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64-617: (Redirected from Phorcydes ) The Phorcides / ˈ f ɔːr s ɪ ˌ d iː z / or Phorcydes ("the daughters of Phorcys ") may refer to: The Phorcides, another name for the Graeae in Greek mythology The Phorcides , a lost play about the Graeae by the 5th century BC Greek playwright Aeschylus Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

128-507: A Great Goddess into historical times, at her unrivalled cult site in Lagina . In particular, there is some evidence that she might be derived from the local sun goddesses (see also Arinna ) based on similar attributes. The monuments to Hecate in Phrygia and Caria are numerous but of late date. If Hecate's cult spread from Anatolia into Greece, then it possibly presented a conflict, as her role

192-499: 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", 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...". Thanks to her association with boundaries and

256-476: A city, keeping an eye on all who entered, and in the road in front of private houses, protecting their inhabitants. This function would appear to have some relationship with the iconographic association of Hecate with keys, and might also relate to her appearance with two torches, which when positioned on either side of a gate or door illuminated the immediate area and allowed visitors to be identified. "In Byzantium small temples in her honour were placed close to

320-439: A different story of a woman transformed into a polecat: I have heard that the polecat was once a human being. It has also reached my hearing that Gale was her name then; that she was a dealer in spells and a sorceress ( pharmakis ); that she was extremely lascivious, and that she was afflicted with abnormal sexual desires. Nor has it escaped my notice that the anger of the goddess Hekate transformed it into this evil creature. May

384-462: A foreign origin for the name may be Heqet ( ḥqt ), a frog-headed Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth, who, like Hecate, was also associated with ḥqꜣ , ruler. 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 . Hecate was generally represented as three-formed or triple-bodied, though the earliest known images of

448-411: A fragment of verse: O mistress Hecate, Trioditis With three forms and three faces Propitiated with mullets. In relation to Greek concepts of pollution, Parker observes, The fish that was most commonly banned was the red mullet ( trigle ), which fits neatly into the pattern. It 'delighted in polluted things', and 'would eat the corpse of a fish or a man'. Blood-coloured itself, it was sacred to

512-413: A goddess who could also refuse to avert the demons, or even drive them on against unfortunate individuals. 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. Enodia's very name ("In-the-Road") suggests that she watched over entrances, for it expresses both the possibility that she stood on the main road into

576-447: A lunar aspect of Hecate. Fowler also noted that the pairing (i. e. Helios and Perse) made sense given Hecate's association with the Moon. 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. Worship of Hecate existed alongside other deities in major public shrines and temples in antiquity, and she had

640-465: A number of her cult titles: Apotropaia (that turns away/protects); Enodia (on the way); Propulaia / Propylaia (before the gate); Triodia / Trioditis (who frequents crossroads ); Klêidouchos (holding the keys), etc. 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

704-522: A significant role as household deity. Shrines to Hecate were often placed at doorways to homes, temples, and cities with the belief that it would protect from restless dead and other spirits. Home shrines often took the form of a small Hekataion , a shrine centred on a wood or stone carving of a triple Hecate facing in three directions on three sides of a central pillar. Larger Hekataions, often enclosed within small walled areas, were sometimes placed at public crossroads near important sites – for example, there

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768-499: A votive sculpture from Attica of the 3rd century BCE, include additional dancing figures identified as the Charites circling the triple Hecate and her central column. 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. In the 1st century CE, Ovid wrote: "Look at Hecate, standing guard at

832-522: Is also associated with Hecate. Antoninus Liberalis used a myth to explain this association: At Thebes Proetus had a daughter Galinthias . This maiden was playmate and companion of Alcmene , daughter of Electryon . As the birth throes for Herakles were pressing on Alcmene, the Moirai (fates) and Eileithyia (birth-goddess), as a favour to Hera, kept Alcmene in continuous birth pangs. They remained seated, each keeping their arms crossed. Galinthias, fearing that

896-549: Is also the name of one of the Oceanid nymphs , Helios’ wife and Circe's mother in other versions. In one version of Hecate's parentage, she is the daughter of Perses not the son of Crius but the son of Helios, whose mother is the Oceanid Perse. Karl Kerenyi noted the similarity between the names, perhaps denoting a chthonic connection among the two and the goddess Persephone; it is possible that this epithet gives evidence of

960-443: Is not repeated in other ancient sources. Homer refers to Thoosa , the mother of Polyphemus , as a daughter of Phorcys, with no mother specified. Hecate Hecate ( / ˈ h ɛ k ə t i / HEK -ə-tee ) is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology , most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, or snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depicted as three-formed or triple-bodied. She

1024-484: Is the son of Pontus and Gaia , and the brother of Nereus , Thaumus , Ceto , and Eurybia . In a genealogy from Plato 's dialogue Timaeus , Phorcys, Cronus and Rhea are the eldest offspring of Oceanus and Tethys . Hesiod 's Theogony lists the children of Phorcys and Ceto as the Graeae (naming only two: Pemphredo , and Enyo ), the Gorgons ( Stheno , Euryale and Medusa ), probably Echidna (though

1088-641: Is variously associated with crossroads , night, light, magic , protection from witchcraft , drugs, and the Moon . Her earliest appearance in literature was in Hesiod 's Theogony in the 8th century BCE as a goddess of great honour with domains in sky, earth, and sea. She had popular followings amongst the witches of Thessaly , and an important sanctuary among the Carians of Asia Minor in Lagina. Her oldest known representation

1152-698: 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." Hecate was said to favour offerings of garlic , which was closely associated with her cult. She is also sometimes associated with cypress , a tree symbolic of death and the underworld, and hence sacred to a number of chthonic deities. A number of other plants (often poisonous, medicinal and/or psychoactive) are associated with Hecate. These include aconite (also called hecateis ), belladonna , dittany , and mandrake . It has been suggested that

1216-589: The Aeneid , who reports a very ancient version already reflected in Varro , distinct from the Greek vulgate: Phorcos was once king of Sardinia and Corsica ; annihilated in a naval battle in the Tyrrhenian Sea , and then shot down by King Atlas with a large part of his army, his companions imagined him transformed into a marine deity, perhaps a monster, half man and half sea ram. According to Hesiod 's Theogony , Phorcys

1280-529: The Chaldean Oracles , coinage, and reliefs from Asia Minor. In artwork, she is often portrayed in three statues standing back to back, each with its own special attributes (torch, keys, daggers, snakes, dogs). 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, whose sculpture

1344-478: The Elizabethan - Jacobean period. Webster's Dictionary of 1866 particularly credits the influence of Shakespeare for the then-predominant disyllabic pronunciation of the name. Evidence suggests that Hecate originated among the Carians of Anatolia , the region where most theophoric names invoking Hecate, such as Hecataeus or Hecatomnus , the father of Mausolus , are attested, and where Hecate remained

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1408-479: 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. By the 1st century CE, Hecate's chthonic and nocturnal character had led to her transformation into a goddess heavily associated with witchcraft, witches, magic, and sorcery. In Lucan 's Pharsalia ,

1472-486: The Cosmic World Soul ( Anima Mundi ). 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. Intrinsically ambivalent and polymorphous, she straddles conventional boundaries and eludes definition." The Romans often knew her by the epithet of Trivia , an epithet she shares with Diana , each in their roles as protector of travel and of

1536-550: The Roman period connecting Hecate to the Moon exists. 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 and implies Hecate's capacity as a moon goddess in

1600-437: The blood-eating goddess Hecate. It seems a symbolic summation of all the negative characteristics of the creatures of the deep. At Athens, it is said there stood a statue of Hecate Triglathena , to whom the red mullet was offered in sacrifice. After mentioning that this fish was sacred to Hecate, Alan Davidson writes, Cicero, Horace, Juvenal, Martial, Pliny, Seneca, and Suetonius have left abundant and interesting testimony to

1664-465: The crossroads (trivia, "three ways"). Hecate was closely identified with Diana and Artemis in the Roman era. Potential Greek source words have been suggested for the goddess's name. The word ἑκών, meaning "willing" (thus, "she who works her will" or similar), may be related to the name Hecate. However, no sources suggested list will or willingness as a major attribute of Hecate, which calls this assertion into question. Another Greek word suggested as

1728-607: The crossroads, one face looking in each direction." 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. In the Argolid , near the shrine of the Dioscuri , Pausanias saw the temple of Hecate opposite the sanctuary of Eileithyia ; He reported

1792-497: The dog was sacred to Eileithyia , Genetyllis, and other birth goddesses. Images of her attended by a dog are also found when she is depicted alongside the god Hermes and the goddess Cybele in reliefs. 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

1856-600: The dying fish change. In her three-headed representations, discussed above, Hecate often has one or more animal heads, including cow, dog, boar, serpent, and horse. Lions are associated with Hecate in early artwork from Asia Minor, as well as later coins and literature, including the Chaldean Oracles . The frog , which was also the symbol of the similarly named Egyptian goddess Heqet , has also become sacred to Hecate in modern pagan literature, possibly due in part to its ability to cross between two elements. Comparative mythologist Alexander Haggerty Krappe cited that Hecate

1920-481: The frontier between life and death, and with demons and ghosts which move across the frontier. The yawning gates of Hades were guarded by the monstrous watchdog Cerberus , whose function was to prevent the living from entering the underworld, and the dead from leaving it." Hecate was closely associated with plant lore and the concoction of medicines and poisons . In particular she was thought to give instruction in these closely related arts. Apollonius of Rhodes , in

1984-738: The gates of the city. Hecate's importance to Byzantium was above all as a deity of protection. 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." 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. Watchdogs were used extensively by Greeks and Romans. 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). In what appears to be

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2048-475: The goddess are singular. Her earliest known representation is a small terracotta statue found in Athens . 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. She is seated on a throne, with a chaplet around her head; the depiction is otherwise relatively generic. Farnell states: "The evidence of

2112-402: The goddess be gracious to me: Fables and their telling I leave to others. 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". The Greek word for mullet was trigle and later trigla . He goes on to quote

2176-499: The goddess with a single body, but three faces. In Egyptian-inspired Greek esoteric writings connected with Hermes Trismegistus , and in the Greek Magical Papyri of Late Antiquity , Hecate is described as having three heads: one dog, one serpent , and one horse. In other representations, her animal heads include those of a cow and a boar. The east frieze of a Hellenistic temple of hers at Lagina shows her helping protect

2240-400: The holder of the keys to Tartaros . Like Hermes , Hecate takes on the role of guardian not just of roads, but of all journeys, including the journey to the afterlife. In art and myth, she is shown, along with Hermes, guiding Persephone back from the underworld with her torches. By the 5th century BCE, Hecate had come to be strongly associated with ghosts , possibly due to conflation with

2304-486: The hymn. Another work connecting Hecate to Helios possibly as a moon goddess is Sophocles 's 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 roads, which she carries as she attends her mistress in the sky This speech from the Root Cutters may or may not be an intentional association of Hecate with the Moon. In Seneca 's Medea ,

2368-408: The image to be the work of Scopas , stating further, "This one is of stone, while the bronze images opposite, also of Hecate, were made respectively by Polycleitus and his brother Naucydes, son of Mothon." 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

2432-451: The latter's adoption into the Olympian pantheon. Artemis would have, at that point, become more strongly associated with purity and maidenhood, on the one hand, while her originally darker attributes like her association with magic, the souls of the dead, and the night would have continued to be worshipped separately under her title Hecate. Though often considered the most likely Greek origin of

2496-499: The liminal spaces between worlds, Hecate is also recognized as a chthonic (underworld) goddess. 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. In the 1st century CE, Virgil described the entrance to hell as "Hecate's Grove", though he says that Hecate is equally "powerful in Heaven and Hell." The Greek Magical Papyri describe Hecate as

2560-486: The lunar goddesses Diana (the huntress), Luna (the Moon) and Hecate (the underworld) became a ubiquitous feature in depictions of sacred groves, where Hecate/Trivia marked intersections and crossroads along with other liminal deities. The Romans celebrated enthusiastically the multiple identities of Diana as Hecate, Luna and Trivia. From her father Perses, Hecate is often called "Perseis" (meaning "daughter of Perses") which

2624-459: The monuments as to the character and significance of Hecate is almost as full as that of to express her manifold and mystic nature." A 6th century fragment of pottery from Boetia depicts a goddess which may be Hecate in a maternal or fertility mode. Crowned with leafy branches as in later descriptions, she is depicted offering a "maternal blessing" to two maidens who embrace her. The figure is flanked by lions, an animal associated with Hecate both in

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2688-458: The name, the Ἑκατός theory does not account for her worship in Asia Minor, where her association with Artemis seems to have been a late development, and the competing theories that the attribution of darker aspects and magic to Hecate were themselves not originally part of her cult. R. S. P. Beekes rejected a Greek etymology and suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In Early Modern English , the name

2752-413: The necks of black bulls which they slaughtered in her honor and yew boughs were burned on funeral pyres. The yew was associated with the alphabet and the scientific name for yew today, taxus , was probably derived from the Greek word for yew, toxos , which is hauntingly similar to toxon , their word for bow and toxicon , their word for poison. It is presumed that the latter were named after

2816-453: The newborn Zeus from his father Cronus ; this frieze is the only evidence of Hecate's involvement in the myth of his birth. Dogs were closely associated with Hecate in the Classical world. "In art and in literature Hecate is constantly represented as dog-shaped or as accompanied by a dog. Her approach was heralded by the howling of a dog. The dog was Hecate's regular sacrificial animal, and

2880-422: The origin of the name Hecate is Ἑκατός Hekatos , an obscure epithet of Apollo interpreted as "the far-reaching one" or "the far-darter". 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. Supporters of this etymology suggest that Hecate was originally considered an aspect of Artemis prior to

2944-449: The pains of her labour would drive Alcmene mad, ran to the Moirai and Eileithyia and announced that by desire of Zeus a boy had been born to Alcmene and that their prerogatives had been abolished. At all this, consternation of course overcame the Moirai and they immediately let go their arms. Alcmene’s pangs ceased at once and Herakles was born. The Moirai were aggrieved at this and took away

3008-455: The red mullet fever which began to affect wealthy Romans during the last years of the Republic and really gripped them in the early Empire. The main symptoms were a preoccupation with size, the consequent rise to absurd heights of the prices of large specimens, a habit of keeping red mullet in captivity, and the enjoyment of the highly specialized aesthetic experience induced by watching the color of

3072-574: The text is unclear on this point) and Ceto's "youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in the secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds", also called the Drakon Hesperios ("Hesperian Dragon", or dragon of the Hesperides) or Ladon . These children tend to be consistent across sources, though Ladon is often cited as a child of Echidna by Typhon and therefore Phorcys and Ceto's grandson. According to Apollodorus , Scylla

3136-483: The title Phorcides . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phorcides&oldid=1192290091 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Phorcys According to Servius , commentator on

3200-407: The titular Medea invokes her patron Hecate whom she addresses as "Moon, orb of the night" and "triple form". Hecate and the moon goddess Selene were frequently identified with each other and a number of Greek and non-Greek deities; the Greek Magical Papyri and other magical texts emphasize a syncretism between Selene-Hecate with Artemis and Persephone among others. In Italy, the triple unity of

3264-473: The tree because of its superiority for both bows and poison. Hecate was seen as a triple deity, identified with the goddesses Luna (Moon) in the sky and Diana (hunting) on the earth, while she represents the Underworld. Hecate's association with Helios in literary sources and especially in cursing magic has been cited as evidence for her lunar nature, although this evidence is pretty late; no artwork before

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3328-443: The use of dogs for digging up mandrake is further corroboration of the association of this plant with Hecate; indeed, since at least as early as the 1st century CE, there are a number of attestations to the apparently widespread practice of using dogs to dig up plants associated with magic. The yew in particular was sacred to Hecate. Greeks held the yew to be sacred to Hecate ... Her attendants draped wreathes of yew around

3392-401: 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 Hecate, "the dog is a creature of the threshold, the guardian of doors and portals, and so it is appropriately associated with

3456-426: The womanly parts of Galinthias since, being but a mortal, she had deceived the gods. They turned her into a deceitful weasel (or polecat), making her live in crannies and gave her a grotesque way of mating. She is mounted through the ears and gives birth by bringing forth her young through the throat. Hecate felt sorry for this transformation of her appearance and appointed her a sacred servant of herself. Aelian told

3520-464: Was already filled by other more prominent deities in the Greek pantheon, above all by Artemis and Selene . This line of reasoning lies behind the widely accepted hypothesis that she was a foreign deity who was incorporated into the Greek pantheon. Other than in the Theogony , the Greek sources do not offer a consistent story of her parentage or of her relations in the Greek pantheon. A possible theory of

3584-411: Was also named ίππεύτρια ( hippeutria – 'the equestrienne'), since the horse was "the chthonic animal par excellence ". The goddess is described as wearing oak in fragments of Sophocles 's lost play The Root Diggers (or The Root Cutters ), and an ancient commentary on Apollonius's Argonautica (3.1214) describes her as having a head surrounded by serpents, twining through branches of oak. Hecate

3648-457: Was also pronounced disyllabically (as / ˈ h ɛ k . ɪ t / ) and sometimes spelled Hecat . It remained common practice in English to pronounce her name in two syllables, even when spelled with final e , well into the 19th century. The spelling Hecat is due to Arthur Golding 's 1567 translation of Ovid 's Metamorphoses , and this spelling without the final E later appears in plays of

3712-406: Was associated with borders, city walls, doorways, crossroads and, by extension, with realms outside or beyond the world of the living. She appears to have been particularly associated with being 'between' and hence is frequently characterized as a " liminal " goddess. "Hecate mediated between regimes— Olympian and Titan —but also between mortal and divine spheres." This liminal role is reflected in

3776-525: Was found in Selinunte , in Sicily . Hecate was one of several deities worshipped in ancient Athens as a protector of the oikos (household), alongside Zeus , Hestia , Hermes , and Apollo . In the post-Christian writings of the Chaldean Oracles (2nd–3rd century CE) she was also regarded with (some) rulership over earth, sea, and sky, as well as a more universal role as Savior ( Soteira ), Mother of Angels and

3840-463: Was often eaten in solemn sacrament." The sacrifice of dogs to Hecate is attested for Thrace, Samothrace, Colophon, and Athens. A 4th-century BCE marble relief from Crannon in Thessaly was dedicated by a race-horse owner. It shows Hecate, with a hound beside her, placing a wreath on the head of a mare. It has been claimed that her association with dogs is "suggestive of her connection with birth, for

3904-465: Was one on the road leading to the Acropolis . 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. In Zerynthus there was a cave dedicated to Hecate. Dogs were sacred to Hecate and associated with roads, domestic spaces, purification, and spirits of the dead. Dogs were also sacrificed to

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3968-568: Was placed before the temple of the Wingless Nike in Athens. Though Alcamenes's original statue is lost, hundreds of copies exist, and the general motif of a triple Hecate situated around a central pole or column, known as a hekataion , was used both at crossroads shrines as well as at the entrances to temples and private homes. These typically depict her holding a variety of items, including torches, keys, serpents, and daggers. Some hekataia , including

4032-554: Was positive and thus likelier to have arisen from the dog's connection with birth than the dog's underworld associations." The association with dogs, particularly female dogs, could be explained by a metamorphosis myth in Lycophron : the friendly-looking female dog accompanying Hecate was originally the Trojan Queen Hecuba , who leapt into the sea after the fall of Troy and was transformed by Hecate into her familiar. The polecat

4096-512: Was the daughter of Crataeis , with the father being either Trienus ( Triton ?) or Phorcus (a variant of Phorkys ). Apollonius of Rhodes has Scylla as the daughter of Phorcys and a conflated Crataeis-Hecate . According to a fragment of Sophocles , Phorcys is the father of the Sirens . The scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes cites Phorcys and Ceto as the parents of the Hesperides , but this assertion

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