I learned this weekend that a poem I wrote titled “The Year is a Wheel” received an honorable mention for the annual Northwind Writing Award, sponsored by publisher Raw Earth Ink. I am honored that my poem received this distinction and will be published in their forthcoming Northwind Treasury, a print version of all winning work and honorable mentions.
September
brings harvests and metamorphosis Sustenance
and the ticking of death The
leaves change and begin their slow, colorful march towards
decay and a winter’s rest
The
leaves know their time is nigh They sing
their mournful dirge night
and day By
shapeshifting from yellow to orange and to red until the
hour of decay
As the
nights grow long, winter is creeping The
breath of the Cailleach caresses our skin The
leaves are at rest in their boneyards of memory Buried in
snow with their kith and kin
The
longest night settles upon us like a cloak made of feathers We kindle
the hearth fire Singing
songs of ice and longing For the
first fruits of the earth’s desire
Winter
marches on, an icy drumbeat in fallow land Beating in
rhythm with my heart The days wax
longer As the
winterscape turns to colorful art
Persephone
is rising from her slumber Honey
dripping from her pores Bud,
blossom, and leaf The hag
of winter then closes her doors
The earth
welcomes the Green Man, the mystical Horned God His blood
turns to wine as it sings and thrums Amid
wildflowers and honey, we lovers embrace Our
breaths and bodies dance to the fiery beat of his drums
The days
grow ever longer, until we reach light’s peak A climax
that leaves one breathless and aching for more The Oak
King dances with the Holly King Until one
kneels, yielding on the moss-covered floor
The Holly
King triumphs in his seasonal battle The drums
of Autumn resume their withering beat A slow, melodious
march towards death An
unbroken cycle evermore repeats
Remains of a statue of Hekate excavated from the site of the Temple of Demeter Malophoros in Selinunte, Sicily dated to approx 4th century BCE
“Angelos” is a title / epithet meaning “messenger”, or “angel”. The concepts of divine angels are mostly known due to being referenced throughout numerous Abrahamic bible passages and psalms, and within those biblical texts angels were sent from God to either deliver messages, or to act as an intermediary with assisting one or more persons.
One of Hekate’s known epithets is “Angelos”, an ancient title shared with Artemis. In Siracusa/Syracuse, a major ancient Greek colony on the southeast coast of Sicily, stood a temple dedicated to Artemis and Apollo that was center of cult worship for Artemis Angelos. In Greek mythology, Angelos was the daughter of Zeus and Hera who eventually became a chthonic goddess. Writer Sophron explains:
“Angelos was raised by nymphs to whose care her father had entrusted her. One day she stole her mother Hera’s anointments and gave them away to Europe. To escape Hera’s wrath, she had to hide first in the house of a woman in labor, and next among people who were carrying a dead man. Hera eventually ceased from prosecuting her, and Zeus ordered the Cabeiroi to cleanse Angelos. They performed the purification rite in the waters of the Acherusia Lake in the Underworld. Consequently, she received the world of the dead as her realm of influence, and was assigned an epithet katachthonia (“she of the underworld”)
Hekate as “Angelos”
Hekate’s own role as “Angelos” can be found in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which details the abduction of Persephone by Hades and Persephone’s return to Earth. First, we learn about Hekate bearing a message to Demeter after Persephone was abducted, which results in Hekate and Demeter visiting Helios to negotiate a search for Persephone. Later in the hymn, we learn of Hekate being assigned the role of guiding Persephone on her trips between the realms of the Earth and Underworld. Hekate is known as a liminal goddess, traversing the boundaries between realms and the title “Angelos” as messenger / mediator fits within Hekate’s role as “Propylaia” (guardian of thresholds) and “Propolos” (companion and guide).
The Flower of Fire
In the Chaldean Oracles, Hekate is described as the “Cosmic World Soul” that acts as an intermediary or messenger / transmitter between the “paternal intellect” (ideas), and the power in Hekate’s “cosmic womb” that in turn enlivened those ideas and transmitted them, thus ensouling the material / physical world. This concept is discussed in great detail in the book (her published dissertation) “Hekate Soteira” by scholar Sarah Iles Johnston and I highly recommend reading it (if you haven’t already).
Fragment 34 of the Chaldaean Oracles states:
“From here springs forth the genesis of varied matter;
From here the sweeping lightning obscures its flower of fire
As it leaps into the hollows of the Cosmoi; for from here all things
Begin to stretch forth towards that place beneath the wondrous rays.”
The Sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros
Selinunte in Sicily was a major Greek colony and is the location of the great Sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros. The title “Malophoros” means “fruit bearer”, and in this temple the Eleusinian Rites were re-enacted. Various votive remains have been excavated from this site depicting Hekate, Demeter, and Persephone, and the temple area has been turned into a protected archaeological park that also contains temples to other gods, including Hera and Athena. Many of the sanctuary remains are housed in a museum in Palermo, Sicily.
One excavated archaeological artifact is the base of a statue with a votive inscription to Hekate engraved on it:
A statue base with a votive inscription dedicated to Hekate, on display at Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum, Palermo, Sicily. Dated approx 450 BCE
The inscription on the statue base pictured above reads:
“Alexias son of Xenon made [this] dedication to the Angelos (Messenger) and to Hekate”
This statue base is dated to about 450 BCE and is on display at Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in Palermo, Sicily. This statue base is believed to have been a part of the Propylon of Hekate at the Sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros. Propylons are “gateways” to temples, and are linked to Hekate’s role as “Propylaia” – “Guardian of Thresholds / Entryways”.
Angelike Orchēsis
The Angelike Orchēsis were celebratory dances performed by the ancient Greeks as part of important rituals, and Angelike Orchēsis translates to “messenger’s dance”. Many dancing rituals took place during the Eleusinian rites and they all had a different purpose. The Angelike Orchēsis, according to Greek writer Athenaeus of Naucratis (who lived sometime during the 2nd-3rd century CE), were Ionic dances that told the story of Hekate delivering a message to Demeter regarding the abduction of her daughter, Persephone.
Votive relief found at Eleusis depicting a dance scene, dated to about 4th c. BCE / National Archaeological Museum of Athens
Hesiod’s “Theogony”
The references to Hekate in Hesiod’s “Theogony” (written around 700 BCE) are believed to be the oldest literary source for Her. In addition to describing Hekate’s origins and honors given to Her by Zeus, Hesiod describes how Hekate mediates prayer and decides if the prayers should be answered favorably:
“For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great honour comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favourably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her.”
Hesiod then goes on to describe how Hekate also mediates and bestows Her will over participants in games, horsemen, and fishermen:
“Good is she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: and he who by might and strength gets the victory wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings glory to his parents. And she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: 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.”
