Hecate



Hecate or Hekate (in ancient Greek Ἑκάτη) is a goddess in Greek religion and mythology, usually depicted holding one or two torches, a snake, keys, and accompanied by dogs, and variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, night, light, magic, protection from witchcraft or witchcraft as such, the Moon, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, graves, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery in addition to be considered a protector of the household and much more as described later on. She would also be later on known by the Romans as Trivia, represented three-formed, including to have extra heads of animals (cow, dog, boar, serpent, and horse) or triple-bodied, and considered a protector of crossroads and travellers, appearing in the as Mother of Angels, the Anima mundi and as Savior.

Origin
Due to the paucity of myths surrounding her and the so many conflicting associations she has with other deities she's often considered by scholars to be a foreign deity absorbed in the Greek pantheon, with leading theories suggesting she came from the Egyptian pantheon, where she was known as being a goddess of fertility and childbirth there or that she was a much different Anatolian, in Turkey, either goddess of animals, fertility, and nature (i.e., similar to Greek  or a Sun goddess with ties to the Underworld that got as time went by the associations she's most known for, even if a Greek origin cannot be ruled out or even that she was around before such times.

Worship
Hecate was strongly associated with dogs, which were considered her sacred animals and often offered to her in sacrifice, showing also an association with childbirth and her being a mother goddess,  as well as with the  Among plants, the  was considered sacred to her  as were plants known to be poisonous, of medical usage, or psychoactive, and  offerings were typical.

Functions
As noted above, Hecate was associated with borders, city walls, doorways, crossroads and, by extension, with realms outside or beyond the world of the living being a with strong ties to the underworld,    witchcraft often depicted then having much less nice looks (a "rotting goddess" with a "pallid decaying body", who has to "wear a mask when [she] visit[s] the gods in heaven"), and the Moon even if this seems to be of later origins, conflating her with lunar goddesses as Artemis or , to the point the three were pretty much interchangeable in Roman times

Some of the myths surrounding Hecate consider the goddess to be nicer and more compassionate than other deities of the same mythos, at least by their standards, including to have polymorphed transformed the Trojan queen into her dog after she had drowned, having adopted  after he was transformed into a polecat, that in those times were thought to mate through the ear and give birth through the mouth, for having messed with the gods feeling sorry for him, and according to the  having helped  to look for her daughter  after the latter had been kidnapped by  lending the former her torch(es) in some retellings of the myth, accompanying Demeter on the search for her daughter, and befriending Persephone in the Underworld giving her a sightseeing tour of it becoming her assistant and staying with her, with Hecate because of that being also featured in the  together with Demeter and Persephone. Likewise, the Orphic Hymn to Hecate described her as wearing saffron-colored robes ("Krokopeplos") which is certainly quite different to her typical depiction as a dark goddess in the literal sense.

Today
Hecate is still held today in high regard in Neopaganism, occupying a prominent place in Wicca and other similar traditions as a goddess of witchcraft even if other Neopagans prefer to celebrate her more compassionate side celebrating a the day of the new Moon, with her triple nature being very prominent and being often considered the "crone" aspect of the  even if in ancient times her three aspects had the same age and the "maiden, mother, and crone" is a modern invention. She also appears in a number of popular culture works, where her association with magic and witchcraft is typically present, often mixing in of course the "Maiden, Mother, and Crone" triad, some of course putting her as evil too while others are much closer to how she's portrayed in the myths