Hecate of Lagina

Hellenistic period, ca. 323 to 30 BCE.

Hecate holding a torch in each hand and draped in a peplos and himation as she stands in a recessed niche. Hekate, the goddess of the moon and of sorcery, presided over crossroads. She was first represented as three women standing against a pillar in a statue erected in about 425 B.C. on the bastion of Athena Nike at the entrance to the Akropolis in Athens. It was one of the earliest statues deliberately made to imitate the stiff linear way of depicting clothes that had marked works of the sixth century B.C.E. Size: 2.8" L x 21.4" W x 19.7" H (7.1 cm x 54.4 cm x 50 cm)

Roman Bronze
Attachment of Hecate

Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 1st to 2nd century BCE. A cast bronze attachment with a relief image of a goddess, probably Hecate, on one side. She is shown from the chest up, wearing a round headdress, and given the attributes of a branch with berries and a flaming torch. This may be a representation of Hecate, a goddess associated with the crossroads, sorcery, knowledge of poisonous plants, and necromancy, and who is often shown with a torch.

A roman black jasper magical intaglio. of Hecate

2nd - 3rd century A.D.
16 x 16 x 4 mm
The lentoid shaped intaglio is engraved with the figure of the three-headed goddess Hecate. Her arms rising in a gesture of praying or putting a spell on. Groundline. Slightly butn stone. Wear marks. Traces of the iron setting on the backside.

Hekate (magische Gemme)

Hekate gilt als göttliche Mittlerin zwischen dem Überirdischen
und dem Unterirdischen. Seit dem 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. wird sie
mit der Göttin Artemis, mit der sie laut Hesiod (theog. 409-411)
auch familiär verwandt ist, und mit Persephone sowie mit
Ereschkigal, der sumerischen Unterweltsherrin, oder der
Mondgöttin Selene gleichgesetzt.

Hekataion

Hekataion; Dreigestaltige Hekate mit Chariten, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien

Frieze from the Hecate Temple in Lagina, now in Istanbul Archaeological Museum/Fryz ze Świątyni bogini Hekate w Laginie, obecnie w Muzeum Archeologicznym w Stambule

Hekate flanked by two dogs. This depiction shows a very rare combination of the goddess with dogs. Her worship was widespread in all the graeco-roman world, especially in the regions of Caria, Lydia, Phrygia and Thrace. For her complex personality and function, referred to both the earthly and celestial scope, the goddess mainly acquires a role of mediator between the world of the living and the world of the dead, intermediary in human events, trivium divinity and protective of roads and crossroads. Especially linked to the infernal sphere, she is a guide for restless spirits and demons from the afterlife; she is represented holding torches in order to dissipate darkness, and followed by a band of dogs. The back of the setting shows a rut on the edge (presumably afterwards it was converted into a talisman pendant). The particular choice of the kind of stone is related to its precise protective effects. Light chippings on the field.

Scene of the Gigantomachy, Hecate depicted in her triple form, fighting with a torch, a sword, and a lance, east frieze of the Pergamon Altar, 2nd c. BCE, Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany.

The archetypal und archaic Anatolian goddess, Cybele, was revered not only throughout Anatolia but also on the neighboring (modern day) Greek islands.

Evidence of her cult can still be seen today in the cave formations and niches carved into hillsides. Her great gift to humanity is the mystery of rebirth.

Many of these caves symbolize the birth canal and end in womb-like forms. On the island of Samos, for example, one enters the caves as if stepping back into the darkness of the womb—not of a biological mother and father, but of the Great Goddess of eternity.

During our journey through Anatolia, we will visit many such places—caves and rock niches where Cybele was likely venerated long before the appearance and unveiling of the many goddesses who later emerged in human consciousness, in our hearts and in our souls.