Etymology, Spelling, and Pronunciation
Hecate is the transcription from the Latin, whereas Hekate is the transcription from the Greek. Both refer to the same goddess.
Notable proposed etymologies for the name Hecate are:
- From the Greek word for 'will'.
- From Greek Ἑκάτη , feminine equivalent of Ἑκατός Hekatos, obscure epithet of Apollo. This has been translated as "she that operates from afar", "she that removes or drives off", "the far reaching one" or "the far-darter".
- From the Egyptian goddess of childbirth, Heqet. has been suggested, but evidence for this is lacking.
Arthur Golding's 1567 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses refers to "triple Hecat" and this spelling without the final E later appears in plays of the Elizabethan-Jacobean period. Noah Webster in 1866 particularly credits the influence of Shakespeare for the then-predominant pronunciation of "Hecate" without the final E.
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