Heqet - The Egyptian Frog Goddess It should be noted that in spite of popular culture, the 'connection' of Kek to frogs is quite obscure, given the ambiguous nature of primordial gods in Egyptian mythology. 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. William F. Albright proposed in 1939 that she was a form of the "lady of Byblos" (Baalat Gebal), while Ren Dussard suggested a connection to "Asherat" (e.g. [82] Likewise, shrines to Hecate at three way crossroads were created where food offerings were left at the new Moon to protect those who did so from spirits and other evils. Well, then it is time to take a look at Sekhmet the Egyptian goddess of fire, hunting, wild animals, death, war, violence, retribution, justice, magic, heaven and hell, plague, chaos, the desert/mid-day sun, and medicine and healing Egypts most peculiar goddess. It is possible that the representation of a triple Hecate surrounding a central pillar was originally derived from poles set up at three-way crossroads with masks hung on them, facing in each road direction. The possibility of not to be, of returning to nothingness, distinguishes Egyptian gods and goddesses from deities of all other pagan pantheons.[1]. It could also be that the fragment reads 'Phorcys', agreeing with Acusilaus' version. The oldest known direct evidence of Hecate's cult comes from Selinunte (near modern-day Trapani in Sicily), where she had a temple in the 6th5th centuries BCE. In Sophocles and Euripides she is characterized as the mistress of witchcraft and the Keres. While spinning them, they call out unintelligible or beast-like sounds, laughing and flailing at the air. Memphis and Leontopolis were the major centers of the worship of Sekhmet, with Memphis being the principal seat. [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. Hecate was the chief goddess presiding over magic and spells. She is mentioned a number of times in the spells of The Book of the Dead as both a creative and destructive force. I have worked with Selene and still work with Persephone. Supporters of this etymology suggest that Hecate was originally considered an aspect of Artemis prior to the latter's adoption into the Olympian pantheon. In that place were also the mysteries of the Korybantes [Kabeiroi] and those of Hekate and the Zerinthian cave, where they sacrificed dogs. It is difficult to distinguish Sekhmet from other feline goddesses, especially Bastet. Hecate was greatly worshipped in Byzantium. Serket - World History Encyclopedia Overview. Francis Douce, Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners, 1807, p. 235-243. [7] A connection with Ptah or Ra evident in her epithets is also known from Egyptian texts about Anat and Astarte. [54] These include aconite (also called hecateis),[55] belladonna, dittany, and mandrake. However, there is indeed a definitive Egyptian frog deity in the form of Goddess Heqet. Looking at Egypt, Isis is the only deity that one can conceive of as being esoteric because she brought back her husband from the dead. Priests of Sekhmet became known as skilled doctors. 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 . For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. Lewis Richard Farnell, (1896). Her approach was heralded by the howling of a dog. "[167], Shakespeare mentions Hecate both before the end of the 16th century (A Midsummer Night's Dream, 15941596), and just after, in Macbeth (1605): specifically, in the title character's "dagger" soliloquy: "Witchcraft celebrates pale Hecate's offerings"[168] [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. 6. The eye of Horus She was invoked to ward off diseases. [28], Variations in interpretations of Hecate's roles can be traced in classical Athens. The center of her cult was in Per-Wadjet, later called Buto by the Greeks. Many of her statues can be found in museums and archaeological sites, and her presence testifies to the historical and cultural importance of this goddess. Lady of bright red linen: Red is the color of lower Egypt, the blood-soaked garments of her enemies. There was also a shrine to Hecate in Aigina, where she was very popular: Of the gods, the Aiginetans worship most Hecate, in whose honour every year they celebrate mystic rites which, they say, Orpheus the Thrakian established among them. [155], Strmiska (2005) claimed that Hecate, conflated with the figure of Diana, appears in late antiquity and in the Early Middle Ages as part of an "emerging legend complex" known as "The Society of Diana"[161] associated with gatherings of women, the Moon, and witchcraft that eventually became established "in the area of Northern Italy, southern Germany, and the western Balkans. Is it a coincidence that the mother of the Virgin Mary is called Anna and that there is a Mary of . 647. She was associated with witchcraft, magic, the Moon, doorways, and creatures of the night like hell-hounds and ghosts. Hecate or Hekate [a] is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, [1] and in later periods depicted as three-formed or triple-bodied. 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. Ancient Egypt: the Mythology - Qetesh Thinking that it is the blood of her enemies, Sekhmet drinks it up, gets intoxicated, and sleeps. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. Egyptian Protection Symbols 10. There are also many that are put together as triple Goddesses but as individuals, such as in Egyptian Mythology, Bast (Maiden), Hathor (Mother) and Sekhmet (Crone). 2. https://egyptianmuseum.org/deities-sekhmet, 3. [123], Hesiod's inclusion and praise of Hecate in the Theogony has been troublesome for scholars, in that he seems to hold her in high regard, while the testimony of other writers, and surviving evidence, suggests that this may have been the exception. Dogs, with puppies often mentioned, were offered to Hecate at crossroads, which were sacred to the goddess. "[c] Serket (also known as Serqet, Selkis, and Selket) is an Egyptian goddess of protection associated with the scorpion. One theory is that Hesiod's original village had a substantial Hecate following and that his inclusion of her in the Theogony was a way of adding to her prestige by spreading word of her among his readers. 39 K), and 358 F; Melanthius, in Athenaeus, 325 B. Plato, Com. When the center of power shifted from Memphis to Thebes during the New Kingdom, her attributes were absorbed into Mut. [130] All these elements betoken the rites owed to a chthonic deity. As a consort of the female Triple Goddess, the two aspects of the Horned God highlight night and day, battle and peace, sun and the moon, cold and warmth. Asherah - Wikipedia [103] The Deipnon is always followed the next day by the Noumenia,[104] when the first sliver of the sunlit Moon is visible, and then the Agathos Daimon the day after that. Intrinsically ambivalent and polymorphous, she straddles conventional boundaries and eludes definition. The ancient text is corrupted; an alternative correction of the name into 'Phoebus' (that is, Apollo) has been also suggested. [61], Cult images and altars of Hecate in her triplicate or trimorphic form were placed at three-way crossroads (though they also appeared before private homes and in front of city gates). 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. 264 f., and notes, 275277, ii. When Philip of Macedon was about to attack the city, according to the legend she alerted the townspeople with her ever present torches, and with her pack of dogs, which served as her constant companions. "[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]. [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] Roel Sterckx, Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. [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. "[135] This appears to refer to a variant of the device mentioned by Psellus.[136]. [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. 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". [67] Another work connecting Hecate to Helios possibly as a moon goddess is Sophocles' lost play The Root Cutters, where Helios is described as Hecate's spear: O Sun our lord and sacred fire, the spear of Hecate of the From the tomb of Kenamun quoted from Alix Wilkinson The Garden In Ancient Egypt Hathor is the tree goddess of Memphis and is often known as 'Lady of the sycamore'. Here I disclaim all my paternal care" (The Arden Shakespeare, King Lear, Page no.165), In 1929, Lewis Brown, an expert on religious cults, connected the 1920s Blackburn Cult (also known as, "The Cult of the Great Eleven,") with Hecate worship rituals. Sekhmet is believed to have 4000 names that described her many attributes. [143] She was said to be the daughter of Zeus by either Asteria, according to Musaeus,[144] Hera, thus identified with Angelos,[145] or Pheraea, daughter of Aeolus;[146] the daughter of Aristaeus the son of Paion, according to Pherecydes;[147] the daughter of Nyx, according to Bacchylides;[144] the daughter of Perses, the son of Helios, by an unknown mother, according to Diodorus Siculus;[76] while in Orphic literature, she was said to be the daughter of Demeter[148] or Leto[149] or even Tartarus. A triple deity is a deity with three apparent forms that function as a singular whole. As a goddess of sovereignty and power, Danu would grant gifts to rulers and those of noble birth. [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. The gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt were an integral part of the people's everyday lives for over 3,000 years. The yew in particular was sacred to 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. Egyptian equivalent: Neith: Statue of Diana-Artemis, fresco from Pompeii, 50-1 BCE. The triple goddess Mari-Anna-Ishtar was worshiped in Judea at the time of Christ. This narrative is often cited to explain her epithet as Protector of Maat. Sekhmets bloodlust is so out of hands that, according to narratives inscribed in the royal tombs at Thebes, Ra ordered his priests at Heliopolis to obtain red ochre from Elephantine and grind it with beer mash. She appears to have been particularly associated with being 'between' and hence is frequently characterized as a "liminal" goddess. There are a few that are known as the Triple Goddess and have all three phases, such as Hecate, The Morrigan, Brigid, The Three Fates. 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. Of the 200 books available in open source about Egyptian mythology, hardly seven or eight had anything substantial to say about Sekhmet. However, there were distinct war gods (Ares), gods of strategy (Athena), and gods of death (Hades). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Neith - Origins, Family, Meaning, Symbols & Powers [138] Schwemer believes that this use of Ereshkigal's name merely furnished "the Greek Netherworld goddess with a mysterious-sounding, foreign name". Known to represent the three stages of man, Youth, Father, and Sage, the Horned God symbolizes the good intent. Memphis and Leontopolis were the major centers of the worship of Sekhmet, with Memphis being the principal seat. She protected the pharaohs and led them to war. Which of these is true, we do not know. 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. The triple moon symbol, also called the triple goddess symbol, is represented by two crescent moons flanking a full moon. [13][89] There was an area sacred to Hecate in the precincts of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, where the priests, megabyzi, officiated. [17][18] One of the authors relying on the Anat-Ashtart-Athirat trinity theory is Saul M. Olyan (author of Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel) who calls the Qudshu-Astarte-Anat plaque "a triple-fusion hypostasis", and considers Qudshu to be an epithet of Athirat by a process of elimination, for Astarte and Anat appear after Qudshu in the inscription. The Greek Magical Papyri describe Hecate as the holder of the keys to Tartaros. She also is often one of the most misunderstood. 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. The Deipnon consists of three main parts: 1) the meal that was set out at a crossroads, usually in a shrine outside the entryway to the home[106] 2) an expiation sacrifice,[107] and 3) purification of the household.[108]. Principally the Ethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me Queen Isis. Rediscovering Sophia: The Goddess in Christianity - Braided Way Sekhmet - Wikipedia Great honor comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favorably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her. [17] The word "heka" in the Egyptian language is also both the word for "magic" and the name of the god of magic and medicine, Heka. Qetesh - Wikipedia [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. Goddess Crystals - Crystal Vaults 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. This one is of stone, while the bronze images opposite, also of Hecate, were made respectively by Polykleitos and his brother Naukydes.[87]. A round stone altar dedicated to the goddess was found in the Delphinion (a temple dedicated to Apollo) at Miletus. [13] Another Greek word suggested as the origin of the name Hecate is Hekatos, an obscure epithet of Apollo[10] interpreted as "the far reaching one" or "the far-darter". "[34] The sacrifice of dogs to Hecate is attested for Thrace, Samothrace, Colophon, and Athens. Regarding the nature of her cult, it has been remarked, "she is more at home on the fringes than in the centre of Greek polytheism. She was said to have saved the city from Philip II of Macedon, warning the citizens of a night time attack by a light in the sky, for which she was known as Hecate Lampadephoros. Triple Goddess (Neopaganism) - Wikipedia As a goddess expected to avert harmful or destructive spirits from the house or city over which she stood guard and to protect the individual as she or he passed through dangerous liminal places, Hecate would naturally become known as a goddess who could also refuse to avert the demons, or even drive them on against unfortunate individuals. By all the operations of the orbs Pagan Symbols and Their Meanings - Exemplore [164] Such derivations are today proposed only by a minority[165][166] He is told to sweeten the offering with a libation of honey, then to retreat from the site without looking back, even if he hears the sound of footsteps or barking dogs. [21], William Berg observes, "Since children are not called after spooks, it is safe to assume that Carian theophoric names involving hekat- refer to a major deity free from the dark and unsavoury ties to the underworld and to witchcraft associated with the Hecate of classical Athens. doi:10.2307/1087735. Caria was a major center of worship and her most famous temple there was located in the town of Lagina. The Triple Goddess: Symbol & Meaning of the Maiden, Mother, Crone The Faces of the Goddess. The Triple Goddess is arguably the most | by [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. [84] While this sculpture has not survived to the present day, numerous later copies are extant. [16] The concept of Athirat, Anat and Ashtart as a trinity and the only prominent goddesses in the entire region (popularized by authors like Tikva Frymer-Kensky) is modern and ignores the large role of other female deities, for example Shapash, in known texts, as well as the fact El appears to be the deity most closely linked to Athirat in primary sources. The Triple Goddess is arguably the most important deity in the vast majority of Pagan and Wiccan pantheons. "[60] This suggests that Hecate's close association with dogs derived in part from the use of watchdogs, who, particularly at night, raised an alarm when intruders approached. [95] In Thrace she played a role similar to that of lesser-Hermes, namely a ruler of liminal regions, particularly gates, and the wilderness. The Triple Goddess is a deity or deity archetype revered in many Neopagan religious and spiritual traditions. Phoenix, 24(4), 283295. The goddess had many titles and epithets, often overlapping with other deities. Berg, William, "Hecate: Greek or "Anatolian"? "[28], Like Hecate, "the dog is a creature of the threshold, the guardian of doors and portals, and so it is appropriately associated with the frontier between life and death, and with demons and ghosts which move across the frontier. 1 (2002): Bergmann, Bettina, Joseph Farrell, Denis Feeney, James Ker, Damien Nelis, and Celia Schultz. [14] This has been suggested in comparison with the attributes of the goddess Artemis, strongly associated with Apollo and frequently equated with Hecate in the classical world. [70] Hecate and the moon goddess Selene were frequently identified with each other and a number of Greek and non-Greek deities;[71] the Greek Magical Papyri and other magical texts emphasize a syncretism between Selene-Hecate with Artemis and Persephone among others. She became merely an aspect of Mut, Hathor, and Isis. [2][3][4] Her earliest appearance in literature was in Hesiod's Theogony in the 8th century BCE[5] as a goddess of great honour with domains in sky, earth, and sea. In a middle kingdom treatise, the wrath of the pharaoh toward rebels is compared to the rage of Sekhmet. 6. The Triple Goddess - The Bridging Tree [27] Farnell states: "The evidence of the monuments as to the character and significance of Hecate is almost as full as that of to express her manifold and mystic nature. The Greek word for mullet was trigle and later trigla. Myths change upon who is writing them, where, and when. It was called Psamite, because Hecate was honoured with a cake, which was called psamiton (). Triple goddess - General Discussion - The Spells8 Forum Lady of Life: Spells exist that regard plagues as brought by the messengers of Sekhmet. Hecate was known by a number of epithets: Hecate has been characterized as a pre-Olympian chthonic goddess. 40 Protection Symbols and Their Meanings - TheMindFool Medusa came to Greece from Libya as the Serpent Goddess, and the destroyer aspect of the Great Triple Goddess. Inscriptions of many of the statues declare that Sekhmet and Bastet are different aspects of Hathor. Danu was the source of the tribe's common heritage, as well as its nobility, unity, and power.
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