Hekate's Hounds

Hekate, a 'Chthonic' Goddess, meaning "in, under, or beneath the earth" and her hounds are creatures of the Underworld.  Associated with spirits, ghosts and the crossroads, they roam the countryside bathed in starlight, shrouded from the moon.

History tells us that women were the first to domesticate dogs.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that many Gods and Goddesses of various cultures have canines as their beloved, devoted, companions.

Although invisible to humans, all mortal dogs see these night-dwellers without fail.  The keen eyes of her hounds never miss a trick, their sense of smell is without measure.

The three-headed dog Cerberus guards the gates to the Underworld, the other canines run beside her over lonely landscape and along forgotten shores.  Like Cerberus, they see in all directions, eyes luminous, rarely blinking, keen and darting or fixed as needed.

Sacrifices of hounds were made to Hekate in ancient Greece on the last day of the month at the dark of the moon occurred in Athens, Thrace, Samothrace and Colophon.

Today, cakes, honey and eggs are left at crossroads and lonely tracks of land by the cover of night.  Having given the offering freely, one always departs such places without looking back for that is the promise we make and the oath we are bound to of our own freewill.

I have often been summoned by the howl of a dog in the dead of night.  Being a devotee I venture out, shawled and bearing my offering of a fresh egg still in the shell drizzled with honey and whispered prayers.  The morning light bears witness to canine prints in the snow or softened ground and the stillness of air, earth and longing.