Question: I've recently come across a number of websites that claim that Hermes and Hecate were in some sort of relationship. Most of them have a distant Wiccan bent to them, and I was wondering if you could tell me whether the Greeks of antiquity had any mythic or cult beliefs that would corroborate this relationship, since it strikes me as very interesting.
For the most part, no, there's no context for an ancient Greek belief in Hermes and Hecate having any kind of relationship. However, there are a lot of reasons why it's a popular idea!
Hermes and Hecate are figures with a great deal in common: they're both gods of crossroads, psychopomps who guide souls in and out of the Underworld, connected intimately to the death gods of the pantheon and renowned for their prowess as magicians. Both of them appear performing the same functions in myths, most obviously when they are both involved in the myth of the kidnapping of Persephone, wherein Hecate accompanies and guides her in the Underworld and Hermes does so when retrieving her from it. It's not surprising that they're occasionally invoked together, usually in requests for both to watch over the fortune of livestock or calls to guide the souls of the recently departed - they do a lot of the same jobs, and two gods helping you out is usually better than one, right?
However, there are no myths in which they have a romantic relationship. In fact, there are no myths in which they actually talk to one another at all; they may both sometimes act as messengers, but apparently never to each other. Despite their similar roles, they also have no shared cult centers that we're aware of, nor worship practices that tie them together. Hecate and Hermes are close in concept, but they're not actually close as in ever having lunch together.
The idea that Hermes and Hecate are lovers is probably drawn from a single source: the Eleusinian Mysteries, which, just like their cousins the Orphic Mysteries, are prone to bizarre changes to mainstream Greek religion to suit their patron gods. According to Pausanias, Hermes had a fling with Daeira, an Oceanid and minor goddess of the Underworld, from which was born the eponymous Eleusinian hero Eleusis (for those who've been following the vlog, we talked about his son and Demeter's attempt to grant him immortality a while ago!). Daeira is otherwise unattested in Greek mythology, and her parentage as a daughter of Oceanus suggests she isn't particularly connected to Hecate, but some scholars nevertheless believe that it might be an alternative name of the witch-goddess. An even more obscure possibility is mentioned in Propertius' early Roman Elegies, in which he claims that another underworld goddess, Brimo, slept with Mercury; again, some scholars believe that Brimo might be an alternative name for Hecate, although such is never explicitly stated.
Of course, these possibilities are speculation, and both Daeira and Brimo are also theorized to be code names for Persephone, Demeter, the Furies, or actually simply lesser underworld goddesses in their own right, much like Hermes' other consorts who are usually nymphs or minor goddesses. If you're totally in love with the idea of there being some kind of psychopomp hanky-panky happening in the background, you could definitely pursue the mystery cult connection, but you're also more than justified in ignoring the very slim evidence. For the most part, the popular notion in Wicca of the two gods being consorts is based on their similar mythological functions rather than any actual historical connection.
Thanks for this, even if the truth is a bit disappointing.
ReplyDeleteI was surprisingly hopeful that my favourite Dodekatheon Goddess might actually have something going on with one of my favourite Dodekatheon Gods. Especially since, after watching the new Percy Jackson trailer, I can't help but imagine Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic as Hermes and Hecate :D
They have even more in common once you bring in Trismegistus, but then you are essentially talking about Thoth and not Hermes in my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if that is necessarily a common Wiccan belief, considering I am one and never heard of it, but there are some beliefs Wiccans believe in that have more to do with symbolism than mythology. Like the Gospel of Aradia, which speaks about how Diana and Lucifer had a child named Aradia who they sent to teach witchcraft to the poor and the enslaved so that they could free themselves from the torture the upper-class Christians put them through. However, even though this might be a real folk belief among Italian witches, Diana is a virgin goddess and the Roman Lucifer is a minor god who she never had anything to do with in myth. However, Diana, Trivia and Luna are often combined into one figure and Diana is referred to as a moon goddess of witchcraft in the story and Lucifer is referred to as a sun god. So the original myth may have had Aradia's father be Sol and his mother either Luna or Trivia, but with Diana's associations with the witch-cult and Lucifer's association with the devil, Charles Leland may have used there names instead as they had a more symbolic connection with magick. Even though the story is probably either fake or altered, many Wiccans read it and relate to it for its symbolism and message rather than its accuracy. Although Aradia is an interesting character whose showed up in our Scion games from time to time :)
ReplyDeleteWicca can, for some people, be vastly different than for others, since it synthesizes so many elements from different beliefs and places. I'm not surprised that some Wiccans adhere to some ideas and others have never heard of them - part for the course. :) We've been talking about a Wiccan connection because almost all the sites talking about a romantic affiliation between Hermes and Hecate are maintained or written for Wicca.
DeleteArtemis/Diana, Selene/Luna and Hecate/Trivia are usually combined together that way because they are all lunar goddesses, although like Hermes and Hecate they really have almost nothing to do with one another in any actual Greco-Roman mythology (closest thing I can think of is a fringe myth about Artemis not being too happy about Hecate being entitled to a chunk of what she thought of as her moon [which is why some ancient Artemis shrines had a small inner shrine to Hecate on the premises]).
Wouldn't Lucifer being called a "sun god" probably be in refernence to his name ("light-bringer")? Technically, the name refers to a Hebrew term for the morning star, not the sun, but he has a lot of light imagery in Judeo-Christian myths.
Yeah, Lucifer/Phosphoros is the god of the morning star, and his name in both Latin and Greek means "light-bringer", and he is related to the whole "light god" family. His mother is Eos/Aurora, goddess of the dawn, his father is Astraeus, god of dusk, his half-brother is Vesper/Hesperus god of the evening star, his uncle is Sol/Helios, his aunt is Luna/Selene and his grandparents are Hyperion and Theia. So he does have a connection to light and is the nephew of the sun god, so I can see many reasons he'd be thought of as the sun god.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, you'll see a lot of connections between gods with no real connection in myth. Ceridwen and Cernunnos are often thought of as consorts even though they never were in myth. And of course there's the goddess chant, were the names of seven seemingly unconnected goddesses are recited. Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna. But in Wicca, all gods are one and all goddesses are one, so all 7 are just viewed as different names the goddess has gone by. Of course, even though I believe that, its not fun for Scion's purposes, so we keep them as separate deities. That would also help explain Lucifer's connection to Helios/Sol I guess, because they are viewed as one in the same.
Yeah, for Wicca's purposes, everybody is just an aspect of the God or Goddess, so there's often not much mythological background.
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