Hekate, the Greek goddess of magic and the underworld, is the prototypal witch known to many from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, where she chastises the weird sisters for their meddling. Along with witchcraft and necromancy, Hekate is also associated with boundaries and crossroads, acting as protector and guide to lost travellers. In art, she is commonly depicted holding torches to show the way, and accompanied by a black dog or serpent.
In Hekate the Witch, the poet Nikita Gill reimagines the life of this enigmatic goddess in verse. Born during a war between the old Titan rulers and new Gods of Olympia, Hekate is birthed alone by her Titan mother, Asteria, who tells her she is destined for greatness. The pair live alone in a dilapidated palace but are forced to flee when Zeus and Poseidon come to enslave them. Seeking refuge in the Underworld, Asteria is denied entry but Hekate, still a Godling, is admitted and taken into the care of Styx and Hades. There, she briefly meets her father, Perses, chained to a mountain after the Titan defeat, who predicts a future for his daughter in which “the dead will bow to you as you move in their wake”.
Gill, who specialises in women-centric retellings of Greek and Hindu myths, is our propulsive and charismatic narrator. She depicts Hekate less as a sinister deity than a traumatised youngster looking for love and a sense of belonging, and whose divine powers alarm the Gods of Olympus. “The sound that swelled from their halls around my name was not laughter,” Hekate reflects. “But hushed whispers of fear.”
Available via Simon & Schuster Audio, 6hr 9min
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