Other Goddesses- Hecate

Hecate/Hekate/Hecat/Trivia- the goddess of witchcraft, the crossroads, night, storms ghosts, the moon, herbs and poisons, and necromancy. The daughter of the Titans Perses (destruction) and his cousin Asteria (stars), a Titaness who was the sister of Leto and turned herself into a quail to escape Zeus. This made Hecate, an only child, cousin to Artemis and Apollo, and granddaughter to Coeus, who was Titan of the axis around the heavens, and Phoebe, a Titaness of the moon. With these connections it is easy to see how Hecate was linked to the moon, usually the dark side of the moon when Artemis became a moon goddess.

Occasionally she is a daughter of Zeus, Nyx, the rustic god Aristaeus/Aristaios who was a son of Apollo and Cyrene who discovered bee keeping, a mortal King named Perses who was brother to Aeetes, and a son of Helios, or Demeter.
She was a powerful goddess with dominion over heaven, earth and sea, though she later became an Underworld goddess.

She aided Zeus against the Titans and so was allowed to retain her power over earth, sky and sea after the Titan war. She also fought against the Gigantes, defeating Klytios/Clytius with fire brands.

She helped Demeter find Persephone, accompanying her on her search with torches and suggesting she go to Helios. She also heard Persephone scream when she was abducted by Hades but did not see the deed occur. After she became Persephone's minister and loyal companion. Rarely she is seen to have been one of Persephone's companions when abducted, along with Artemis and Athena.

She showed favour to Galanthis/Galinthias Alcmene's servant who helped Alcmene with the birth of Heracles. Realising that the goddess of chilbirth Eileithyia had her legs closed and was preventing the birth of Heracles, Galanthis told the goddess that the baby was born. The goddess relaxed at the news so that the baby actually was born. In outrage Eileithyia or Hera turned her into a weasel or polecat. In another version the Moirai were also involved, and it was they who transformed Galanthis. Hecate took pity on her and made the weasel her sacred animal.

She showed favour to Queen Hecuba/Hekabe/Hecabe in a similar manner after the gods turned her into a black dog when she snarled at her captor Odysseus or alternatively, after she blinded or murdered King Polymestor and killed his sons because he had killed her own, Polydorus, when he was met to be keeping him safe. In a third version she became a dog after going mad at the sight of her dead children, Polydorus and Polyxena. Hecate made the dog her familiar and a sacred animal to her.

She helped Medea who was a priestess of hers by teaching her how to create poisons and potions and appeared to aid with making Jason immune to the flames of Aeetes' bronze bulls.

She was said to be able to create and stop storms, making her popular with sailors and shepherds. She also helped Hermes to increase livestock.

She transformed the witch Gale into a black polecat or marten for having abnormal sexual desires.

Sometimes she was viewed as a virgin goddess but in other tales she was a consort of Hermes and/or her husband was Aeetes. She was linked to Hermes because they were both associated with ghosts, roads, travelling between the realms of the living and the dead, and guiding Persephone back to the upper world. It is thought that she was the Brimo who lost her virginity to the god and that Brimo was simply another name for her.

As a wife to Aeetes she was viewed also as his niece, and with him was mother to Circe, Medea and Aegialeus, and possibly Absyrtus and Chalciope. Circe and Medea were great sorceresses, Aegialeus, or more popularily Absyrtus, was killed and dismembered by Medea to delay Aeetes pursuit of Medea and Jason, and Chalciope married Phrixus who gave Aeetes the Golden Fleece. Perses overthrew Aeetes but was killed by Medea who then restored her father. Most commonly, the Oceanid Ediyia was their mother, though her sister Asterodia is also given as Absyrtus' mother, as is the Nereid Neaera, or a woman named Eurylyte may have been there parents. Usually, Circe is seen as Aeetes' sister not his daughter.
Diodorus said that as a daughter of Perses she was a huntress who made poisons that she tested on strangers by lacing their food with it.

Sometimes she also viewed as the mother of the cursed Scylla/Skylla siring her with Phorcys/Phorkys in the disguise of a being called Kratais. Phorcys was a god of the dangerous in the deep sea, and a father of monsters with his consort Ceto, a sea goddess who was the daughter of sea god Pontus/Pontos and Gaia, and may have been Crataeis/Kratais/Krataiis/Trienus. It is hard to tell as these epithets were used for both goddesses. Alternatively, Phorcys had Scylla with the cursed queen Lamia, or Triton had her with Lamia. Scylla herself was cursed either by a jealous Circe or Amphitrite because Glaucus, a sea god, or Poseidon loved her. They poisoned the waters she bathed in and she became a monster with twelve tentacle legs, four/six dog heads at her waist, a cat's tail, or twelve feet and wolves' heads.

She was also given another daughter, Empusa/Empousa, daughter to her and Mormo, a spirit that accompanied Hecate and bit bad children. Initially Empusa was beautiful with flaming hair and brazen shoes and she drank the blood of sleeping men. She was later depicted with a donkey's leg and a bronze leg. In later myth the same Empusae (Empuse- singular) were spectres of Hecate's who guarded roads and devoured travellers. They ran, hid and uttered screams at insults.

In a strange story, Hecate was a mortal priestess to Artemis, linked to her priestess Iphigenia, the daughter Agamemnon was to sacrifice to Artemis to atone for killing a deer in a grove sacred to her and/or boasting that he was a better hunter than her. Artemis took the girl from the altar, substituing her with a deer, she then took her to Tauris where she became a priestess. Agamemnon was to sacrifice her so that the Greek fleets would have the winds to sail to Troy, he tricked her and her mother Clytemnestra by saying he was summoning Iphigenia to wed Achilles. Clytemnestra realised it was a lie when she spoke to Achilles who then vowed to see the girl spared, learning the truth Iphigenia willingly agreed to be sacrificed. In some versions she did die. Hesiod called her Iphimede and said Artemis transformed her into the goddess Hecate.

As a goddess of necromancy she was called upon by several people. Aeson/Aison and his wife the witch Alcimede/Alkimede brought back Aeson's deceased father Cretheus/Kretheus in a blood ritual to learn about their son Jason, they sent him back by appeasing Hecate with a black bull. Teiresias sacrificed black oxen and sheep to her in a grove sacred to her and offered wine, milk and honey as well to summon shades.

Depicted as a triple goddess and sometimes named as a crone goddess it is easy to see how she became linked to the maiden, mother, crone concept as she was a virgin goddess, a mother, and a crone. Having divinity over earth, heaven and sky may have also explained this triple aspect and as a trinity goddess she was linked to Selene, Artemis and Persephone, or Kore, Persephone and Hecate, or Persephone, Demete and Hecate. Through her connection to Persephone, Kore and Demeter she was a fertility goddess, associated with crops. She was also popular in the households of women.

She was also linked to Keres, the goddess of violent death who were daughters of Nyx and Erebus, and looked for the dead and dying on the battlefield.

She was depicted at crossroads with three heads facing in different directions, usually the heads of maidens but occassionally of animals (dog, snake, horse, cow, boar). She is usually shown holding two torches and sometimes is in a maiden's knee-length skirt and hunting boots, and with keys on her person and accompanied by dogs. A Greek lyric described her as golden shining attendant of Aphrodite, Apollonius said she was garlanded with twigs of oak and snakes,

Her sacred animals were dogs, polecats, weasels, black horses, red mullets, and frogs. Her sacred plants were oak, yew, garlic, cypress, the poisonous aconite, belladonna (deadly nightshade), the healing dittany, which was considered an aphrodisiac and the hallucinogenic mandrake.

Her Roman counterpart was the goddess Trivia. Trivia was a goddess of graveyards, crossroads and witchcraft who travelled invisible at night, heralded by the barking of dogs. She kidnapped maidens to assist her.