Life Source Goddess Hekate/Kate As Life Transformer and Succubus

White Venus Hekate of Frasassi from Italy

Hekate/Kate, Frasassi Italy, 30,000 to 10,000 BCE


It is made from a stalactite showing this deity's cave connection. It is 87 mm high. Its white color and hand positions away from its breasts identify it as a source goddess.
About 90% of all Venus figurines were carved from white limestone, bone, or ivory. Some percentage of these were colored red with red ocher to indicate their life power. Yet bones were thought to be the storage place of life powers from Mesolithic time into the Iron Age.
Photo: Don Hitchcock at Don's Maps, 2008 online at: https://donsmaps.com/venusindex.html)

Hekate/Kate Introduction

(updated April 13, 2024)  The goddess Kate (Hekate) is the feminine life source goddess of the Ancient Pagan Paradigm. She corresponds to dark places such as caves and the under-dome region region below the earth plane and even the night sky (but not the stars in the night sky).  Her human figurines always show her with arms folded under her breasts in the shape of the under-dome. She actually goes back to the hunter gatherer period of the paleolithic.

Ancient Druid culture appears to have believed in reincarnation. Thus life is a cycle of existence between the living above the earth plane in the mortal realm and living belong the earth plane in the dark realm of the dead. Hekate represented the powers of all these dead spirits waiting for rebirth. Thus she was one source of new life while her masculine complement, the god Alu, was the other source who created new spirits instead of recycling them.  

In Akkadian, the word "Kate" can mean either "depleted powers" as a term for the dead spirits or "depleter power" as in a succubus. Her succubus role is emphased by her other common name "Hekate" which means "Hu's depleter power" where Hu is the sun god and thus the main life power of the mortal realm. As a succubus she takes his spiritual fertility-fluids which are manifested as light, heat, and rain and collects them under the earth. This is why she is often represented as a chalice.  

In her succubus role, Hekate is associated with subterranean waters and deep pools, anything which was thought to collect water and be a pathway to the dark realm under the earth. 

Kate was first presented to moderns by Greek writer Hesiod (500 BCE) as Hekate in his book Theology.  Hekate was not a part of the traditional Greek Pantheon again indicating she was not an Indo-European goddess. He says this about Hekate starting in line 404:

Again, Phoebe came to the desired embrace of Coeus. Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and brought forth dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to the deathless gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all Olympus. Also she bore Asteria of happy name, whom Perses (Destroyer) once led to his great house to be called his dear wifeAnd she conceived and bore Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honored above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honor also in starry heaven, [415] and is honored exceedingly by the deathless gods. 
For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favor according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great honor comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favorably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her. 
... and to those whose business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so she will. She is good in the byre (cow shed) with Hermes to increase the stock.

References


Hesiod Online at: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D404
Pottery Shard with graffito from Tell es-Safi which was the Philistine city of Gath
Pottery Shard with graffito from Tell es-Safi which was the Philistine city of Gath. Image from Maeir and all, (2008). Letter assignments by Olmsted.
Cross section of floor area where Gath Graffito shard was found
Cross section of floor area where Gath Graffito shard was found. It was found in the region labeled 82119. Drawing from Maeir and all (2008)

Philistine Gath (Tell es-Safi) Red Ritual Bowl Held Food Offerings for Hekate - 1000 BCE 

(May 1, 2023) This previously untranslated Alphabetic Akkadian text was found at Tell es-Safi which was the Philistine city of Gath. This shard is from a bowl with a smooth red slip. It reads (right to left):

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 9)

(read right to left. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels) 
  1. A Bu KaTe | Ku Bu T...

In English

  1. This is for nourishing Kate (Hekate) | On account of nourishing t[ ]

This text was first reported in 2006 and published in 2008. It is on a type of pottery which belonged to to the time between the late Iron Age I to early Iron IIA. This dates it to about 1000 BCE. Gath was the reported home of Goliath in the Bible (1 Samuel 17). 

This pottery shard was found in an industrial/commercial area as a cast-away on the floor of a heavily used room. Based upon the number of bones on the floor this room seems to have been a food preparation area. The bowl has a thin red slip which allowed the letters to be scratched with little effort.

References

Olmsted, D.D. (August 2020-2) Three Religiously Themed Philistine Texts in Alphabetic Akkadian (1160-960 BCE). Humanities Commons Permanent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/yz0s-rh08. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/43968796/Three_Religiously_Themed_Philistine_Texts_in_Alphabetic_Akkadian_1160_960_BCE
Maeir, M. A., Wimmer, S.J. Zukerman, A. Demsky, A. (2008) A Late Iron Age I/ Early Iron Age II Old Canaanite Inscription from Tell eş-Şafi/Gath Israel: Paleography, Dating, and Historical Cultural Significance. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. No. 351 pp. 39-71. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/1403842/A_Late_Iron_Age_I_Early_Iron_Age_II_Old_Canaanite_Inscription_from_Tell_e_-_afi_Gath_Israel_Palaeography_Dating_and_Historical-Cultural_Significance
The scene shows a seated life priest holding a bowl of something and shaking pollen from a pine cone. He is presiding over a roast offering mentioned in the text which is also claiming that these offerings have been ineffective due to the earth being cursed by the astrological powers.
Photo from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaziantep_Archaeology_museum_Kuttamuwa_stele_4270.jpg

So Called Kuttamuwa Runestone from Zincirli (Sam'al) 850 BCE Mentions Kate/Hekate

(December 16, 2023) This stone is now at the Turkish Gaziantep Archaeology museum. It was found in Sam'al, in southeastern Turkey, in 2008, by the Neubauer Expedition of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. It is blaming the astrological for the 850 BCE Elijah drought just like the Kilamuwa Runestone.

This 800-pound stele was found during a proper archaeological excavation and it was  was found in a house or temple  in a room surrounded by remnants of food offerings and fragments of stone bowls similar to those depicted on it. No name of Kuttamuwa exists in the text. That is from a fake translation put out by Bible propagandists. (Although the goddess Kate/Hekate is mentioned in the first line).

It reads:

  1. Su is stripping  -  Kate/Hekate's waters.  Life-priests can judge the culling.  The killing is catching-the-eye of the Pruner (Ayu)  -  [words]  can be gated. 
  2. Hu is in pain.  -  The Originator (Alu) is being killed  -  by the weaving of sky-shell with Su's astrological-powers   -  Alu's fertility-fluids are being redirected.  Hu is being isolated by the astrology-magic of Su.
  3. The astrological-empowerment  -  of rain  -  activity is being thrown-away.  -  Lacking are motivations (motion-powers) for life-manifestations  -  Inquire about the openings for the water-bringer (Hu/Ba'al).  -  Fate-cursed are the life-constrainers (eagle-vultures)  -  causing the lack in the coastal-region (sky-shell, life network).
  4. The upper-regions are being culled.  Not being pruned are the life-constrainers (eagle-vultures).  -  The lack of activity (motion powers) is enabling  -  the fate-cursing of the life-constrainers.  -  The lack of motivation is manifesting  -  the dryness of the revelations (of life forms). 
  5. Are not life-emanations lacking?  -  The lack is sowing division.  -  Fate-cursed are the life-constrainers.  -  The lack is revealing the nourishing of the blockages   -  Emanations  are not  -  being made good from the roast-offerings  -  for rain.
  6. Fate-curses from astrology-magic  -  are supported.  -  The support  -  is not making good the motion-powers.
  7. The support of nourishments is not being revealed.  That activity  is being fate-cursed  by  Eyu (new unknown deity) -  who lacks nothing.
  8. Make-distant the astrological-powers.  -  Are not revelations of fertility-fluids  -  being made-stormy by the fate-curses for the threads of Hu's  -  support
  9. Respect is lacking  -  reducing the fertility-fluids.  -  The same chaos  -  is being activated by that.
  10. Are not the storm-powers being chaotic from lacking redirection. Support is not from the fate-curses.
  11. Falseness  -  is being made-good by nourishing blockages.
  12. Fate-curses are being activated by frustration
  13. Lack is from making scarce the life-threads

References

J. David Schloen and Amir S. Fink (Nov. 2009) New Excavations at Zincirli Höyük in Turkey (Ancient Samʾal) and the Discovery of an Inscribed Mortuary Stele.. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. No. 356, pp. 1-13 (13 pages). Published By: The University of Chicago Press. 

Ruins of the temple at Ligina under the control of the city of Stratonicea has been incorrectly assigned to Hekate. The whole misidentification originated with one paper by William Berg who misidentified a goddess on a few local coins as Hekate, misidentified a female figurine on on the the temple's friezes as Hekate, and claimed some Anatolian Greek names contained the word Hekate. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The Greek Temple At Stratonicea in Anatolia Is NOT A Temple To Hekate

(April 12, 2024) A temple at Laginia (Λαγινία) on the outskirts of the ancient city of Stratonicea was part of a religious complex in the ancient province of Caria near modern day Turgut, Turkiye. It contained a temple of which has been incorrectly identified with Hekate based on flimsy and inaccurately identified evidence.

This temple was located near a major city known in Hellenistic times as Stratonicea which was founded on the site of an old Carian town called Idrias and Chrysaoris. It was one of the first cities founded by the Lycians (1300 - 550 BCE). According to Athens' tribute "assessment" of 425 BCE Idrias was supposed to be responsible for the payment of of six talents. Like many other Greek cities in Anatolia, Idrias is never recorded actually paying any tribute to Athens.

During the Hellistic Seleucid era (312–63 BCE) its grounds were rebuilt into one of the foremost religious centers of its time. Lagina and Stratonicea were connected to each other by a 'sacred path' 11 kilometers long, along which pilgrims could process.


References

Berg, William (1974) Hecate: Greek or "Anatolian"? Numen vol. 21 fasc. 2. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/5682221/Hecate_Greek_or_Anatolian_
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagina

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/East-frieze-from-the-Temple-of-Hekate-at-Lagina-depicting-the-birth-of-Zeus-Istanbul_fig3_362771103


Image of Ayu Misidentified as Hekate on Coin From Stratonicea Area

(April 12, 2024) This is a silver Drachm of Stratonikeia with the head of Ayu on one side. It is dated to 188-125 BCE (American Numismatic Society, New York, 1967.144.4). Ayu is the crescent moon goddess, not Hekate yet coins like these were used to claim this temple was devoted to Hekate.


In Amanda Herring (2022) In Hekate of Lagina: a goddess performing her civic duty.  Anatolian Studies , Volume 72 , 2022 , pp. 141 - 165 . Online at: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Silver-Drachm-of-Stratonikeia-with-bust-of-Hekate-on-obverse-and-Nike-on-reverse-188-125_fig5_362771103

This Frieze is the Core Evidence For Claiming This Temple is Devoted to Hekate

(April 12, 2024) This is the west frieze of a set of friezes found in the ruins of the temple at Stratonicea. These friezes center around the subject of an alliance between Rome and Stratonicea. In a wild guess, the woman in the center was incorrectly identified as Hekate. Actually the woman does not have enough identifying features to make an identification.

It is now at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums (photo by W. Schiele; negative no. D-DAI-IST-78-263, DAI Istanbul).

References


In Amanda Herring (2022) In Hekate of Lagina: a goddess performing her civic duty.  Anatolian Studies , Volume 72 , 2022 , pp. 141 - 165 . Online at: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Silver-Drachm-of-Stratonikeia-with-bust-of-Hekate-on-obverse-and-Nike-on-reverse-188-125_fig5_362771103
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Hekate-gigantomachy-west-frieze-Temple-of-Hekate-at-Lagina-Istanbul-Archaeological_fig2_362771103
Hekate or Asher Found at Skorba Site (4400-4100 BCE)

Goddess Hekate/Kate, Skorba Temple, Malta (4400-4100 BCE)

The Skorba site was poorly preserved but it did produce a few finds such as this ocher covered goddess. The red ocher means it was a life power. Arms below breasts identifies the goddess as Kate. It is displayed at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Malta. https://www.malta.com/en/attraction/culture/museum/national-museum-of-archaeology
Photo at Wikimedia Commons by Hamelin de Guettelet. Online at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D%C3%A9esse-m%C3%A8re_de_Skorba.jpg
Hekate Figurines from Cycladic Islands

Hekate/Kate  Figurines from Cycladic Islands (3200- 2300 BCE)

These Hekate figurines are from the Cycladic Islands between Greece and Anatolia. Picture from Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marble_figurines_from_Cyclades,_3200%E2%80%932300_BC,_AshmoleanM,_142406.jpg

Hekate/Kate figurines from  Cycladic Islands as displayed a the Archaeological Museum of Athens. Photo by I, Sailko via Wikemedia Commons at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cycladic_idol_02.JPG

Hecate from Sardinia

Hekate from Sardinia (3200 - 2700 BCE)

This life source goddess figurine was found on the island of Sardinia at the Pyramid at Monte d'Accoddi. Now at: Museum of National Archaeology, Siena, Italy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Neolitico,_cultura_di_ozieri,_idolo_femminile_di_tipo_cicladico_conbtraforo,_3200-2700_ac_ca.,_da_monte_d%27accoddi,_tomba_II_(SS).JPG

Hekate/Kate As Chalice on Indus Valley Unicorn Bull Seals 2300 BCE

The left side of this seal shows the underdome representing Hekate. which is receiving the waters from a square network. The under-dome sits upon a pedestal such that together they form a chalice. In Sumerian this corresponds to the goddess Erishkigal who after lordification in Sumeria was also called Ningal meaning “lady of the chalice” from NIN.GAL.
This is unicorn bull seal (H97-3433/7617-01) dating to about 2200 BCE which is at the transition between Harappa Periods 3B and 3C. 
https://www.harappa.com/indus4/5.html

 Hekate/Kate As Chalice on Indus Valley Unicorn Bull Seals 2300 BCE

The left side of this seal shows the underdome representing Hekate. which is receiving the waters from a square network. Hecate collects fertility fluids from the life network and is the home of the glowing stars/souls represented by Selu (Selene). 
This is a rare unicorn seal from Harappa has both the upper and lower sky-shell which is shown as a chalice. This seal was found in the central area of Mound E and dates to Period 3B or early 3C, around 2450-2200 BC. 
(image from https://www.harappa.com/)

Hekate found in Egypt (4000 BCE)

This figurine was originally  misidentified as Hathor

Wadjet - Egyptian Goddess Who Seems To Be Equivalent To Hekate

Crowns of Egypt

(May 6, 2023) Wadjet was the Egyptian goddess who seems to be equivalent to Hekate. She represented lower Egypt with its food rich Nile delta. Life powers always corresponded to the color red. Consequently she is represented by the squarish red crown.  The stick angled on top represents a snake with its forked curled tongue.
Her Upper Egyptian complement was the goddess Nekhbet who came to be associated with the motion powers represented by the white celestial color. Consequently she wore a white crown.
Below the goddesses Wadjet and Nkebet surround the pharaoh at the temple of Edfu. (Wikimedia Commons at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edfu_Tempel_42-2.jpg)

Double Crown on Horus Falcon

27th Dynasty - c500 BCE at Museum Ägyptischer Kunst. in Munich, Germany.
http://travelphotobase.com/v/DYM/DYMME192.HTM

Double Crown on God Horus

Horus here is indicated by having both bull horns and a hawk head. This relief is on the front wall of the Edfu temple in Egypt which was dedicated to the connective deities of Horus (storm form of Hu) and Hathor (Ayu). It was built during the Ptolemaic era between 237 and 57 BC.
Life source (snake) goddess figurines as they now appear in the Heraklion Museum in Crete.
Life (snake) goddess figurines as they now appear in the Heraklion Museum in Crete with the one on the right being the popular version. Yet the one on the right is fake and the one on the left is one of a kind and is likely an Egyptianized version of Hekate. Both were found in the Knossos temple-palace trash pit.
The right one was originally missing its whole  left arm and whatever the right hand was holding was broken off. Consequently, the snakes as well as the cat on top were added by the “restorer.” (Olmsted personal photo)
The left version is the only one which survived almost whole. She is represented as being similar to the Egyptian goddess Wadget with the cobra on top of a hat. The Egyptians and Minoans had extensive trade connections at this time. The bare breasts and no wings indicate a non-connective life power. Snakes by themselves symbolized the power of life and death.
Wadjet was the name for the feminine life-growth source power in Lower Egypt (Nile delta region). The upper and lower river regions of Egypt had different religious traditions until around the iron age (1150 BCE). Each region had their own set of deities which were later merged often with new deity names, the name which are popular today. Knowledge about these early deities is only found on the funeral texts written in hieroglyphics on various pyramids (called the Pyramid Texts).
Wadjet (Egyptian Wzt) means “lady of the plant” or “lady of the green” in Egyptian. Her temple was at the city of Buto in the Nile Delta. Significantly, Buto was divided into two parts named Pe and Dep. Wadjet was associated with Pe in the Pyramid texts. In the Middle and New Egyptian Kingdoms, Wadjet was often shown with the eagle-vulture goddess Nekhbet on the headdresses of pharaohs to form the Uraeus.  

Hekate as a Snake Goddess is Not Representative of Minoan Culture

(July 12, 2022) The two (and only two) "Minoan" snake goddess were found in one of the Knossos palace's trash pits known as the east Knossos Temple repository. It contained various damaged ritual items used during this period.  (Sinclair 2013):

  1. many fragments of faience figurines 
  2. vessels with molded designs
  3. beads
  4. molded plaques of ‘votive robes’ 
  5. suckling goats
  6. cattle
  7. flowers
  8. leaves
  9. shells
  10. flying fish
  11. fruit 
  12. a figure of eight shields 

In addition, the repository contained stone libation bowls, a large quantity of colored sea shells, clay administrative sealings, a clay tablet, ivory inlays, bone, burnt maize and stag horns. All of which were placed under a jumble of soil, gold foil and some forty ceramic amphorae and jugs which were used to provide a date for the collection of between 1650 and 1600 BCE.

References

Sinclair, Andrea (2013) Enduring Fictions of Late Victoria Fantasies, Sir Arthur Evans and the Faience. ‘Goddesses’ from Minoan Crete. Ancient Planet, Vol. 5 Online at: https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:24487
Seal bought in Jerusalem allegedly from Hebron area. Now at Israel Museum (69.66.551) in Jerusalem. Seal made from Ivory or bone, 15 x 13 x 6 mm.

Israelite Sealing: Blaming Goddess Hekate and Her Veil for the Drought (732 BCE Drought)

(April 1, 2023)  Image (double lines) is that of the sky-shell.  The pointed letter "A" indicates this seal was made around 732 BCE.

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 60.69)

(Read right to left. Capital letters on seal. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verb is italic bold)
  1. Lu  ALu  ISsu  Ku (Levant Text 60.69.1) 
  2. Bu  Zu  APu (Levant 60.69.2)

(Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)

In English. 

  1. Lack of Alu involves the woman (Hekate)
  2. Nourishments are emanating from the veil

Previous Hebrew Translation Attempt

Some Hebrew language scholars claim the text reads as follows: 

Reference

Avigad, Nahman; Sass, Benjamin (1997) Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals. Published by THE ISRAEL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, THE ISRAEL EXPLORA TION SOCIETY, THE INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY, asnd THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/4786835/1997_Avigad_N_revised_and_completed_by_Sass_B_Corpus_of_West_Semitic_stamp_seals_Jerusalem 
Bluish seal was found in the Giv’ati parking lot excavation in Jerusalem.
This seal was found in the Giv’ati parking lot excavation in Jerusalem. 

Israelite Seal: Lack of Hostility Will Cause Hekate To Allow Life Powers To Once Again Be Manifested (605 BCE Drought)

(Feb 26, 2023)  Kate (Hekate) is the famine life source goddess and not involved in the life network although she collects its fertility-fluids.

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 27)

(Read left to right because mirror image of its sealing. Capital letters on seal. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verb is italic bold)
  1. Lu  TuŠu  GaBu  Nu (Levant Text 27.1)
  2. KaTe  Nu  Ya  Esu   (Levant Text 27.2)

(Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)

In English. 

  1.  Lack of hostility will reveal the cistern (life source waters)
  2.  Kate (Hekate) can not reveal the filter-fluids.

Previous Hebrew Translation Attempt

The discovery report claims the letters are (letter differences in red):

  1. LTAR  BN  
  2. MTHYHS  

Which makes the name:

  1. "Ikkar Ben 
  2. Matanyahu" 

This is a failed translation due to the following:

  1. Incorrect letter assignments
  2. The last letter "S" is left out of the English translation
  3. Names are not a translation because they can be any cluster of letters 

References


Borschel-Dan, Amanda (2019) Tiny First Temple find could be first proof of aide to biblical King Josiah.
Times of Israel , March 31. Online at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/two-tiny-first-temple-inscriptions-vastly-enlarge-picture-of-ancient-jerusalem/
Seal previously in  Altman collection in Paris. Its present location and find location was not reported. Seal made from hard orange-yellow stone, 17 x 14 x 9 mm.

Israelite Sealing: Goddess Hekate Is Not Involved With Drought (732 or 605 BCE Drought)

(May 1, 2023) A different seal rises to the defense of Hekate

Translation in Akkadian (Levant Text 60.134)

(Read right to left. Capital letters on seal. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels. Verb is italic bold)
  1. Lu  ESu  Du  Ya  ESu (Levant Text 60.134.1) 
  2. KaTe  Ku  Ya  ESu (Levant Text 60.134.2) 

(Dual use letters are E/H, I/Y, U/W, and '/A in which vowel appears at beginning of words except for Yahu which is keeping its traditional Hebrew transliteration)

In English 

  1. Lack  filtrate is from not manifesting the filtrate
  2. Kate is not getting involved with the filter-fluid.

Previous Hebrew Translation Attempt

Some Hebrew language scholars claim the text reads as follows: 

  1. Belonging to Hoduyahu
  2. (son of) Mattanyahu

References

Avigad, Nahman; Sass, Benjamin (1997) Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals. Published by THE ISRAEL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, THE ISRAEL EXPLORATION SOCIETY, THE INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY, and THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/4786835/1997_Avigad_N_revised_and_completed_by_Sass_B_Corpus_of_West_Semitic_stamp_seals_Jerusalem 

Piacenza Liver Right Outer Section 6 (500 BCE)

Translation in Akkadian (Celt Text 1.5.6)

(read right to left. Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)
  1. KaTe Pu
  2. EGu

In English

  1. Kate (Hekate) is opening
  2. neglect