Hecăte, a daughter of Perses and Asteria, the same as Proserpine or Diana. She was called Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate or Proserpine in hell, whence her name of Diva triformis, tergemina, triceps. She was supposed to preside over magic and enchantments, and was generally represented like a woman with three heads, that of a horse, a dog, or a boar; and sometimes she appeared with three different bodies, and three different faces only with one neck. Dogs, lambs, and honey were generally offered to her, especially in highways and cross-roads, whence she obtained the name of Trivia. Her power was extended over heaven, the earth, sea, and hell; and to her kings and nations supposed themselves indebted for their prosperity. Ovid, bk. 7, Metamorphoses, li. 94.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Horace, bk. 3, ode 22.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 22.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 511.
Hecatēsia, a yearly festival observed by the Stratonicensians in honour of Hecate. The Athenians paid also particular worship to this goddess, who was deemed the patroness of families and of children. From this circumstance, the statues of the goddess were erected before the doors of the houses, and upon every new moon a public supper was always provided at the expense of the richest people, and set in the streets, where the poorest of the citizens were permitted to retire and feast upon it, while they reported that Hecate had devoured it. There were also expiatory offerings to supplicate the goddess to remove whatever evils might impend on the head of the public, &c.
Hecăto, a native of Rhodes, pupil to Pænætius. He wrote on the duties of man, &c. Cicero, bk. 3, De Officiis, ch. 15.
Hecatomboia, a festival celebrated in honour of Juno by the Argians and people of Ægina. It receives its name from ἑκατον, and βους, a sacrifice of 100 bulls, which were always offered to the goddess, and the flesh distributed amongst the poorest citizens. There were also public games, first instituted by Archinus, a king of Argos, in which the prize was a shield of brass with a crown of myrtle.
Hecatomphŏnia, a solemn sacrifice offered by the Messenians to Jupiter, when any of them had killed 100 enemies. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 19.
Hecatompŏlis, an epithet applied to Crete, from the 100 cities which it once contained.
Hecatompy̆los, an epithet applied to Thebes in Egypt on account of its 100 gates. Ammianus, bk. 22, ch. 16.——Also the capital of Parthia, in the reign of the Arsacidæ. Ptolemy, bk. 6, ch. 5.—Strabo, bk. 11.—Pliny, bk. 6, chs. 15 & 25.
Hecatonnēsi, small islands between Lesbos and Asia. Strabo, bk. 13.
Hector, son of king Priam and Hecuba, was the most valiant of all the Trojan chiefs that fought against the Greeks. He married Andromache the daughter of Eetion, by whom he had Astyanax. He was appointed captain of all the Trojan forces, when Troy was besieged by the Greeks; and the valour with which he behaved, showed how well qualified he was to discharge that important office. He engaged with the bravest of the Greeks, and according to Hyginus, no less than 31 of the most valiant of the enemy perished by his hand. When Achilles had driven back the Trojans towards the city, Hector, too great to fly, waited the approach of his enemy near the Scean gates, though his father and mother, with tears in their eyes, blamed his rashness, and entreated him to retire. The sight of Achilles terrified him, and he fled before him in the plain. The Greek pursued, and Hector was killed, and his body was dragged in cruel triumph by the conqueror round the tomb of Patroclus, whom Hector had killed. The body, after it had received the grossest of insults, was ransomed by old Priam, and the Trojans obtained from the Greeks a truce of some days to pay the last offices to the greatest of their leaders. The Thebans boasted in the age of the geographer Pausanias, that they had the ashes of Hector preserved in an urn, by order of an oracle; which promised them undisturbed felicity if they were in possession of that hero’s remains. The epithet of Hectoreus is applied by the poets to the Trojans, as best expressive of valour and intrepidity. Homer, Iliad, bk. 1, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bks. 12 & 13.—Dictys Cretensis.—Dares Phrygius.—Hyginus, fables 90 & 112.—Pausanias, bk. 3 & bk. 9, ch. 18.—Quintus Smyrnæus, bks. 1 & 3.——A son of Parmenio drowned in the Nile. Alexander honoured his remains with a magnificent funeral. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 8; bk. 6, ch. 9.
Hecŭba, daughter of Dymas, a Phrygian prince, or, according to others, of Cisseus, a Thracian king, was the second wife of Priam king of Troy, and proved the chastest of women, and the most tender and unfortunate of mothers. When she was pregnant of Paris, she dreamed that she had brought into the world a burning torch which had reduced her husband’s palace and all Troy to ashes. So alarming a dream was explained by the soothsayers, who declared that the son she should bring into the world would prove the ruin of his country. When Paris was born she exposed him on mount Ida to avert the calamities which threatened her family; but her attempts to destroy him were fruitless, and the prediction of the soothsayers was fulfilled. See: [Paris]. During the Trojan war she saw the greatest part of her children perish by the hands of the enemy, and like a mother she confessed her grief by her tears and lamentations, particularly at the death of Hector her eldest son. When Troy was taken, Hecuba, as one of the captives, fell to the lot of Ulysses, a man whom she hated for his perfidy and avarice, and she embarked with the conquerors for Greece. The Greeks landed in the Thracian Chersonesus, to load with fresh honours the grave of Achilles. During their stay the hero’s ghost appeared to them, and demanded, to ensure the safety of their return, the sacrifice of Polyxena, Hecuba’s daughter. They complied, and Polyxena was torn from her mother to be sacrificed. Hecuba was inconsolable, and her grief was still more increased at the sight of the body of her son Polydorus washed on the shore, who had been recommended by his father to the care and humanity of Polymnestor king of the country. See: [Polydorus]. She determined to revenge the death of her son, and with the greatest indignation went to the house of his murderer and tore his eyes, and attempted to deprive him of his life. She was hindered from executing her bloody purpose by the arrival of some Thracians, and she fled with the female companions of her captivity. She was pursued, and when she ran after the stones that were thrown at her, she found herself suddenly changed into a bitch, and when she attempted to speak, found that she could only bark. After this metamorphosis she threw herself into the sea, according to Hyginus, and that place was, from that circumstance, called Cyneum. Hecuba had a great number of children by Priam, among whom were Hector, Paris, Deiphobus, Pammon, Helenus, Polytes, Antiphon, Hipponous, Polydorus, Troilus, and among the daughters, Creusa, Ilione, Laodice, Polyxena, and Cassandra. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 761; bk. 13, li. 515.—Hyginus, fable 111.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 44.—Juvenal, satire 10, li. 271.—Strabo, bk. 13.—Dictys Cretensis, bks. 4 & 5.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.