Pennsylvania State University - Spring 2023
Accounting 241, Chapter 4 Syllabus
Professor Martin, Section 4
March 15, 2023
Nevertheless, 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.
Class Date: 23/6/2024
Instructor’s Note: Include page numbers in your submission.
GENERIC CONTENT:
## Background
She is seated on a throne, with a chaplet around her head; the depiction is otherwise
relatively generic. 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."
A 6th century fragment of pottery from Boetia depicts a goddess which may be Hecate in a
maternal or fertility mode.
## Discussion
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 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).
## Conclusion (List)
- 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 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 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.
## Findings
In the 1st century CE, Ovid wrote: "Look at Hecate, standing guard at 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 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 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.
## Analysis
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 the newborn Zeus from
his father Cronus; this frieze is the only evidence of Hecate's involvement in the myth of his
birth. === Sacred animals ===
Dogs were closely associated with Hecate in the Classical world. They were one of her most
important attributes, with a fragment of Euripides describing them as her sacred animal.
The sacrifice of dogs to her is attested in Thrace, Samothrace, Colophon, and Athens, and is
known to have played a significant role in purification rites to her.
## Background
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 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.
## Discussion
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." 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.
## Conclusion
The polecat 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.
References / Works Cited:
1. Wikipedia (n.d.). Retrieved from https://wikipedia.org/
2. Random Book Title (2022). Academic Publishing House.
