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==Introduction==
The Greeks and Romans myths have influenced the modern world. One of the more curious ways they have influenced us is in the way that we conceive of witches, magic and the supernatural. Hecate was an ancient goddess associated with the underworld and she evolved to become the deity of magicand witchcraft. She was a very important figure in Greek mythology and ancient religion. Magic was ubiquitous in the Classical era and Hecate was, as a result, a popular Goddess, but also feared. Understanding the myths of Hecate can provide insights into the role of magic and witchcraft in the ancient world and how they influenced the development of ideas about witches the occult in later ages.
[[File: hecate One.jpg|200px|thumb|left| A statue of Hecate in her triple form]]
==The story of Hecate==
The origin of Hecate is much disputed. Her cult possibly originated in Thessaly in Greece or more likely in Caria which is now in modern Turkey. Hecate may have been a chthonic goddess and was associated with the underworld and she may have pre-dated the Mycenean period. Hesiod in his didactic poem Works and Days calls her a great goddess who was honored by Greece. In some myths, she was the daughter of two Titans. She remained neutral in the war between the Olympian Gods and the Titans and was looked on favorably by Zeus. There were several major shrines to the Goddess in the Greek World <ref>Stratton, Kimberly B., and Dayna S. Kalleres, eds. Daughters of Hecate (Oxford, Oxford University Press, USA, 2014), p. 113</ref>. In Archaic Greece, she was seen as a benign figure. She gradually came to be seen as a sinister Goddess and dark things, but this is a process that took centuries. According to the Greek Diodorus Siculus, who wrote in Hellenistic she was like her father lawless and that she would often kill or poison humans<ref> Diodorus Siculus, Library of Greek Myths (London, Pelican, 1988), p 67</ref>.
