HERE is the link to the google doc with this information, if you would like to save it as a PDF.
Hello and welcome to my list of resources and recommendations! These works are all concerning the goddess Hekate, whether in part or in total. I will be separating my resources by category: Primary sources, academic/historical books, academic articles/essays, practical books, practical articles/essays, and UPG texts. The contents of these sections will be in alphabetical order, and will include the specific text’s details, if a pdf is available, a brief description and some comments of mine.
If there is a book you are curious about or don’t see on this list, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @unklarity and if I have read it, I’ll add it! I won’t be recommending any resources I haven’t read personally. Thanks for reading, and I hope this list is useful.
(Note: Texts with a * are available in PDF form with a quick internet search; let me know if you have trouble finding them!)
Primary Sources:
The Argonautica (Apollonius Rhodius)(3rd Century BCE)* The Argonautica is an epic poem telling the story of Jason and the Argonauts and their search for the Golden Fleece. Jason is aided by Medea, a sorceress and acolyte of Hekate, an expert in poisons and magical arts. This poem is one of the epics that is worth the read for background information, especially to see the differences in Medea’s characterization between this epic and Euripedes’ tragedy Medea. Considering that Hekate doesn’t feature in many myths, it’s one of the few primary sources that actually include her, so it’s a great place to start!
The Chaldean Oracles (2nd Century CE)* The Chaldean Oracles only exist in fragments, taken entirely from commentaries made by Neoplatonists and others. The Oracles themselves have been lost. There are 200+ fragments in existence. The text of these fragments (and translation/commentary) can be read in the book The Chaldean Oracles Text, Translation, and Commentary by Ruth Majercik, described below in the next section. The Chaldean Oracles are a collection of verses from the 2nd century that describe a particular worldview: Hekate is described as the ‘World Soul,’ and exists as part of a triad, the counterpart of an absent or transcendent ‘First God,’ identified with Zeus, and the Second rational Intellect (Demiurgos). Salvation is reachable through purification and theurgy, which differs from magic and emphasizes a passive attitude towards the gods. (I will link to a better explanation at some point, as there is a diagram somewhere that does a much better job at breaking it down than I do.)
The Greek Magical Papyri (PGM)* The Greek Magical Papyri, or PGM, is a primary source that is referenced in many other texts. It’s basically a list of spells, invocations, and curses that were supposedly used in Ancient Greece and Egypt. The texts reference multiple faiths, multiple pantheons, and multiple gods, both syncretized and just plain old smushed together. When you first try to read it, it might just feel like a clusterfuck – it certainly did for me – but combined with books about ancient magic, spells, curses and other magic it’s a good resource to have. There are instructions for pretty much any weird wish you could think of, as well as spells to fight illness, handle neighborly disputes, and petition spirits and gods. When reading about Hekate at first, it took me ages to realize what the “PGM” actually stood for and that felt almost purposeful, like it was some secret unknowable text – but it’s just a collection of old rituals that managed not to get destroyed thanks to a stroke of luck, and a good few of them mention or petition Hekate. Many authors reference it, and it’s great to have, even if only for context’s sake. Below in the next section, I talk about a particular translation of the PGM, but searching on the internet can yield you the same information.
Medea (Euripides) (~431 BCE) In progress! I am reading this now to give my thoughts on it as a resource about Hekate, but here is a summary:
The play takes place after the events of the Argonautica, where Medea helps Jason get the Golden Fleece, betraying her family in the process. They flee from Colchis and settle in Corinth, where Jason and Medea have two sons. The play begins with Medea full of grief and rage after Jason has left her for the King’s daughter, and details her revenge against Jason for abandoning her after all she did for him. Medea is a well known acolyte (and sometimes relative) of Hekate and so this play has become one of the ones to read along with the Argonautica.
NOTE: I will say watching Medea on YouTube (movie or play) is a wonderful way to consume this story even if most adaptations aren’t “exact”. I will post some of the ones I have watched (and enjoyed) here and add if I find more:
Hedgerow Theater Company, 2019: https://youtu.be/GHh9Haf1_gQ
Kennedy Center/Eisenhower Film, 1983: https://youtu.be/fNiriEzx5ss
The Orphic Hymns (author(s) unknown) (between 3rd-2nd Century BCE & 1st Century CE)*
This one’s gonna take me a while, buds, but I will get there! There are a ton of PDF’s of the Orphic Hymns available as well as books with annotations and commentaries.
The first Orphic Hymn is to Hekate, which of course many people connect to her importance in cosmology or at the very least, her role as a goddess of thresholds and transitions.
The Orphic Hymns are styled in the manner of Orpheus, the legendary bard and poet who himself was a character in Greek mythology (of Orpheus and Eurydice fame, as well as accompanying Jason on his search for the Golden Fleece). He is also the namesake and prophet of the Orphic Mysteries and Orphism as a belief system, a great deal of which has been lost.
Here is a really cool reading of the Orphic Hymn to Hekate in Ancient Greek: https://youtu.be/Qi-f-_tcHoE
Theogony (Hesiod) (8-7th Century BCE)* Hesiod’s Theogony is one of his two surviving works, coming shortly after Homer’s epics. Hesiod seems to have invented the cosmogony of Hekate from thin air, and some have posited that his village or family were followers of the Goddess and therefore his works expanded upon a deity that wasn’t mentioned in previous works like Homer’s. He describes her as a titan, the child of Asteria and Perseus, and a Goddess that was revered by Zeus himself after she sided with him in the war against the Titans. One important thing to remember is that this is a poem, similar to the earlier Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, and is a piece of literature that doesn’t necessarily depict everyday life during the time period in which it was written, but I do think that this text is a vital primary source and should not be missed.
Historical/Academic Books:
The Chaldean Oracles Text, Translation, and Commentary (Ruth Majercik) (1989)* The Chaldean Oracles are something that is constantly brought up once you dive a little deeper into the history of Hekate, and they certainly threw me for a loop at first, as at first look they seem to be a simple interposition of Greek Gods and concepts onto a Christian worldview. For this reason, I definitely recommend a brief intro to Neoplatonism before attempting to read both these excerpts and Majercik’s commentary. My main problem with the Chaldean Oracles is generally how they are received and interpreted; as a former Christian it can contain concepts that are difficult to wrestle with (or in contrast, can mesh well with the worldview of someone raised with a Christian outlook). It’s generally a complicated topic that digs more into the realm of philosophy, and it did indeed influence many Christian philosophers, so the resemblance makes a lot of sense. I myself don’t subscribe to the Chaldean ‘view’ of Hekate, but I think as someone with an interest in her historical depiction, it’s important to know about and be able to engage with.
The Goddess Hekate (Stephen Ronan) (1989/1992)* This book was not a favorite read of mine, but it is so often used as a reference in other texts that I caved and managed to locate it. I did appreciate that Ronan’s voice does come through clearly in the book, and he does engage with multiple other resources and texts. He discusses both Greek Hekate and Chaldean Hekate, and although his original published book was written before Johnston’s, the later edition does engage with her commentaries and offers a slightly different view of Chaldean Hekate.
The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Hans Dieter Betz) (1986)* This translation is probably the most often-used, and as someone who doesn’t speak Greek, I thought it was pretty worth my while. Whether or not the PGM and its contents are of use to you probably depends on your practice (for me it’s pretty much a reference text only), but I do think it’s an interesting text with a great commentary. The footnotes are super helpful at putting things into context, and the fragments are arranged in such a way to make them both easily followed and simple to search. There are a lot of missing pieces of texts and/or spells, but this is the nature of the original text. Fragments, y’all. They’re wild.
Hekate in Ancient Greek Religion (Robert Von Rudloff) (1999) I thought this book was an excellent resource for beginners and experts alike. A very good primer on the history of Hekate in context. Discusses her origins in Asia Minor, symbolism and the way her sphere of influence changed over the centuries. Sadly, it is out of print and used copies of the book are wildly expensive (and I have yet to find a PDF), but I was lucky enough to get a hold of the book after a year of searching. I can see clearly how much of an influence this book has had on other writers, as much of the information in more ‘modern’ texts seems to quote, paraphrase, and echo Von Rudloff’s work. The lack of availability of this book is honestly a shame, as I feel like many authors re-hashing his points would be avoided if people could simply pick up this book and read it themselves.
Note: Recently I found that you can borrow an e-book version if you have an account on Internet Archive! Here is the link:
https://archive.org/details/hekateinancientg0000vonr/mode/1up
Hekate Soteira (Sara Iles Johnston) (1990) This book is tough to get through, as Johnston is an academic through and through, but it is an excellent deep dive into Hekate’s role in the Chaldean Oracles – a topic that tends to create more questions than it answers. Johnston uses extensive footnotes and references, but a good deal of excerpts in the book are in the original Greek/Latin so that may be a barrier. Especially for a commentary on a historical text that only exists in fragments, I think it’s a worthy read. As with the original text and commentary by Ruth Majercik, I do recommend a brief intro to Neoplatonism before attempting to read the Chaldean Oracles and their accompanying texts.
Hekate: Studien zu Wesen und Bild der Göttin in Kleinasien (Theodor Kraus) (1960)* (German) This book is obviously a difficult one to recommend as it is written in German (and of course in academic German from the 1960’s to top it off). My German skills are not up to par to translate it (maybe one day), but this is a valuable resource to have and is available as a PDF through Universitäts-Bibliothek Heidelberg. Kraus’ book is referenced in nearly every academic text on Hekate, and is a classic in terms of the German interest in Ancient Societies and Religions, but I like to keep in mind that this book is over 60 years old now and should be read as such. If I ever do find a complete translation (or write one), I will definitely update and share.
Academic Articles/Essays:
“Hekate: Her Role and Character in Greek Literature from Before the Fifth Century B.C.” (Carol M. Mooney) (Thesis– 1971)* This is a graduate thesis and is therefore pretty basic, but the author does lay out Hekate’s appearances and roles in early history and does it fairly well. A nice, short intro paper.
“The Liminal and Universal: Changing Representations of Hekate” (Adrienne Ou) (2016)* This essay discusses Hekate’s role as a liminal goddess, her changing representations and aspects, and her depictions as a singular and triple goddess. It touches on most of the goddess’ aspects (Universal, Liminal, Cthonic) as well as Chaldean Hekate. While this essay is short and introductory, the author lays out information concisely and sets up a really great timeline of how Hekate evolved and changed over time, from her still mysterious origins to her underworld connections.
“Practical” Books (Written by Practitioners, etc):
Circle For Hekate: Volume One (Sorita D’Este) (2017) this book is CONSTANTLY recommended as a great intro book for those wanting to worship or work with Hekate, and while I did enjoy it on a practical level, I did have some problems with the book that left me very conflicted. First of all, the “historical” information in this book is confusing and sometimes just wrong. Second of all, for a book that is lauded as “well-researched,” many of the author’s sweeping statements and claims have no sources, other than a vague bibliography at the end of the book. The text is filled with “it is well known that…” and other such phrases but it’s never explained where some of the information D’Este is stating actually comes from. I will say that these discrepancies really inspired me to do my own research, and so I view the book as pretty useful. Despite some historical inaccuracies, the tale the author weaves about Hekate is compelling, and this is clearly written by a devotee of Hekate. I don’t think it excuses the inaccuracies, but if taken with a grain of salt I think the book is a useful tool for a practitioner. It’s also filled with great illustrations and photos.
*One more thing I will say about this book that bothered me (at risk of sounding like an absolute negative Nancy) is that after reading Robert Von Rudloff’s book on Hekate, I felt that D’Este basically paraphrased a good deal of his work. It felt at some points like I was reading the same book (with VR’s being more academic but laid out in an eerily similar way) and that was a huge turn off. Personally, it felt to me like saying “ok, this book is out of print so I don’t have to bother citing my sources.” Von Rudloff’s book is listed in the “Bibliography,” but is in zero of D’Este’s footnotes and seems to be absent in the text itself, and that really rubbed me the wrong way. There is more I can and will say about this book at a later date, both positive and negative, but regardless, I do hope the similarities with RVR’s book are unintentional.
Hekate: Liminal Rites (Sorita D’Este & David Rankine) This book is very similar to Circle for Hekate, but was written by both Sorita D’Este and David Rankine. It touches on a good deal of the same topics but does have a few differences, including more of a focus on ritual and symbolism than history. Because of this I actually enjoyed it more.
UPG (Unverified Personal Gnosis)(Written by Practitioners)
(Note: I put these books under the category of UPG as they deal largely with the author’s personal interpretation of Hekate or their personal magical practices that may/may not fall outside of historical ones, even if the book itself does contain some historical information. This includes books that contain spells, rituals, or other specific spiritual practices. I don’t typically enjoy reading these types of books, but if I have read them I will make comments below. Also, I’m happy to read a book and give my opinions on it, just let me know if there is anything you’d like me to add to this list)
Hekate: Death, Transition, and Spiritual Mastery (Jade Sol Luna) (2009) This book is mostly personal experience written as fact, accompanied by “historical” information copied from Wikipedia and poorly edited. Information is presented like nonfiction but nothing is cited correctly, and the author is absolutely full of himself, and upon looking him up, is a “celebrity astrologer” who “predicted the pandemic.” Other than that, his expertise seems to be giving seminars and clumsily combining different religions and cultures together to create some bizarre Aghori/Hellenic/Luciferian fusion that I absolutely could not stand. The text reads as a guy who read too much Crowley and went to India to be edgy, but was never able to leave a predominantly Christian cultural viewpoint behind. I felt like I was reading an advertisement at times, and the terrible editing just made it worse. Sorry for the rough review, but I was truly blown away that this was ever published.
Temple of Hekate: Exploring the Goddess Hekate Through Ritual, Meditation, and Divination (Tara Sanchez) (2011) I listened to this as an audiobook actually, and to me, it was more of an exploration of the author’s personal spiritual journey than an informational book. Sanchez discusses her beliefs and connections with Hekate as well as her methods, so it wasn’t really what I was looking for, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be helpful for someone else or resonate with them, so I have added it to this list.