The Hecate Wars

Who is the Goddess Hecate? This class will investigate the way she was understood in the Greek and Roman world from the Archaic to the Roman eras. During a period spanning roughly a full millennium, the nature of her identity went through several transformations and became the site of a battle between Platonic and Pre-Platonic understandings of paganism as well as a battle between paganism in general and the rising influence of Christianity in the Roman world. Drawing on archeological evidence, the work of Hesiod and the classical era Greek poets, Platonic writings including the Chaldean Oracles, and the Greek Magical Papyri – this class will ask what the different conceptions of this goddess mean. How does Archaic paganism differ from Platonic paganism? How do these changes influence the views and practice of magic, as either goetia or theurgy respectively, under the auspices of the Goddess Hecate and how do…