Crossroads

(Three way crossroads)

Hekate has been associated with the crossroads since antiquity. The crossroads themselves were liminal spaces often found at the boundaries between different lands. They had a symbology that included being the place where a spirit “crossed over” and connected to Hekate as Psychopomp in that regard. Often the poor, suicides and other ‘undesirables’ were buried at the crossroads so that their spirits would not molest the people who lived in a town. As such they became associated with the restless dead, which reinforced their link to Hekate in Her role as “Anassa Eneroi”, Queen of the Dead. Since Hekate was a guardian of the threshold that linked Her to the crossroads as guardian of the boundaries.

“It was probably her role as guardian of entrances that led to Hecate’s identification by the mid fifth century with Enodia a Thessalian goddess. Enodia’s very name (“In the Road”) suggests that she watched over entrances, for it expresses both the possibility that she stood on the main road into a city, keeping an eye on all who entered, and in the road in front of private houses, protecting their       inhabitants” 17.

Ovid in his work Fasti states that Hekate was three visaged so that She could “protect the triple crossroads” 18. Virgil refers to Her in the Aeneid as “Hecate whose name is howled by night at the city crossroads” 19

References:

17 Helmsing, C. 2015. The Esoteric Codex: Deities of Night. Lulu.com, pg 19

18 Frazer, J.G. trans. 1931. Ovid: Fasti. Cambridge, USA: Harvard University Press. Available fromhttp://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidFasti1.html  (Atsma, A. 2000-2011)

19 Fairclough, H. R. trans. 1916. Virgil, Aeneid Book 6. Cambridge, USA: Harvard University Press, Available from: http://www.theoi.com/Text/VirgilAeneid6.html.

The Symbols of the Goddess Hekate
Also see: