantheon, many whose names are well known - Isis, Osiris, Horus, Amun, Ra, Hathor, Bastet, Thoth, Anubis, and Ptah among others - but many more less so who were also important. Her name was likely developed by the Egyptians based on the Semitic root Q-D- meaning 'holy' or 'blessed,'[2] attested as a title of El and possibly Athirat and a further independent deity in texts from Ugarit. 1. In Neopaganism, the triple goddess appears in the form of three aspects of womanhood, representing the maiden, the mother, and the crone. One name was known to Sekhmet and eight associated deities, and; and one name (known only to Sekhmet herself) was the means by which Sekhmet could modify her being or cease to exist. The sanctuary is built upon a hill, at the bottom of which is an Altar of the Winds, and on it the priest sacrifices to the winds one night in every year. 362, and note, 411413, 424425), whose enthumion, the quasi-technical word designating their longing for vengeance, was much dreaded. Berg 1974, p. 128: Berg comments on Hecate's endorsement of Roman hegemony in her representation on the pediment at Lagina solemnising a pact between a warrior (Rome) and an. [80], Worship of Hecate existed alongside other deities in major public shrines and temples in antiquity, and she had a significant role as household deity. She was also the patron of physicians and healers. [32][33], Dogs were closely associated with Hecate in the Classical world. Hecate often carries a torch in her connection with the night. by Patricia Monaghan, which is a very comprehensive encyclopedia of Goddesses; Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. [47], Comparative mythologist Alexander Haggerty Krappe cited that Hecate was also named (hippeutria 'the equestrienne'), since the horse was "the chthonic animal par excellence". Goddess of: creation, war, rivers, the cosmos, mothers, childbirth, rivers, and hunting Consort: Set, Khnum Children: Sobek, Re, Tutu, Serket, Apep Association: Isis, Hathor, Mehturt (Mehet-Weret) Symbol: Spider, loom, Deshret (Red Crown of Lower Egypt), ankh symbol, bow and crossed arrows [31], The east frieze of a Hellenistic temple of hers at Lagina shows her helping protect the newborn Zeus from his father Cronus; this frieze is the only evidence of Hecate's involvement in the myth of his birth. [130] All these elements betoken the rites owed to a chthonic deity. She was the wife of Ptah (patron god of artisans) and bore him a son Nefertum. "[30], While Greek anthropomorphic conventions of art generally represented Hecate's triple form as three separate bodies, the iconography of the triple Hecate eventually evolved into representations of the goddess with a single body, but three faces. As the holder of the keys that can unlock the gates between realms, she can unlock the gates of death, as described in a 3rd-century BCE poem by Theocritus. Shakespeare mentions Hecate also in King Lear. Hecate was greatly worshipped in Byzantium. An inscription on the statue is a dedication to Hecate, in writing of the style of the 6th century, but it otherwise lacks any other symbols typically associated with the goddess. [43] After mentioning that this fish was sacred to Hecate, Alan Davidson writes, In her three-headed representations, discussed above, Hecate often has one or more animal heads, including cow, dog, boar, serpent, and horse. The triple moon symbol, also called the triple goddess symbol, is represented by two crescent moons flanking a full moon. It has been claimed that her association with dogs is "suggestive of her connection with birth, for the dog was sacred to Eileithyia, Genetyllis, and other birth goddesses. "[22] In particular, there is some evidence that she might be derived from the local sun goddesses (see also Arinna) based on similar attributes.[23]. Each aspect within the Triple Goddess is . Her cult subsequently spread . Mesopotamian Magic Traditions in the Papyri Graecae Magicae", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hecate&oldid=1151338190. In other representations, her animal heads include those of a cow and a boar. [3], Due to lack of clear references to Qetesh as a distinct deity in Ugaritic and other Syro-Palestinian sources, she is considered an Egyptian deity influenced by religion and iconography of Canaan by many modern researchers, rather than merely a Canaanite deity adopted by the Egyptians (examples of which include Reshef and Anat). Her other son, Mahees, was considered the patron of the pharaohs and the pyramid texts, thus giving Sekhmet considerable power in the religious hierarchy and the pantheon. Lagina, where the famous temple of Hecate drew great festal assemblies every year, lay close to the originally Macedonian colony of Stratonikeia, where she was the city's patron. [63], Thanks to her association with boundaries and the liminal spaces between worlds, Hecate is also recognized as a chthonic (underworld) goddess. [10] In what appears to be a 7th-century indication of the survival of cult practices of this general sort, Saint Eligius, in his Sermo warns the sick among his recently converted flock in Flanders against putting "devilish charms at springs or trees or crossroads",[62] and, according to Saint Ouen would urge them "No Christian should make or render any devotion to the deities of the trivium, where three roads meet". So, then, albeit her mother's only child, she is honored amongst all the deathless gods. She appears to have been particularly associated with being 'between' and hence is frequently characterized as a "liminal" goddess. No, right? Sekhmet was depicted with the body of a woman clothed in red linen, wearing a Uraeus and a sun disc on her lioness head. 8. All' ei tis humn en Samothraikei memuemenos esti, The play Plutus by Aristophanes (388 BCE), line 594 any translation will do or. The possibility of not to be, of returning to nothingness, distinguishes Egyptian gods and goddesses from deities of all other pagan pantheons.[1]. In Sophocles and Euripides she is characterized as the mistress of witchcraft and the Keres. Her name is the Greek form of an ancient Egyptian word for "throne." Isis was initially an obscure goddess who lacked her own dedicated temples, but she grew in importance as the dynastic age progressed, until she became one of the most important deities of ancient Egypt. We are well aware of dualities existing in the world of mythology. [170], As a "goddess of witchcraft", Hecate has been incorporated in various systems of modern witchcraft, Wicca, and neopaganism,[171] in some cases associated with the Wild Hunt of Germanic tradition,[172] in others as part of a reconstruction of specifically Greek polytheism, in English also known as "Hellenismos". [164] Such derivations are today proposed only by a minority[165][166] The figure is flanked by lions, an animal associated with Hecate both in the Chaldean Oracles, coinage, and reliefs from Asia Minor. He noted that the cult regularly practiced dog sacrifice and had secretly buried the body of one of its "queens" with seven dogs. To commemorate this timely phenomenon, which was attributed to Hecate, they erected a public statue to that goddess []". Pp. Ankh This ancient Egyptian hieroglyph means life or living. Dated to the 7th century BCE, this is one of the oldest known artefacts dedicated to the worship of Hecate. An important sanctuary of Hecate was a holy cave on the island of Samothrake called Zerynthos: In Samothrake there were certain initiation-rites, which they supposed efficacious as a charm against certain dangers. As Sterckx (2002) observes, "The use of dog sacrifices at the gates and doors of the living and the dead as well as its use in travel sacrifices suggest that dogs were perceived as daemonic animals operating in the liminal or transitory realm between the domestic and the unknown, danger-stricken outside world". Medusa came to Greece from Libya as the Serpent Goddess, and the destroyer aspect of the Great Triple Goddess. (2009). Memphis and Leontopolis were the major centers of the worship of Sekhmet, with Memphis being the principal seat. Because of this association, Hecate was one of the chief goddesses of the Eleusinian Mysteries, alongside Demeter and Persephone,[1] and there was a temple dedicated to her near the main sanctuary at Eleusis. How old is the United States of America? She was worshipped widely in Lower Egypt as a great Mother Goddess in the Predynastic Period (c. 6000- c. 3150 BCE) and so is among the older deities of Egypt. [10] A 4thcenturyBCE marble relief from Crannon in Thessaly was dedicated by a race-horse owner. For example, "willing" (thus, "she who works her will" or similar), may be related to the name Hecate. [58], It was probably her role as guardian of entrances that led to Hecate's identification by the mid fifth century with Enodia, a Thessalian goddess. "[49], The goddess is described as wearing oak in fragments of Sophocles' lost play The Root Diggers (or The Root Cutters), and an ancient commentary on Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica (3.1214) describes her as having a head surrounded by serpents, twining through branches of oak.[50]. There are three different ways you can cite this article. Most display systematic mutilations of specific parts, especially the head and arms. Hecate, goddess accepted at an early date into Greek religion but probably derived from the Carians in southwest Asia Minor. The body of Osiris is believed to be guarded by four Egyptian cat goddesses, and Sekhmet is one of them. At Athens, it is said there stood a statue of Hecate Triglathena, to whom the red mullet was offered in sacrifice. [48], Hecate was closely associated with plant lore and the concoction of medicines and poisons. [93], Hecate's most important sanctuary was Lagina, a theocratic city-state in which the goddess was served by eunuchs. [126] In Athens, Hecate, along with Zeus, Hermes, Athena, Hestia, and Apollo, were very important in daily life as they were the main gods of the household. "[28], Apart from traditional hekataia, Hecate's triplicity is depicted in the vast frieze of the great Pergamon Altar, now in Berlin, wherein she is shown with three bodies, taking part in the battle with the Titans. The lion-headed goddess Sekhmet is the most represented deity in most Egyptian collections worldwide. Antoninus Liberalis used a myth to explain this association: Aelian told a different story of a woman transformed into a polecat: Athenaeus of Naucratis, drawing on the etymological speculation of Apollodorus of Athens, notes that the red mullet is sacred to Hecate, "on account of the resemblance of their names; for that the goddess is trimorphos, of a triple form". But what we do know is that this fascinating goddess held dominion over contradictory themes: war (and violence and death), plagues (diseases), and healing and medicine. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. In Lucan's Pharsalia, the witch Erichtho invokes Hecate as "Persephone, who is the third and lowest aspect of Hecate, the goddess we witches revere", and describes her as a "rotting goddess" with a "pallid decaying body", who has to "wear a mask when [she] visit[s] the gods in heaven. Like many Egyptian gods, these divine beings started out as humans. She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock. Within the enclosure is a temple; its wooden image is the work of Myron, and it has one face and one body. Sekhmet represented the Lower Nile region (north Egypt). She protected the pharaohs and led them to war. [16], A strong possibility for the foreign origin of the name may be Heqet (qt), a frog-headed Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth, who, like Hecate, was also associated with q, ruler. Some triple goddess that I know of are the following: Greek: Hekate (Hecate), Selene, and Persephone. The goddess had many titles and epithets, often overlapping with other deities. Her cult became popular in Egypt during the New Kingdom. She also is often one of the most misunderstood. cult site in Lagina. Sekhmets father is Ra. In Hellenistic syncretism, Hecate also became closely associated with Isis. For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favor according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. She is variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, night, light, magic, protection from witchcraft, the Moon, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, graves, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. Iusaas (Egyptian) Izanami-No-Kami (Shinto-Japanese) Mawu (West African) Nammu (Mesopotamian) Neith (Egyptian) Nu Kua (Chinese) Nut (Egyptian) White Buffalo Calf Woman (Native American) Yhi (Australian) Crones/Wise Women Baba Yaga (Slavic) Black Annis (Celtic) Cailleach (Celtic) Greine (Celtic) Hecate (Greek) Hel (Norse/Germanic) Oya (Santeria) [d] It shows Hecate, with a hound beside her, placing a wreath on the head of a mare. [36], Although in later times Hecate's dog came to be thought of as a manifestation of restless souls or daemons who accompanied her, its docile appearance and its accompaniment of a Hecate who looks completely friendly in many pieces of ancient art suggests that its original signification was positive and thus likelier to have arisen from the dog's connection with birth than the dog's underworld associations. Mason-Dixon Line [18], Hecate possibly originated among the Carians of Anatolia,[6] the region where most theophoric names invoking Hecate, such as Hecataeus or Hecatomnus, the father of Mausolus, are attested,[19] and where Hecate remained a Great Goddess into historical times, at her unrivalled[b] An Exciting Provocation: John F. Millers Apollo, Augustus, and the Poets. Vergilius (1959-) 58 (2012): Wycherley, R. (1970). [72] The Romans celebrated enthusiastically the multiple identities of Diana as Hecate, Luna and Trivia. 264 f., and notes, 275277, ii. [8][9] [125], In the Argonautica, a 3rd-century BCE Alexandrian epic based on early material,[129] Jason placates Hecate in a ritual prescribed by Medea, her priestess: bathed at midnight in a stream of flowing water, and dressed in dark robes, Jason is to dig a round pit and over it cut the throat of a ewe, sacrificing it and then burning it whole on a pyre next to the pit as a holocaust. The Mistress and Lady of the tomb, gracious one, destroyer of rebellion, mighty one of enchantments, 7. Berg's argument for a Greek origin rests on three main points: "In 340 B.C., however, the Byzantines, with the aid of the Athenians, withstood a siege successfully, an occurrence the more remarkable as they were attacked by the greatest general of the age, Philip of Macedon. thou who are pre-eminent, who riseth in the seat of silence who is mightier than the gods who are the source, the mother, from whence souls come and who makest a place for them in the hidden underworld And the abode of everlastingness. This description matches completely with that of the Triple Goddess, a deity who presides over birth, life, and death.[4]. There she was worshipped with her consort Ptah. According to a New Kingdom story, as 'Lady of the Sycamore', she heals the eye of Horus with milk from a gazelle. Isis often reminds one of Persephone or Psyche just as Hathor reminds one of Aphrodite or Venus. Robert Graves called her by a few "In Byzantium small temples in her honour were placed close to the gates of the city. This can be compared to Pausanias' report that in the Ionian city of Colophon in Asia Minor a sacrifice of a black female puppy was made to Hecate as "the wayside goddess", and Plutarch's observation that in Boeotia dogs were killed in purificatory rites. Hordern, J. H. Love Magic and Purification in Sophron, PSI 1214a, and Theocritus Pharmakeutria. The Classical Quarterly 52, no. [131] Hecate is depicted fighting Clytius in the east frieze of the Gigantomachy, in the Pergamon Altar next to Artemis;[132] she appears with a different weapon in each of her three right hands, a torch, a sword and a lance. [128], In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (composed c. 600 BCE), Hecate is called "tender-hearted", an epithet perhaps intended to emphasize her concern with the disappearance of Persephone, when she assisted Demeter with her search for Persephone following her abduction by Hades, suggesting that Demeter should speak to the god of the Sun, Helios. As a goddess of sovereignty and power, Danu would grant gifts to rulers and those of noble birth. In Hesiod she is the daughter of the Titan Perses and the nymph Asteria and has power over heaven, earth, and sea; hence, she bestows wealth and all the blessings of daily life. Here, Hecate is a mortal priestess often associated with Iphigenia. She is seated on a throne, with a chaplet around her head; the depiction is otherwise relatively generic. 394 K), Antiphanes, in Athenaeus, 358 F; Aristophanes, Plutus, 596. The triple goddess Mari-Anna-Ishtar was worshiped in Judea at the time of Christ. In her book The Dark Goddess: Dancing with the Shadow, Marcia Stark describes Sekhmet as Lady of the beginning / Self-contained / She who is the source / Destroyer of appearances / Devourer and creator / She who is and is not. Similar descriptions are used for many lunar goddesses serving esoteric functions. [3], A passage from the Book of the Dead reads, superior to whom the gods cannot be . [52] She is also sometimes associated with cypress, a tree symbolic of death and the underworld, and hence sacred to a number of chthonic deities. Weird Rituals Laid to Primitive Minds, Los Angeles Examiner, 14 October 1929. In art and myth, she is shown, along with Hermes, guiding Persephone back from the underworld with her torches. The Athenian Greeks honoured Hecate during the Deipnon. Lesko Barbara (n.d) The Great Goddesses of Egypt, University of Oklahoma Press, [1] Marcia Stark & Gynne Stern (1993) The Dark Goddess: Dancing with the Shadow, The Crossing Press. ), "A top of Hekate is a golden sphere enclosing a lapis lazuli in its middle that is twisted through a cow-hide leather thong and having engraved letters all over it. [51], Hecate was said to favour offerings of garlic, which was closely associated with her cult. He also symbolized death, resurrection, and the cycle of Nile floods that Egypt relied on for agricultural fertility. [66] Nevertheless, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter shows Helios and Hecate informing Demeter of Persephone's abduction, a common theme found in many parts of the world where the Sun and the Moon are questioned concerning events that happen on earth based on their ability to witness everything[66] and implies Hecate's capacity as a moon goddess in the hymn. [79] Mooney however notes that when it comes to the nymph Perse herself, there's no evidence of her actually being a moon goddess on her own right. For understanding of the Triple Goddess, the Moon Goddess, and other common themes . A digital collage showing an image of Qetesh together with hieroglyphs taken from a separate Egyptian relief, Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East, Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archologie, A Reconsideration of the Aphrodite-Ashtart Syncretism, Transformation of a Goddess. He also performs other secret rites [of Hecate] at four pits, taming the fierceness of the blasts [of the winds], and he is said to chant as well the charms of Medea. [125] Another theory is that Hecate was mainly a household god and humble household worship could have been more pervasive and yet not mentioned as much as temple worship. [28] Like Hermes, Hecate takes on the role of guardian not just of roads, but of all journeys, including the journey to the afterlife. [10][11], Early researchers attempted to prove Qetesh was simply a form of a known Canaanite deity, rather than a fully independent goddess. [28], By the 5th century BCE, Hecate had come to be strongly associated with ghosts, possibly due to conflation with the Thessalian goddess Enodia (meaning "traveller"), who travelled the earth with a retinue of ghosts and was depicted on coinage wearing a leafy crown and holding torches, iconography strongly associated with Hecate. According to Memphite theology, Sekhmet was the first-born daughter of Ra. Egypt is perhaps the only pantheon to have all of these responsibilities attributed to one deity. She travelled a long way, and a long time, from further south in Africa. Qetesh (also Qadesh, Qedesh, Qetesh, Kadesh, Kedesh, Kade or Qades /kd/) was a goddess who was incorporated into the ancient Egyptian religion in the late Bronze Age. A medieval commentator has suggested a link connecting the word "jinx" with Hecate: "The Byzantine polymath Michael Psellus [] speaks of a bullroarer, consisting of a golden sphere, decorated throughout with symbols and whirled on an oxhide thong.