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From, A Handbook of Mythology, New York 1886
{ } = Page Numbers in the print edition, [ ] = Footnote Numbers
Page 82
HECATE.
Hecate would appear to have been originally a moon-goddess worshipped by the Thracians. She became confounded, and eventually identified with Selene and Persephone, and is one of those divinities of whom the ancients had various conflicting accounts.
Hecate was the daughter of Perses and "gold-wreathed" Astraea (the starry night[32]), and her sway extended over earth, heaven, and hell, for which reason she is represented in works of art as a triple divinity, having three female bodies, all young and beautiful, and united together.
[32] Astraea was the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. Perses was son of the Titans Crios and Eurybia.
In later times, when this divinity becomes identified with Persephone, she is supposed to inhabit the lower world as a malignant deity, and henceforward it is the gloomy, awe-inspiring side of her character which alone {86} develops itself. She now presides over all practices connected with witchcraft and enchantments, haunts sepulchres, and the point where two roads cross, and lonely spots where murders have been committed. She was supposed to be connected with the appearance of ghosts and spectres, to possess unlimited influence over the powers of the lower world, and to be able to lay to rest unearthly apparitions by her magic spells and incantations.
Cf.
A Day in Old Athens *
A Short History
of Greek Philosophy
Toynbee, Ancient Greek History and the West * Livingstone, On the Ancient Greek Literature
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Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/mythology.asp?pg=82
