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Hekate is often referred to as a triple goddess called Triformis or three headed. She is often thought of as part of a trinity with Persephone and Demeter. In Her degraded state in late Antiquity, she was a hag or crone, emblematic of the then current conception of the Witch or sorcerer. Her role is often variant and there is evidence that in the triple form, originally Demeter represents the old crone woman, Persephone the wife\mother, and Hekate is the Maiden. Every early Greek representation of Hekate shows Her as a young woman. It is in later, Roman times that She is represented as Crone, which is reflective of the image of the worshipper of Hekate (that is, the witch) which became popular at the time. As we shall see, Hekate was originally (in Her “home” in Asia Minor) a Great Mother Goddess, and in Her wanderings through the mythic minds of Her worshippers and devotees gradually taking on a darker tone as the world changed and history moved inexorably on. I would argue, however, that the emphasis on one aspect does not exclude or deny the others, as this is clearly the case in modern Christianity which, in various flavors and sects, emphasizes radically different aspects or viewpoints while still paying lip service, at least, to what is believed to be the earliest (and therefore most ‘authentic’) beliefs of the Pauline ‘Jesus movement’. We thus live in a world where the followers of the Prince of Peace are endlessly beating the drums of war in His name. It is therefore instructive to keep in mind that the conception of a divinity is at least as much a product of Her worshippers (and often, those whom they are in conflict with).

   The epithet “Phosphoros” may indicate a symbolic link with Venus, perhaps through the torches, representing the Morning and Evening stars, that Hekate is so often portrayed carrying. This is related to Her form as Daughter of NYX (Night) and She would thus be the herald of the Dawn, probably in a form of our myth where Hekate Herself battles and slays the Dragon and then created the Universe Herself.

   At Eleusis the famous Mysteries were enacted yearly, usually thought of by modern scholarship as a celebration or enactment of, probably spiritualized, fertility rites. It is certain that Hekate was honored there too, as she has a role in the Demeter - Proserpine myth and may have been seen as a guide for initiates into the Mysteries.

   Hekate Exoterica

   One of the keys (and Hekate was herself bore the title the “key bearer”) of our understanding of Hekate is, of course, her “adoption” into the Greek Pantheon as recorded by Hesiod in the Theogony. It is worth quoting in full the passage that demarks Her position in the three realms of the Cosmos, Heaven (and Earth), Sea and the Underworld (or Zeus, Poseidon and Hades):

Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and
brought forth dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to
the deathless gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all
Olympus. Also she bare Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once
led to his great house to be called his dear wife. And she
conceived and bare Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honored
above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the
earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honor also in starry
heaven, and is honored exceedingly by the deathless gods. 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. 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. For as many as were born of
Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. 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. Also, because she is an
only child, the goddess receives not less honor, but much more
still, for Zeus honors her. Whom she will she greatly aids and
advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgment, and in the
assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people. And
when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then
the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to
whom she will. Good is she also when men contend at the games,
for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: and he
who by might and strength gets the victory wins the rich prize
easily with joy, and brings glory to his parents. And she is
good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: and to those whose
business is in the grey discomfort able sea, and who pray to
Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious
goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon
as seen, if so she will. She is good in the byre with Hermes to
increase the stock. The droves of kine and wide herds of goats
and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a
few, or makes many to be less. So, then. albeit her mother's
only child (17), she is honored amongst all the deathless gods.
And the son of Cronos made her a nurse of the young who after
that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing Dawn. So
from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her
honors.
Hesiod - Theogony(ll. 404-452)

   Quite a resume. It is generally accepted by modern scholarship that Hekate, whom we know was, like Dionysus, an “alien” or foreign god adopted by the Greeks, originally worshipped as a Great Mother Goddess, a Cosmic or archetypal divinity whose function transcended the peculiarities of local cult and myth . It is unclear how much of this role was consciously ascribed to Her in the Paleolithic age and how much was a “Gnostic”, in the most direct sense of inward experience, understanding that has been intellectualized in modern times. There seems conclusive evidence of the Magna Mater cult in pre-literate times though this is a product of the Goddess’ function. It seems to be a modern, or at least later, development of religious thinking to “universalize” the Gods and syncretism cultic divinities by reducing them into abstract formulae. This is, at least in part, a reflection of the continued mutation of our conception of the Cosmos and our relationship to Nature and Spirit, as well as the development of philosophical thinking which tends to reduce everything to concepts which, even without the problems that language itself raises in such circumstances, are unable to express the numinous and emotional connection that the devotee experiences in contact with his or her God(s). Thus philosophical reductionism is itself an agent in the experience of divinity no matter how much one tries to be ‘objective’. Simply put, words cannot fully comprehend the gods and such concepts are, in any event, untranslatable in terms of the modes of expression available to early agrarian cultures whom we know about mostly from artifacts and images rather than words.

   Hekate is synchronized to several contemporary Goddesses in the late Classical Age, the first of which seems to have been the Moon Goddess Artemis. In the course of the morphing of Artemis into the well known figure of the “Virgin Huntress”, Hekate assumed her role of fertility Goddess, which is, of course, the central role of the Great Mother as it relates to human maternity and the fecundity of Nature. Hekate was already worshipped as such (as was Artemis in Her earlier form) and so the “transfer of titles” was natural.

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