Hecate: Greek or Anatolian? Author(s): William Berg Reviewed work(s): Source: Numen, Vol. 21, Fasc. 2 (Aug.

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Numen,Vol. XXI, Fasc.

HECATE: GREEK OR "ANATOLIAN" ?

BY

BERG U.S.A. Woodside, California, WILLIAM olf With the decipherment Linear B came the surprising discovery that the nomenclature many important deities of classical Greece of couldbe tracedback intothe Bronze Age. The appearanceof Dionysus' name, for example,on tabletsfromPylos helps to confirmGuthrie's suggestionthat belief in a late "intrusion"of Dionysiac ritual "was in probablyinherent the ritual and comes into the mythsprimarily if from that source and only secondarily, at all, from the fact of historicaloppositionto his cult in Greece"1). New evidenceand the hold new surprisesin store2). This progressof researchundoubtedly thatanotherdeityof supposed non-Greek paper proposes origins,the goddess Hecate, may actuallyhave as muchrightto an Hellenic pedigree as the otherOlympians. The weightof scholarly opinionnow favorsan "Anatolian" (Carian) is for the cult of Hecate. The argument based on two obserorigin vations: I) Personal names formedfrom hekat-,like that of Hekataios the geographeror that of Hekatomnus,who gave his name to the in dynastyof Maussolus, occur primarily Caria duringthe fifth and fourthcenturiesB.C. 3). 2) There is a templeof Hecate at Lagina in Caria wherethe goddess
was worshipped as sateira, megiste, and epiphanestate; her exalted

rank and functionhere are unmatchedin cults of Hecate else-

I) Pylos Xa lo2 and Xb 1419. W. K. C. Guthrie, The Greeks and their Gods (Boston 1950) 172. 2) The most recent comprehensivesurvey of Mycenaean religion in the light of the tablets: M. G&rard-Rousseau, "Les mentions religieuses dans les tablettes myceniennes",Inc2nabula graeca 29 (Rome 1968). 3) E. Sittig, De Graecorum nominibustheophoris(Diss. Halle 20, 1912) 60-67; A. Laumonier, Les cultes indigenes en Carie (Paris 1958) 422; L. Zgusta, Kleinasiatische Personennamen (Prague 1964) 159.

Hecate: Greekor "Anatolian".?

129

where. Her cult statue,represented coins of Stratoniceiaand on on the northfrieze of her templein Lagina, was not trimorphic the but exhibited "original"formof thegoddessas a singlebody4). are not called after spooks,it is safe to assume that Since children hekat-referto a major deityfree Carian theophoric names involving and to witchcraft fromthe dark and unsavoryties to the underworld Hecate of classical Athens. It is argued that her Carian held by the cult was introduced the Greek mainlandfrom Asia Minor in the to withwitchesand demons (e.g. in Thesarchaicperiod; contamination her erodedand infernalized Olympianstature, her saly) transforming the recipient into the Hecate we know from later traditions, finally of table scraps and canine blood. She is thought appear, however, to in her original"Carian" formin the earliestliterary monument her to to be the work of one of her proselytesfrom Asia Minor, perhaps of Hesiod himself Her praises in the Theogonyexceed those of 5). other Titans whom Zeus favored: she has a portion of land, sea, of and sky, and mediatespropitiation gods and blessings conferred of So runs the argument Kraus and otherswho supportthe notion of a non-Greek, Anatolian origin for Hecate. I hope to show here is a of through re-examination the Carian evidencethatthe argument evidencefor not convincing, and will concludeby presenting possible the existenceof her cultin MycenaeanGreece. Like the Hesiodic Hecate, the goddess of Lagina was benevolent, and honored above all Titans by Zeus. The west frieze of mighty, the of her templedepictsthe Titanomachy, decisivetriumph Zeus over
4) Epigraphical and archaeological evidence collected in Theodor Kraus, Hekate (Heidelberg i96o) 41-54. Cf. U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Der Glaube der Hellenen (Berlin 193i) 1.169-72; Laumonier (above note) 406-25; M. Nilsson, GGR 12 722-25. 5) Kraus (above note) 57-94. On Hecate's infernal aspects, cf. e.g. Theocritus 2.12 scholia; Aristophanes fr. 204 Kock (FCG 1.443), Plutus 594 & scholia, Pax 276 scholia; Lycophron, Alexandra 77. 6) For the present state of the controversyon the authenticityof Theogony 411-52, with bibliography, cf. M. L. West, Hesiod, Theogony (Oxford 1966) 276-80 and most recently J. Bollack, "Mythische Deutung und Deutung des Mythos" in M. Fuhrmann (ed.), Terror und Spiel: Probleme der Mythenrezeption (Munich I97I) III-I8. NUMEN XXI 9

cult, the long passage in the Theogony (411-52)

which is presumed

upon men 6).

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darkness and brutality;Hecate stands in a prominentposition, a Titan striving with youngergods for the new order,though together her participation here is not as active as it is on the famous altar at 7). Pergamum The birthof Zeus is shown on the east frieze,where Hecate appears handingover the stone to Kronos. As in Theogony 450-52, she is here the kourotrophos par excellence,and the kouros is Zeus himself too, from the temple precinct8). Inscriptions, almostall of Roman imperial date - attestto the factthatthe goddess was indeed great - so great, in fact, that the priesthoodof Zeus himselfwas a prerequisite the priesthood Hecate at Lagina 9). for of in Games were held quinquennially her honor10). As on Aegina and of about whichnothing Samothrace, mysteries Hecate were conducted, It is not only the exalted grandeurof Hecate at Lagina that seems strange for a goddess whose characterelsewhere,in the last two centuries any rate,was far moreStygianthanOlympian. at prechristan Her form at Lagina is equally surprising.Seldom in this period is she represented withoutthe threebodies which had been hers since for thesculptor Alcamenescreatedhis Hecate epipyrgidia theAthenian she had appeared as a singlebody in the sixth acropolis12). Though Hecate coexisted and fifthcenturies B.C., and thougha monomorphic
2, Vienna 1933) 70ff. and pl. 21. 8) Ibid. pl. 2; Kraus (above, note 4) 46f. 9) Laumonier (above, note 3) 367; Kraus (above, note 4) 43. io) Dittenberger,OGIS 44I.I33f.; Kraus (above, note 4) 43. II) Ibid. 51. 12) Pausanias 2.30.2. Eusebius, Praep. evang. 3.11.32, suggested that the triple form represented Hecate's dominion over earth, sea, and sky; Servius ad Aen. 4.511 believed that the bodies were those of Diana, Luna, and Proserpina; Cornutus (p. 208 Osann) claimed that they represented three phases of the moon. Modern scholars seek the answer in her function as guardian of the crossing of three ways; Kraus (above, note 4) 107-12 suggests that the original Hekataia were three apotropaic Gorgon-likemasks hung from a pillar, and that Alcamenes humanized and idealized this configuration.He points out that Cerberus, Geryoneus, and the triple herm also have underworld ties and a triple aspect. C. Christou,Potnia Theron (Thessalonica 1968) 36-41, taking a differentapproach, suggests that trimorphosisgoes back to an early Greek problem in representing all the attributes of a goddess on one body, together with the notion that an idol's power is tripled when the idol is trimorphic.Only in a later period, then, are distinctionsmade among Moirai, Horai, Charites, Eumenides, or the three goddesses who require the "judgment" of Paris.

is known 11).

von Lagina (Istanbuler Der Fries des Hekateions Forschungen 7) A. Schober,

Hecate: Greekor "Anatolian"?

3I

withthe tripleformfor a timein the fourth century, veryfew singlebodied goddesses can convincingly identifiedwith Hecate therebe after13). Can the unusual appearance of Hecate at Lagina be attributed to the steadfastness a Carian tradition of which preservedthe goddess' original form despite the universal popularityof her triple image? The theory breaks down withthe word "Carian", for in Caria Hecate in seemsto have beenworshipped her familiar tripleform.Stratoniceia, in whose outskirts the sacred precinctof Lagina was situated,is an B.C. onward,to be sure, exceptionto the rule. From the firstcentury the Stratoniceians the Lastruckcoins commemorating monomorphic ginetangoddess.The cult statuedepictedon the coinage,witha torch in the left hand and a phiale in the right,is close even in detail of posture and draperyto the figureof Hecate as she appears on the
13) A monomorphicHecate is identified by inscription on an archaic seated figurine from Attica (Arch. Zeitung 40, 1882, 265, = IG 12 836) and on three Attic red-figurevases: Beazley, ARV 1191/3 London (sending of Triptolemus), ARV Io12/I New York (return of Persephone), ARV 1o38/I Ferrara (marriage procession of Peleus and Thetis). The trimorphic Hekataia from the British School in Athens and from the Athenian Agora which Kraus assigns to the late and 119-28) are now fifth and early fourth centuries (above, note 4, 97-1ol dated to the Roman imperial period: cf. Evelyn B. Harrison, Archaic and Archaistic Sculpture (The Athenian Agora ii, Princeton 1965) 86-107, who puts the earliest extant Hekataion, the triple statue in the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron, in the third century B.C., though admitting that the Hekataion in the British School probably reflects the Alcamenian archetype.There are few if any identifiable representationsof Hecate in the fourth century B.C.: cf. Kraus I63f., esp. note 676. As for the later periods, Louis Robert in Hellenica Io, pp. 113-17, warns against calling a goddess Hecate simply because a torch or a dog appears among her attributes; the goddess of Pherae, Ennodia, is one of the more prominentvictims of this confusion (Hellenica 12, pp. 588ff.). To his list of goddesses falsely identifiedas Hecate, and to those listed in Kraus p. 30 and H. Oppermann, Zeus Panamaros (Giessen 1924) 9of., I would add the following: a) BMC Mysia io6 # Io6 (Parium): "Diana Lucifera". This coin depicts Kore Soteira, goddess of Cyzicus, and reproduces the statue of Kore (wrongly called "Demeter" in the Catalogue) which appears on the Cyzicene coins BMC Mysia 49 # 225 and # 228.

de sommaire la collection Waddington(Paris b) E. Babelon (ed.), Inventaire

1897) # 6292, pl. 17 # 14 (Laodiceia in Phrygia): "Hecate". This must be Artemis phosphoros. Note triple Hecate on coin from Laodiceia to right. c) BMC Lydia 28 # 20, pl. 4 # 3 (Attaleia) : "Hecate". This is Artemis; Hecate never wears a short chiton. Louis Robert, Hellenica Io p. 115, notes that there is no archaeological or epigraphical evidence for the cult of Hecate in Lydia.

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northfriezeof her temple(figs. I and 2) 14). But the only coin of a to Carian city outside Stratoniceiawhich can be said with certainty the Laginetan goddess is a Trajanic issue of Euhippe (a represent town of unknownlocation) which shows Hecate as she is seen on Stratoniceian coinage (fig. 3) 15). Mastaurancoins may also bear her Laginetanform,thoughit seems odd thatthe tall headdress (polos or of a kalathos),ordinarily key to the identification Hecate, is omitted other coins of Mastaura show the usual (fig. 4) 16). Furthermore, Hecate; it seems unlikelythat she would be worshiped trimorphic underbothsingleand tripleformsin one and thesame city(fig. 5) 17). Elsewhere in Caria, the cities of Antiocheiaand Tralles struckcoins 18). It is likely, bearing the image of the triple Hecate exclusively that Hecate's "original","Carian" formwas housed only in her then, templeat Lagina. foundat Lagina, material ruinsand epigraphical Amongtheextensive onlyone object,the altar of Menophilos (see below), can be said with to certainty antedatethe firstcenturyB.C. What remains is not so to mucha monument a great Anatolian goddess as it is a monument to Roman imperialpolicy in Asia. Whetheror not the templewas erected before the Mithridaticwars 19), the theme it proclaims is to and loyaltyof an Asian city, Stratoniceia, the eternalfriendship
14) Schober (above, note 7) 72. Fig. 2 from American Numismatic Society Collection (Caracalla & Geta). 15) F. Imhoof-Blumer, Kleinasiatische Miinzen (Vienna I9oi-o2) 127 # I, pl. 5 # 21. 16) Ibid., 522 # I, pl. 20 # 9. I follow L. Robert (Hellenica Io p. 115 n. 4) in placing Mastaura and Tralles in Caria rather than in Lydia. For the importance of the polos among several Anatolian deities, cf. V. K. Miiller, Der Polos, die griechische Gbtterkrone (Diss. Berlin 1915) 62. 17) BMC Lydia 159 # 18, pl. 17 # 6. 18) BMC Caria 22 # 49, pl. 4 # 6; BMC Lydia 355 # 171,pl. 37 # 9. 19) J. Chamonard in BCH I9 (1895) 260-62 and L. Robert, lrtudes anatoliennes (Paris 1937) 427 n. 2, suggest that the temple was erected soon after Sulla's conquest of Mithridates in the first century B.C. to commemorate the loyalty of Stratoniceia to Rome. The erection of the temple is not mentioned,however, on the extant portions of Sulla's letter or the Senatus consultum of 81 B.C. inscribed on the temple wall (OGIS 441). Laumonier (above, note 3) 351-58 argues, as do Schober and Kraus, for a date late in the second century B.C., after Caria had been unitedto the kingdomof Pergamum under Roman authority; the temple would exemplify the religious renewal and neoclassicism spreading through the Greek East during this period. Whatever the date of the temple, its Roman orientationis an outstanding characteristic.

NUMEN,

XXI, 2

PLATE I

. F RAO 15

ii:--:-

: ::::

osV

NUMEN, XXI, 2

PLATE II

Hecate:Greek or

"Anatolian".

133

"the Roman masters" (kyrioiRomaioi), to quote froman inscription of on the templeitself 20). The Titanomachy the west frieze and the of the youngZeus may be subtleallusions to the missionof triumph Rome in the Greek East duringthe last two prechristian centuries. The northfriezeis moredirect:thereHecate presidesover the gesture of alliance between a warrior and an Amazon, figures symbolizing Rome and Asia respectively 21). In view of inscribedreferencesto of the many interventions the goddess on behalf of her people, her incidents whichare variously and precinct, the"Roman masters" during to the wars, the thought includethe revoltof Aristonicus, Mithridatic invasion of Labienus, and Parthian incursions,it is temptingto for reasons more suppose that Hecate has her epithetepiphanestatf than religious.The Roman Senate, Julius Caesar, and Aupolitical and reward, through gustushad morethanone occasionto acknowledge of the the granting and confirming asylia and similarbenefits, loyalty of this citizenry theirLaginetangoddess.One inscription and testifies, in fact,to her associationin cultas soteiraepiphaneswiththe goddess the Roma herself 22). One wonderswhether Laginetan Hecate would have achievedany notoriety all if it had not been for the political at eventsof the firstcenturyB.C. If she was a "great" and military goddess,it was Rome thatmade her so. in Yet therehad been some formof religiousactivity Lagina before the firstcenturyB.C. Tentative explorationof a nearby necropolis has yieldedpotsherdsdatingas far back as the geometric period23), and an inscribedaltar fromthe second prechristian atteststo century the worship of Hecate duringthe period of Rhodian dominion 24). The altar was dedicatedby one Menophilos,a priestof Hecate who had been "restoredby the Council to the priesthoodof Helios and Rhodos". It would seem,then,thatHecate's later associationwiththe in goddessRoma had had a parallel,or perhapseven a paradeigm, her
20) L. Robert (above note) 517-20. Schober pl. II); cf. Robert (above, note 19), Kraus (above, 21) Fig. I (= note 4) 46, Laumonier (above, note 3) 351. 22) OGIS 44I.133f. Tacitus, Annales 3.62. Robert (above, note 19) 516-23. R. K. Sherk, Roman Documents from the Greek East (Baltimore 1969) 105-11I (with bibliographyon OGIS 441). Laumonier (above, note 3) 359-61. 23) Y. Boysal in Anadolu 12 (1968) 81-93. 24) Foucart in BCH 14 (i890) 365 # 4. Cf. Laumonier (above, note 3) 358f.

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association in cult with the deities who personifiedRhodes25). Of of religionat Lagina beforethe introduction Rhodian cults,or before in B.C. 26), the Macedonianfounding Stratoniceia the thirdcentury of is known. It is natural to suppose that a goddess had been nothing worshippedthere from time immemorial;some sort of sanctuary musthave existedat Lagina long beforethe firstcentury B.C.; but I the assumption that the goddess' name had always been dispute "Hecate". Hecate must have been a Greek goddess. In the firstplace, almost all the archaeologicaland literaryevidence for her cult comes from the Greek mainland,and especiallyfromAttica, from earliest times down to the second century B.C. Hesiod's "Hymn to Hecate", even if it did not formpart of the originalTheogony,is no later than the archaic period27). There are numerousreferences Hecate in Attic to drama28), and, unless Aristophanesexaggerates,a Hekataion stood beforeeveryhouse in Athens (Wasps 804). In Asia Minor,only one can be associated with Hecate before the second century monument an archaic altar in the precinctof Apollo Delphinius in MileB.C., tus 29). That cityis "Carian", to be sure- but the goddessis not in a of with the fatherof the sanctuary her own, and has no connection gods, as she has at Lagina. Her associationwith Apollo at Miletus brings up the question of the theophoric names in hekat-.Their absence on the Greekmainland does not prove that the goddess was less important there than in In the fifthcentury, names in general are rare in Caria. theophoric that Attica,as Dow has pointedout30). I would suggest,moreover, in the names do not involveHecate at all. Significant this connection is Strabo's remarkthata small group of islands betweenLesbos and the Asian mainlandare called the HekatonnesoiafterApollo Hekatos
25) On the divinized personificationof free cities in this period as a response to ruler cults, cf. Nilsson, GGR 112 I44f. When the cult of the Roman emperor is introducedat Lagina (Diehl-Cousin in BCH II, 1887, 155 # 61), the HecateCaesar-Roma configurationseems exactly parallel to the earlier Hecate-HeliosRhodos triad. 26) Cf. Ruge s.v. Stratonikeia, RE Ser. 2, 4A col. 322-24. 27) Cf. B. A. van Groningen, La composition litterairc archaique grecque (Amsterdam 1958) 267-75. 28) Collected in Kraus (above, note 4) 84-94. 29) G. Kawerau & A. Rehm, Das Delphinion in Milet (Berlin 1914) 153 fig.41. 30) S. Dow, "The Egyptian Cults in Athens", HTR 30 (1937) 216-27.

Hecate: Greekor "Anatolian"?

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hekatos (13.2.5). Amongauthorsbeforethe Hellenisticage, the epithet the is appliedto Apollo,and can standalone to signify god, in Homer, Alcman, and Simonides31). The meaning of hekatos is not clear; and this traditional the Greeks usually understood"far-shooting", is proposedforHecate's name as well 32). In any etymology sometimes event,if hekatos was, as it appears, a popular epithetfor this god among Ionian Greeks,coastal and insular,in the archaic period, and centerfor his cult,then the if Miletus in "Caria" was an important of Ionian boys, or even of Hellenized Carians, after Apollo naming natural. Hekatos would seem perfectly To returnto the Laginetan goddess: I submitthat her name has nothing especially "Carian" about it; on the contrary,the name "Hecate" is an aspect of the process of her Hellenization,and was probablyassigned by Rhodians who saw in the Greek Hecate traits at similarto those of the goddess theyencountered Lagina. Like her, most indigenousAnatolian goddesses underwentsooner or later an Graeca. At Ephesus the local deity had been called interpretatio of "Artemis"fromthe beginning the historical period33). In Pisidia a grave-goddesswith torches and serpents who had been called "Edb?bV" came to be known in the Hellenistic era as "Mother could occur as late as the third or Leto" 34). Such transformations even the second century. What I believe happened to the Laginetan goddess in this period is analogous to the change undergoneby the
PMG 573 31) Iliad 1.385,7.83, 19.71 and 295. AlcmanPMG 46. Simonides, of (Bonn 1896) 37f. The attempt (cp. 950 b). Cf. H. Usener, G6tternamen consort Kraus (above,note4) 13-17to see in hekatosthe name of an erstwhile of a great Anatoliangoddess "Hekate" puts the cart before the horse. The and of relationship Hecate to Apollo at Miletusis a local construction does not, theory. 32) Cf. Hesychius hekatoio: makrobolou.Similarly for both hekatos and der Die Mythologie Griechen Hecate, K. Kerenyi, (Ziirich 1951) 40. Prellwitz, connects both withhekon,"willing". Glotta17 (1929) 145ff., und den ihr verbundenen zur 33) W. Helck, Betrachtungen grossen Giottin in Gottheiten (Religion & Kulturder alten Mittelmeerwelt Parallelforschungen 1971,pp. 203 & 247, suggeststhat the Ephesian goddess, 2), Munich/Vienna not erotic overtones ordinarily Anatolian who exhibit likeother western goddesses associatedwith the sister of Apollo, was named "Artemis"only because she would have been a more appropriate inhabited wild places; Aphrodite/Astarte the choice,but it was too early for her cult to be knownthrough Phoenicians. aus des "Ein Weiherelief Pisidien",Jahreshefte 6sterr.arch. 34) 0. Fiebiger, Institutes (1926) 308-14. 2'3
as Nilsson notes in his review of Kraus (AJA 65,
1961,

78), corroborate the

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goddess of Perge in Pamphylia, a change vividly documentedon coins. Pergaean issues of the early second century B.C. show the city a shortchitonand holdinga torch, and identified goddess,wearing by in an inscription the dialect and epichoricalphabet of Pamphylia: HANA'FAC PPEIIAC (= koine ANASSAS PERGAIAS) (fig. of 6) 35). This type is subsequently replacedby a representation the same goddess with the inscription ARTEMIDOS PERGAIAS (fig. to 7) 36). Evidentlythe Pergaeans had been content call theirtorchin a relatively late period to goddess simplywanassa, yieldingonly theimpulse, almostuniversalin Anatolia,to identify withArtemis. her The choice of the name "Hecate" for the goddess of Lagina was circumstances: probablyinfluenced the following by B.C. the name of Hecate and the I) By the end of the thirdcentury epithetof Artemis,hekate,had been confused often enough to a permit single-bodied goddessto be called "Hecate". This happened on Delos and on Rhodes itselfwith the grave-goddess (Artemis-) 2) Attributesof the Laginetan goddess (e.g. torch,phial/?) must have resembled thoseof the GreekHecate. The dog who sometimes coins recalls not only appears beside the goddess on Stratoniceian the mainlandHecate but also an indigenousLydian dog-goddess name "Neninin?" withthe improbable 38). Her "Titanic" character,togetherwith the relationshipof the 3)
Head, Historia Numorum 702. 36) Ibid. (Hadrian). 37) G. Siebert, "Artemis Soteira a Delos", BCH go90(1966) 455-59; G. Gualandi, "Artemis-Hekate", Revue archeologique 1969, pp. 233-72 (esp. 265ff.). Seeds of the subsequent confusion of the two goddesses are already sown in classical Athens, where the epithet hekatos was sometimes applied to the sister of Apollo. When Euripides makes Antigone exclaim E 7rcb6vL~ Aocro5c r kxo'toc (Phoen. upon beholding the Argive army, he must mean Artemis and not log)Perses and the childof in need Artemin hekatan not involve Hecate at all, nor does Artemidos hekatis in the treasury inventory of 429/8 (IG 12 31O.192-4). The epithet hekate ("far-shooting", "hitting the mark", or however the Athenians understoodit) was as applicable to Artemis as hekatos was to her brother. Inevitably, the integrityof a goddess with a name identical with Artemis' epithet would suffer. 38) Keil & Premerstein,"Bericht fiber eine Reise in Lydien und der siidlichen Aiolis", Denkschr. der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaft 53 (Vienna 1910) 2.82, # 178.

Hecate 37).

35) AmericanNumismatic Society Collection(second cent. B.C.). Cf. B. V.

Asteria,

Suppl. 676, Aeschylus,

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Laginetangoddessto the Carian Zeus Panamaros (or Chrysaoreus) the musthave reminded Rhodiansof Hesiod's Hecate. The "Hesioof dic" character the templefriezescan be comparedwith that of on the Titanomachy the earlierPergameneAltar. 4) The Laginetan goddess may have had a more infernalcharacter than scholars have been willing to assume39). If her mystiria were in any way analogous to what we know of such rites elseis The kleidos where,some concernwiththe underworld indicated. so of a key which is mentioned often pompi, the ritual carrying linkwiththeinfernal. in inscriptions Lagina, mayhintat another at a Kraus and otherssee in the kleidophoria sign of guardianship or over terrestrial celestialgates and doors40); I suggestthatthe have opened up the nether regions. A Greek parallel key may froma statueof Pluto at Olympia: he was shown may be inferred holdinga key, for "they say that what is called Hades has been therefrom" lockedup by Pluto,and thatnobodyreturns (Pausanias 5) Like the goddess of Lagina, Hecate was sometimesinvoked as Soteira on Rhodes and Kos, and in Phrygiato the east 41). thatthe goddess Hecate may This paper began withthe suggestion be as old and as Hellenic as otherdeitieswhose originscan be traced back to the Mycenaean age. Greek traditionascribes her praises to Hesiod; if the traditionis right,the Theogony offers our oldest documentpertainingto the goddess. It may be worth noticingthat
16 39) Schwabl's review of Kraus in Anzeiger fiir die Altertumswissenschaft (1963) 23f. takes Kraus to task for the assumption that there was nothing monstrous about the Laginetan (or Hesiodic) Hecate. 4o) References in Kraus (above, note 4) 48-50. 41) Numerous instances on coins and monuments of Phrygia: cf. Kraus (above, note 4) n. 207 and 167f. Kos: A. Maiuri, Nuova Silloge Epigrafica di Rodi e Cos (Florence 1925) # 676. Rhodes: IG 12.1.914 (metrical dedication by priestess of "Soteira" to "Phosphoros Enodia"). Delos and other islands: Siebert (above, note 37) 457f. I hope the arguments advanced in this paper corroborate the opinion expressed briefly in a footnote by J. Hatzfeld, BCH 44 (1920) 86 n. I, that 'the Laginetan goddess could not have been assimilated to Hecate "avant que cette partie peu accessible de la Carie pfit,grace a la fondation de Stratonic&e (vers 265), recevoir directement des influences helleniques". I believe those "influences" to be Rhodian because the city fell under Rhodian control within a decade or two of its foundation, and because the effects of are manifest at Lagina. Cf. note 25 above. Rhodian religious interpretation

5.20.3).

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Hesiod, while emphasizingabove all the honor she receives from Zeus, brings Hecate into a close relationshipwith two other gods specifically,Poseidon and Hermes (Theogony 440-47). Like her, these deities lend valuable assistanceto men who live by harvesting the sea or by pasturingherds of cattle,goats, and sheep. Her ties withthese venerableHellenic deitiesin the Theogonymay give some clue to her originalstandingamong the Greeks. Linear B tablet (Tn 316) records One side of a much-discussed ritualofferings Pylos to a numberof personages,most of whom at are taken to be divine42). Poseidon heads the list, and two other male deities can be identified:Hermes, Zeus, and a "son of Zeus", Drimios. Since Poseidon, Zeus, and Hermes are preciselythe gods to with whom Hecate is linked in the Theogony,it is tempting seek her on the tablet under some feminineepiklisis. The goddesses of in this side of Tn 316, aside fromHera who receivestribute company with Zeus, are Pere82, Ipemedeja, and Diuja; judging from their as close groupingon the tablet,theyseem to have been worshipped a a triad; Zeus, Hera, and Drimios also appear to constitute separate on category the same document. Since the value of the syllable*82 is not yet clear,the name of the first goddess cannot be ascertained. Guesses include Peleia ("the Brisagenes and Brrssaios, titles of Dionysus) 45). Chadwick, who propose the value swa for *82, joins those who seek in Pere82 an earlyformof Persephone'sname: "We mightspeculateon identifying /Preswa/ withPers- in the firstpart of the name Persephoni,which is presumably non-Greek, thoughperhaps deformedby popular ety46). mology(cf. Pherrephatta)"
42) M. Ventris & J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek # 172; Gerard-Rousseau (above, note 2) 22f., and "Les sacrifices a Pylos", Studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici 13 (1971) 140-42. 43) L. R. Palmer in Minos 4 (1956) 132. 44) M. Lejeune, Mnmoires de philologie mycenienne (Paris 1958) 243: Peresa = *Presza>Presba. D. de Venuto in Atti e memoriedel primo congresso di micenologia (Rome I968) 2.582: Perekwa - *Presgwa>Presba. 45) G. Pugliese Carratelli in Atti e Memorie dell'Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere "La Colombaria" 21 (1956) 5. 46) J. Chadwick, "The Group sw in Mycenaean", Minos 9 (1968) 65; cf. Gerard-Rousseau (above, note 2) 173f. Like Nilsson (GGR 12 474-77), G. Zuntz, Persephone (Oxford 1971) 75-83 considers the Greek pair Demeter-Kore

Dove") 43), Presba ("the Elder") 44), and Brissa (a conjecture from

Hecate: Greekor "Anatolian"?

139

Ipemedeja seems at firstsight to be the Greek name Iphimedeia, but initialipe- ratherthanwipi- makes the identification difficult 47). If "Iphimedeia" is the later Greek form of this goddess' name, the becomeexciting.Iphimedeia (or Iphimed&) was an early possibilities variantof Iphigeneia,the name of Agamemnon's According daughter. to the Hesiodic Catalogueof Women,"Iphimed?",afterher rescueby Artemisfromthe sacrificial attendant of altar,was made an immortal the goddess and is worshippedunder her name, Artemis,with the epithetein(h)odia, "in the road". Since this epithet was properly applied to Hecate as guardianof crossroads,Stesichorusand others with assumed that Hesiod meant to identifyIphigeneia/Iphimedeia Hecate; the frequentconfusionof Artemiswith Hecate undoubtedly for helped to confirmthis identification all time48). On the other the possibilityshould not be overlookedthat the poet of the hand, Catalogue did really mean einodia to signifythe traditionalgoddess which of crossroads- thathe knew,in otherwords,an old tradition identified Iphimedeiawith Hecate. actually In spite of her name,Diuja is not likelyto have directconnections with his with Zeus, who appears on this tabletin a separatecategory out thather name who points wife Hera. Monique Gerard-Rousseau, con(with alternative spellingDiziija on An 607) has etymological with nections,throughthe theme *dei-w-/*dy-ew-/*di-w-, words in not Indoeuropean languagessignifying only"deity",butalso "radiance" to and "wealth", suggests that her functionhas something do with If Diuja is a "bright"goddess who possesses, gives, or riches49). in Hesiodic and if "wealth"be understood an immediate, guardswealth, to sense (actual and potential richesentrusted and harvestedfromthe to earth), she may correspond the Greek Demeter,whose name does of Demeter's not appear on Mycenaean tablets 50). The description
originally separate from the chthonic and probably prehellenic Persephone. Cf. R. Stiglitz, Die grossen GiittinnenArkadiens (Oesterreichisches archaologisches Institut,SonderschriftI5, 1967). 47) Gerard-Rousseau (above, note 2) 117. 48) R. Merkelbach & M. L. West, Fragmenta Hesiodea (Oxford 1967) fr. 23.17-26; Stesichorus, PMG 215; Pausanias I.43.r. I am grateful to T. B. L. \Vebsterfor directing my attention to the Hesiodic fragment. 49) G6rard-Rousseau (above, note 2) 69f. 50) Cf. G&rard-Rousseau (above, note 2) 53f. and 240-42. Many scholars (not including Webster or Gerard-Rousseau) believe Mycenaean wanasoi refers to the

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functions (in company with Persephone and Hecate) at the end of her Homeric Hymn may be relevant here (483-89): Then, when (Demeter) the bright goddess(dia thedan)had taught they all, for Olympus the othergods' assembly. to There theydwell beside departed Zeus whosejoy is thethunderbolt, solemn reverend and goddesses. Prosperous humans thosegoddesses whom (meg' olbios)is theone amongearthly cherish; do straightway theysend as a guest to his great house Plutus,who gives wealthto mortals.

In suggestingthat the triad of goddesses who receive tributeat Pylos are early forms of Persephone,Hecate, and Demeter, I am painfullyaware of the conjecturalnature of the evidence adduced. The threegoddessesare, however, associatedin the Hymn to Demeter, The triadappearson Atticred-figure vases withEleusinianthemes 51), in and has been plausiblyidentified an archaicmetopefromSelinunte (sixthcentury B.C.) on whicheach of thethreegoddesses(one wearing a polos) brandishes diminutive a torch52). Literary, archaeological,and epigraphicalevidence down to the end of the fourthcentury B.C. indicatesthatthe worshipof Hecate was limitedto the Ionian and Aeolian poleis and their colonies on in eitherside of the Aegean - to the population, otherwords,which blood ties with the fallen Mycenaean rulers. The fact that claimed Hecate enjoyed special favor among these groups may indicatethat her cult was knownin the Bronze Age. Her name remainsa puzzle, are no more obscure than those of but its meaningand etymology the other Olympians,with the sole exception of Zeus himself.In the TheogonyHecate is a Greek goddess. The fact that she is also a in her earlierstanding the Mycenaean great goddesstheremay reflect pantheon,but her greatnessin the Theogony remains a local interpretation.Equally "local" is her greatnessin Caria during a much withRoman laterera. While Hesiodic influence may have co-operated to make Hecate great at Lagina, the influencenever imperialpolicy for Hecate's "Anatolian" origin travelledthe otherway. Arguments are not in accordwiththe evidence. the assimilaand "twoqueens" Demeter Kore; butif Tn 316antedates complete
herself to tionof Persephone the GreekKore, thenthe earth-mother may have See had separatestanding. note46 above.
51) Above, note 13. 52) V. Tusa, Archeologia classica 21 (1969) 153-71.

where Hecate is made a constant companion of Persephone (440).