Hekate-Selene-Artemis and Related Deities in the Greek Magical Papyri and Curse Tablets

she delights in the barking and yelping of dogs, whether they are ghostly
or real dogs, as also in Nonnos 103; for even
house dogs, as animals that can see ghosts, greet Hekate and
her army of the dead and ghosts at night by howling 104
and tremble before the wild goddess 105, who herself howls like a dog
(B 549: original: κυνυλύγματος / kynylugmatos; "of the howling of a dog"), and was indeed imagined like a bitch (A 279: original: κυνώ / kynō; "bitch" or "female dog")—just as the Erinyes 106 themselves—also as a black
bitch 107, and she preferred to listen when one called upon her by her eponymia A ritual title or surname given to a deity. "Bitch" (original: κύων / kyōn) 108. In accordance with the wildness of her character,
she resembled a rabid dog (A 251: original: λυσσῶσα / lyssōsa; "raging" or "rabid") 109.
Furthermore, since the wolf was also a ghostly animal, Hekate is
called "She-Wolf" in A 276 (original: λυκώ / lykō), and "She-Wolf" in B 550 (original: λύκαινα / lykaina), while Porphyry 110
calls Artemis this, or at least Artemis-Hekate, and on a
curse tablet from Crete 111 "She-Wolf" original: Λύκαινα / Lykaina appears downright as a demonic name.
But E 812/13 also contains, with the words "a wolf-shaped
ankle for you" (original: μορφόλυκον σφυρόν σοι / morpholykon sphyron soi), a reference to Hekate as a wolf. She appeared,
however, in other ghostly forms as well, such as with the head
of a horse (B 550: "horse-faced goddess" original: ἱπποπρόσωπος θεά / hippoproswpos thea), i.e., of an
animal also capable of seeing spirits 112; indeed, B 614 even calls her "Horse-Bitch" (original: ἱπποκύων / hippokyōn)!
Porphyry 113 further reports that Hekate
liked to hear it when she was called "Bull" (original: ταῦρος / tauros), and accordingly
she is called "the bull-shaped" (original: ταυρεόμορφος / taureomorphos) in B 548,
"the bull-headed" (original: ταυροκάρηνος / taurokarenos) in E 807/08, and in E 809/10 her "bull-
eye" is mentioned (original: ὄμμα σοι ταυρωπόν / omma soi taurōpon), to which the epikleseis Ritual titles used in prayer or invocation. in
E 807 and 832 "bull-faced" (original: ταυρῶπις / taurōpis) refer 114. Indeed, the imagination of the spirit-

103 Nonnos, Dionysiaca 44.196: original: σὲ τέρπει κνυζηθμῷ γοόωντι κυνοσδός ἔννυχος ἠχώ / "the nocturnal echo of the dog-tender delights you with its mournful whimpering."
104 Theocritus II 35/36: original: ταὶ κύνες ἄμιν ἀνὰ πτόλιν ὠρύοντι· ἁ θεὸς ἐν τριόδοισι / "the dogs howl for us throughout the city; the goddess is at the crossroads."
105 Ibid. [Theocritus] 12/13: original: τὰν καὶ σκύλακες τρομέοντι / "at whom even the puppies tremble."
106 BRUCHMANN, Epithets of the Gods 102.
107 Magical Papyrus IV Line 1433: original: κύων μέλαινα / kyōn melaina; "black bitch."
108 Porphyry, On Abstinence III 17, 13.
109 The Erinyes were imagined in the same way (Orphic Hymn 69.6; cf. Seneca, Andromache line 59 BUSEM); also the Gorgon was called "rage" or "madness" (original: λύσσα / lyssa) (BRUCHMANN 169).
110 As cited above [Porphyry], IV 16.
111 Rheinisches Museum 55, 86, Line 6.
112 Therefore, the dark Demeter Melaina in Phigalia was also imagined with a horse's head (Pausanias VIII 42, 3).
113 As cited above [Porphyry], III 17, 13.
114 In any case with regard to the malice and wildness of the bull's eye, even though the gentle Selene in Nonnos (XLIV 217; XI 185, cf. 74) and the large-eyed Hera (ibid. XLVII 74) are also called this; however, these goddesses were usually called "cow-eyed" (original: βοῶπις / boōpis). But if Hekate is called "bull-tender" (original: ταυροπόλος / tauropolos) in the Orphic Hymn 1.7 and is described in E 790 as "seated upon bright-eyed bulls" (original: χαροποῖς ταύροισιν ἐφεζομένη / charopois tauroisin ephezomenē), then these are indications that all these titles of Hekate formed with "bull" (original: ταῦρος / tauros) are borrowed from the bloody Artemis Tauropolos of the Taurians on the Black Sea, although Artemis [was also worshiped] on Samos, Ikaria, and Andros, and in Amphipolis in Thessaly...