Hekate Trivia

Trivia - A Goddess of Crossroads and Transitions

As earlier stated, Hekate is a guide for people who are in transition. While she is most famous in her role as a psychopomp, guiding the spirits of the dead in their journey through the Underworld, she also aids those who cross boundaries or otherwise travel from one condition to another, particularly when that crossing involves danger. This may be a physical journey, and indeed Hekate is known in particular to protect women who travel at night. However, this may also be a journey in the spirit or in the mind as well, as with those making shamanic journeys to Otherworlds or those who plumb the dark terrain of their own subconscious. Von Rudloff refers to Hekate in the ancient Mystery Traditions and suggests that she may well have served as a guide for initiates as well. Her role as a guide can even taken to extend to those changing their roles or circumstances in life, such as students leaving school, people changing careers, moving to new areas, or anyone whose life is changing dramatically. For more than anything else she is a deity of liminality.

She is a goddess of the crossroads for this reason. In the ancient world a crossroad was a point where three roads met to form a "Y"-shaped intersection. It was believed to be a place where spirits gathered, including those of the Underworld and those of Fate. It is also a metaphor for the divergence of possibilities in an individual's future. Their life will bring them to the crossroad along one of the roads, and they will be met with a branching, where they must choose one path or the other to continue onward. As goddess of transitions, Hekate rules this place where the roads separate and differing futures are possible.

However, it is important to remember that Hekate is a guide. She points out where a person is currently heading and where else they might go if they change their path instead. She does not choose a person's fate herself. That is always left to the person to decide. She is a torch-bearer because of this illumination she sheds upon one's life. That is also one reason she is a lunar-deity, for while a torch brings light to the darkness of night, so too does the moon on the grandest possible scale. This reflects both her link to the night-realms and to her role as an illuminator of ways..

Hekate is often portrayed as a three torch-bearing female figures standing in a circle looking outward, with their backs joined so that they are in fact one being. This exhibits her dominion over the triple-crossroads and her ability to see in all directions simultaneously. The road a person had come from, and the directions they might take in the future. These hektarion (or hekataion) were placed at crossroads. Their earliest forms consisted of a pole upon which three masks were hung, with one facing each road. In more recent times these became statuary, sometimes of three figures standing with their backs to a central pillar, other times a similar portrayal without the column in the center.

The Romans knew Hekate as Triva, which means "where the three roads meet". There are also other goddesses associated with the crossroads. Most prominent are Diana and Prosperina. There was also a Greek deity named Kourotrophos whom women gave offerings to at the crossroads. This was often in the form of a pig, which is associated with the Underworld. Several ancient references suggest that Kourotrophos represents the child-nurturing aspect of Hekate. In fact,  Kourotrophon means “Nurturer of Youths” and is a title that Hekate shares with Artemis. So this was doubtlessly one of many aspects of this Dark Goddess..