Hecate

**Hecate** is the Greek goddess of magic, the Mist, crossroads, necromancy, the night and the moon. She is a Titaness of the third generation, daughter of Asteria and Perses, and serves the goddess Persephone as her attendant and minister. Her Roman counterpart is **Trivia**.

## History

### Early life

Hecate is a third-generation Titaness born to Perses and Asteria, daughter of Koios and Phoebe. She is often accompanied by a black Labrador retriever and a polecat, who used to be mortal women before she turned them into her familiars.

### First Titan War

Hecate decided to side with the Olympians during the First Titanomachy, which allowed her to retain her duties after the Titans were defeated.

### Abduction of Persephone

When Persephone was abducted by Hades, Hecate was in a nearby cave and overheard the former's screams. She immediately rushed to help, but upon arrival, Persephone was already taken to the Underworld. Hecate sensed that someone was abducted, but couldn't identify who it was or the kidnapper, as her magic was weak during the day. Unsure of what to do next, she decided to go back into her cave and wait until nightfall to gather more information through her spells. However, both Zeus and Hades were covering up the abduction with stronger magic, preventing Hecate from learning more about it.

After ten days of searching, Hecate found Demeter calling for Persephone in the area around her cave. She immediately pieced together what had happened and met with Demeter, sharing her belief that Persephone had been abducted by a powerful god, which made Demeter even more distraught. Feeling sympathetic, Hecate offered to help by using her torches to light the goddess' journey through the night. During the day, Hecate returned to her cave to rest, promising to help Demeter again after nightfall.

Eventually, Persephone was reunited with her mother. As a reward for helping Demeter during her search, Hecate was given a place in the Underworld as an attendant to Persephone, which made her more than happy as the darkness of the Underworld made it a better place for working magic than a drafty cave.

### First Giant War

During the First Giant War, Hecate was opposed by the giant Clytius. She defeated the giant by setting him alight with her torches.

## Appearance

According to Rick Riordan's website, "Hecate is usually dressed in dark robes, holding twin torches (all the better to see you and burn you with, my dear). She is accompanied by a she-dog and a polecat. In later times, Hecate was pictured as a woman with three heads, or three entirely different forms for the morning, noon, and night."

In *The Demigod Diaries*, Hecate had green eyes and black hair that barely came down to her shoulders, like her son Alabaster. Her face was like a Greek statue — pale, beautiful, and ageless. She was surrounded by green light. Hecate dressed in white robes with ornate silver designs, like runes or alchemy symbols.

In *The House of Hades*, Hecate was described as "*beautiful, but deathly pale*" with black eyes. Her blond hair was set in an Ancient Greek style high-set ponytail. Her dark, sleeveless gown seemed to ripple as if the cloth was ink spilling off and wore sandals. She carried two old-fashioned reed torches.

The different descriptions in the novels can be explained that as, a goddess, Hecate can change her appearance at will. Furthermore, Hecate is considered to be the triple-faced goddess, having three separate appearances and personalities.

## Personality

Hecate is a lover of solitude and expects people to make their own choices. According to Clytius, she sends acolytes to do her bidding, take all the risk and offers vague promises of magic.

Despite her many years of faithful service, Hecate resents the Olympians for being treated as a minor goddess, which leads her to support Kronos in the Second Titan War. Since her children have been given their place at Camp Half-Blood, she has given up her grudge against Olympus but becomes protective and worrisome of her children, many of whom were lost, captured, or embittered in the war.

Hermes describes her as insufferable, but this was siding with Kronos during the Second Titan War so it could have been nerves or resentment fueling his statement.

## Trivia (Goddess)

Hecate can change into her Roman counterpart of Trivia. As Trivia, she becomes more disciplined, militaristic, and warlike. While Greeks envisioned her as a powerful and mysterious being, for the Romans she was the "Queen of Ghosts" because of her role of guarding the borders between the human world and the realm of the dead.

Despite this, Hecate claimed that she had no Roman aspect, that she was always Hecate. However, this could be because she is not affected by the Greek/Roman split. The goddess *Trivia* is sometimes viewed as a separate deity, patron of travelers, and crossroads.

## Abilities

Hecate possesses the standard powers of a Titaness and goddess.

* **Mystiokinesis**: As the Titaness of Magic, Hecate has divine authority and absolute control over magic, witchcraft, and sorcery. Her magic is weak in the daytime and strongest at night. Her presence makes the area she is in engulfed by magic.
	+ **Empousai Creation**: By combining dark magic, animal, bronze, and ghost, Hecate can create the Empousai, bloodsucking, winged monsters.
	+ **Prophecy**: She can see multiple futures that could happen and predict prophecies.
	+ **Chronokinesis**: Using time spells, she can control and manipulate time.
	+ **Hypnokinesis**: Using sleep spells, she can manipulate sleep and dreams.
	+ **Pyrokinesis**: Using fire spells, she can control and manipulate fire.
* **Mist Control**: As the Titaness of the Mist, Hecate has divine authority and absolute control over the Mist. A swirling column of pure white Mist surrounds her when she is present. She can teleport people, summon Mistforms, and create illusions.
* **Umbrakinesis**: Hecate can control and manipulate darkness and shadows, though to a lesser extent than Hades and Nyx.
	+ **Night Empowerment**: Hecate is stronger at night or in dark places.
	+ **Shadow Travel**: Hecate can use shadows as a way of swift transportation over vast distances.
* **Necromancy**: As the Goddess of Necromancy, Hecate can control and manipulate the dead.
* **Titanic Divine Form**: As a Titaness, Hecate can incinerate any being lesser than a god/Titan only by being present.
* **Titanic Energy**: Like all Titans, Hecate can blast things hundreds of yards away from herself with a yell or a wave of the hand.
* **Masking**: She was able to mask the Seven as they journeyed through the mountains, as she held sway there, and even masked them from Gaea.

## Attributes

* Her attributes are twin torches, key, rope, dagger, and three crossroads.
* Her sacred animals are dogs, polecats, and frogs.

## Etymology

Her name means "will" but at the same time, but her name's spelling and pronunciation mean "operates from afar", "removes" or "drives of", "the far-reaching one" or "the far-darter".

## Trivia

* Nyx states in *The House of Hades* that Hecate is her daughter, however, this is likely just Nyx exaggerating, since in the same book Hecate herself claims to be a Titaness, daughter of Perses and Asteria.
* In mythology, Hecate represents the dark side of the moon (or the Harvest Moon).
* In mythology, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades gave her power in all three major realms (the sky, sea, and the Underworld).
* In some myths, Hecate was a virgin goddess who has children using *parthenogenesis,* in a way similar to Athena's.
* Hecate appears as a character in William Shakespeare's play *Macbeth*.
* "Trivia" refers to obscure knowledge that Hecate/Trivia presided over.
* *Trivia* is Latin for three roads. This term is also used to refer to Diana (Artemis) who in Roman mythology became a goddess of crossroads.
* According to Roman mythology, her Roman counterpart, Trivia, used to kidnap young maidens, whom she later changed into nymphs.
* Her Egyptian equivalent is Isis.
* Her Norse equivalents are Odin, Freya, and Gullveig.