Re: Hag, Haegtes < Hecate?

From: Daniel J. Milton
Message: 36885
Date: 2005-03-30

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao Simoes Lopes Filho"
<josimo70@...> wrote:
>
> Would there be any link between English hag (OE haegtesse, haegtes)
> and German hex (OHG hagazissa) and Greek goddess Hecate?
> Perhaps her Roman worship could be reached Germania?
> haegtes, hagazissa < *hagatiss(j)o: < *hacata < *Hecate: ?
>
> Joao SL
******
I'd say unlikely, since Hekate appears to have become associated
with witchcraft fairly late in her career.
I can't find anything in my more recent references, so back to
Keightley (1857):
"The name Hekate is the feminine of Hekatos, one of the epithets
of Apollo, and itself an epithet of his sister Artemis. ... supposing
Artemis to have been an original Moon Goddess, her epithet of
"Far-shooter" ('ekate') may have separated from her, and have become
another Moon Goddess, for such is the real character of Hekate."
Keightley is here accepting an ancient interpretation of the
name. See 'hekatebolos' in Liddell and Scott.
Dan Milton