Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to another Let's talk about myths baby. Today's
Speaker 1: mini myth focuses on a woman I briefly mentioned last
Speaker 1: week who had a little bit of say in what
Speaker 1: my day I was doing mini myth, Goddess Hecate a
Speaker 1: work thy will Hecate. Last week we learned that it
Speaker 1: was she who taught Medea all her sorcery, all the
Speaker 1: darkness that she then used on the King of Iolchis
Speaker 1: and later Creon and his daughter and even made his
Speaker 1: own two children. So who was Hecate? While aside from
Speaker 1: being the goddess mentioned by former rat Slash which Amy
Speaker 1: in addition to Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she's
Speaker 1: also the goddess of witchcraft, magic, ghosts, and necromancy. Basically,
Speaker 1: she's the goddess of Halloween. She's one of the origins
Speaker 1: of the idea of witches as far as we know them.
Speaker 1: And just to preface this, there's no real story style
Speaker 1: myths associated with Hecate, but I think she's fascinating and
Speaker 1: an important figure. So what comes now is a mini
Speaker 1: myth where I just tell you all about this badass
Speaker 1: witch woman, Hecate, whose name means worker from Afar was
Speaker 1: born to the Titans Percy's and Asteria. She was their
Speaker 1: only daughter, and from them she got her power over
Speaker 1: the heavens, the earth, and the sky. And this was
Speaker 1: not the norm for anyone to have that kind of power,
Speaker 1: even Zeus wasn't God of the sea. Hecate spent her
Speaker 1: time wandering the earth, holding two torches, one in each hand,
Speaker 1: and being followed by her animal familiars. She was more
Speaker 1: connected with the people of earth and Earth itself than
Speaker 1: many of the more well known ancient Greek deities. She was,
Speaker 1: of course, most closely connected with women. She did, after all,
Speaker 1: have a habit of teaching them to be bad asked
Speaker 1: by a magic To this day, Hecate is associated with
Speaker 1: Wicca and modern witchcraft. Like I said, Buffy, she is
Speaker 1: arguably the only ancient Greek goddess or god that is
Speaker 1: still worshiped today, which is pretty damn cool. But back
Speaker 1: to her animal familiars. The black she dog that followed her,
Speaker 1: which is of course simply a female dog, but I
Speaker 1: suppose in ancient times that somehow made it different from
Speaker 1: just a dog. It's better than referring to her as
Speaker 1: a bit, so I'll take it now this dog was
Speaker 1: actually the Trojan queen Hecuba. After the fall of Troy
Speaker 1: and the death of her husband Hector, Hecuba leaped into
Speaker 1: the sea. It was then that Hecta pulled her out
Speaker 1: and transformed her into a dog. A pole cat was
Speaker 1: another of Hecate's familiars. And no, I don't know what
Speaker 1: a pole cat is. I'm imagining it is just a cat. Anyway,
Speaker 1: this cat was either a witch named Gail who was
Speaker 1: transformed by Hecate as punishment, or more interestingly, Gallantius. Gallant
Speaker 1: Theis was the midwife to Alcmene, the mother of Heracles
Speaker 1: or Hercules as he's better known. Gallantis was tricked by
Speaker 1: Hera and Alethea, the goddess of the labor and childbirth.
Speaker 1: She was not supposed to let Heracles be born, but
Speaker 1: she saw Alethea and called out that the babies were there. Frankly,
Speaker 1: I don't understand how this was bad or why it
Speaker 1: was required punishment. It was, I mean almost certainly something
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that Zeus was heracles father
Speaker 1: and Hero was not psyched that she was about to
Speaker 1: have yet another child to deal with that was a
Speaker 1: result of her husband just being an awful guy. But
Speaker 1: either way, this was apparently punishment enough that Althea and
Speaker 1: or Harra, one of them transformed gallant Theis into the cat,
Speaker 1: and Hecate took pity on her and let her be
Speaker 1: her familiar. I suppose if you're going to be transformed
Speaker 1: into a cat, you might as well follow around a badass,
Speaker 1: which afterwards, I'm thinking a little more badass than the
Speaker 1: ever magical hocus Pocus, which is, you know, just a
Speaker 1: little tougher, a little more edgy. Hecate is sometimes represented
Speaker 1: in threes, as if she is at once one woman
Speaker 1: and also three even sometimes just three heads. I can't
Speaker 1: think of any other goddesses that's represent did in this way,
Speaker 1: and I think it's pretty cool that, on top of
Speaker 1: being an obvious representation of her sorcery and general magic skills,
Speaker 1: that she was unique in this additional way as goddess
Speaker 1: of magic. I'm going to refer to Hecate as queen,
Speaker 1: which because I think that's appropriate. She was closely connected
Speaker 1: with plants and botany in general, mostly in the ways
Speaker 1: that plants can be transformed into poisons and potions and
Speaker 1: even psychoactives. She used things like Aconite and Belladonna, didn't
Speaker 1: he and Mandrey. It is through Hecate that Madella learned
Speaker 1: her poisonous ways. Hecate is the between. She was associated
Speaker 1: with borders and city walls, and doorways and crossroads, the
Speaker 1: realms outside or beyond that of the living. Dare I
Speaker 1: say the upside down? I'm pandering now, happy stranger things.
Speaker 1: Hecate was good and bad. She was unpredictable at once.
Speaker 1: She was both the goddess who protected spaces like what
Speaker 1: I've just mentioned. She could stand guard and protect a
Speaker 1: person as they walk through those liminal spaces. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, she was also so associated with darkness
Speaker 1: that she would sometimes refuse to deny demons entry. She
Speaker 1: might even welcome them with open arms. In the ancient world,
Speaker 1: people often kept statues or representations of her in their doorways.
Speaker 1: Three masks or a woman with three faces, you know, Janice,
Speaker 1: the statues of the man with two faces, one on
Speaker 1: the front and one on the back. Hecate is similar,
Speaker 1: but three faces all around the same head, so basically
Speaker 1: you can see everywhere all the time. I think it
Speaker 1: took a particular type of woman to want hecates help,
Speaker 1: and I think we learned about that woman pretty and
Speaker 1: depthly in the last episode. Even the mythology book I'm
Speaker 1: reading to research this, one of the most famous and
Speaker 1: well respected there is, The Gods of the Greeks by Seacrenny, says,
Speaker 1: quote to describe how and with what purposes Hecate was
Speaker 1: invoked by women would take us into the field of witchcraft,
Speaker 1: and I propose to confine myself as closely as possible
Speaker 1: to mythology. And that's how it ends the section on Hecate,
Speaker 1: which I don't find particularly helpful, even if it is
Speaker 1: particularly quotable. There are even myths that say that Hecate
Speaker 1: is the mother of Scilla, one of ancient Greece's most
Speaker 1: famous monster women, of which there are many, and I'll
Speaker 1: visit that but in next week's full episode, which will
Speaker 1: be a monster mash of ancient Greek proportions. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. You're all the best. Enjoy your weekend,
Speaker 1: and I hope it's full of horror movies and stranger
Speaker 1: things as my own promises to be. I'm live and
Speaker 1: I love this ship. M