Re: Hag, Haegtes < Hecate?

From: Daniel J. Milton
Message: 36886
Date: 2005-03-30

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel J. Milton" <dmilt1896@...>
wrote:
>
> --- 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
*******
Sorry, I missed that your suggestion is a Germanic derivation
from "Hecate" rather than a common source.
Buck's "Synonyms" says: " ...etym. dub., perh. a cpd. of word
seen in ON 'hagi' "pastureland", OE 'haga' "enclosure", Du. 'haag'
"hedge" etc. Cf. .. ON 'tunrithe, OHG 'zunrita', lit. "hedge-rider",
used of witches and ghosts), second part Norw. dial. 'tysja' "elf"."
Dub., but seems more plausible than German worship of Hecate.
Was she even much worshipped by the Romans anyway, or regarded a
Greek figure?
Dan