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Hecate vs The Erinyes

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Chthonic female powers recast by early-modern demonology as figures of witchcraft.

Deity · Greek · c. 700 BCE

Hecate

also called Hekate, Trivia (Roman), Hecat, Εκάτη

Hesiod has Zeus honour her above all others. By the medieval period she presides over witchcraft instead, a demotion with no wrongdoing attached to it anywhere.

Alignment: Disputed
Rank: Goddess of Crossroads
First attested: Theogony & Works and Days · c. 700 BCE
Named there as: Hekate
Texts naming it: 4
Powers attributed: 4

97attestedFolk & Demonological Greek Roman

Deity · Greek · c. 700 BCE

The Erinyes

also called Furies, Eumenides, Dirae (Roman), Erinnyes, Semnae theae, Avenging Deities, Ἐρινύες

Born from the blood of the castrated Ouranos, they pursue kin-murderers without appeal. Christian tradition later hands that office to demons; in Greece it belongs to the gods.

Alignment: Disputed
Rank: Avenging Spirits
First attested: The Iliad · c. 750 BCE
Named there as: The Erinyes
Texts naming it: 3
Powers attributed: 3

90attestedGreek Roman

Where do they actually overlap?

Texts naming both

Theogony & Works and Days

Powers credited to both

Binds Spirits

Common questions

Are Hecate and The Erinyes the same figure?

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Chthonic female powers recast by early-modern demonology as figures of witchcraft. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.

Which is older, Hecate or The Erinyes?

Both are first attested in the same period, around c. 700 BCE.

Do any texts name both Hecate and The Erinyes?

Yes — 1 text names both. A single text naming both figures is the strongest evidence available here that its author treated them as distinct, whatever later writers did with the pair.

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