Hecate Statue - Greek Goddess of Three

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This Hecate Statue depicts the Greek version of the Egyptian midwife Goddess Hekat. Hecate was one of the many names given to the trinity of Heaven, Earth and the Underworld. Often, as in this statue, she was depicted as these three aspects.

Greeks tended to place more importance on her crone or underworld aspect, but she was also referred to as "Most lovely one", a title of the moon. She was associated with the moon in all three of her aspects. Some said she was Hecate Selene, the Moon in Heaven; Artemis the Huntress on Earth and Persephone the Destroyer in the Underworld. Sometimes she was part of the Queen of Heaven Trinity: Hebe the Virgin, Hera the Mother and Hecate the Crone.