This project intends to create a better understanding of Hecate as literary figure and cult object throughout the archaic period on the Greek mainland. The common perception of Hecate as a goddess of witchcraft and necromancy applies from the classical period onwards, but is often projected onto depictions of the goddess in archaic texts such as Hesiod’s Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. These sinister characteristics are attestable in the earliest subsequent major text featuring Hecate, Euripides’ Medea, at the earliest.
In truth, Hecate’s role in archaic Greek cult practice and literature is one much more occupied with space, liminality, and mediation, and so benefits mortals throughout all regular life phases and activities, and in particular rites de passage. In short, this means that the Hecate of archaic texts is defined by the physical and metaphysical spaces she traverses. This PHD project will produce a narratological analysis of the goddess Hecate with a focus on the narratological concept of space, supported by an interdisciplinary approach to Hecate as both mythological figure and object of cult worship.
Judith Hendriksma is a doctoral research fellow at IFIKK.