Final Essay

At A Crossroads: The Presence of Hecate In King Lear

By Nicole Baker

Shakespeare drew from a variety of sources to build his literary masterpieces, not the least of them being mythos. He imbues his plays with mythological allusion and symbolism, using the tools of the genre to build a foundation for his work. By analyzing Shakespeare through the lens of mythos, one can ascertain its influence on his plays and the various invocations of mythological characters within them. King Lear is no exception to this; myth is prevalent in the play and one of the primary mythological characters that manifests its influence is the goddess/witch Hecate.

Hecate is a name that few recognize from the pantheon of greek mythology, yet that is where many claim she originated from. “She was the only child of the Titans Perses and Asteria, and through her ties to Leto, the cousin of the Olympian gods Artemis and Apollo” (Slayford-Wei). The first mention of Hecate in literature is mined from Hesoid’s Hymn to Hecate in which he depicts her as a benevolent goddess with powers founded in nature. Hecate’s later manifestations were not so morally neutral. Her initial reputation was corrupted by associations with ancient cults, and eventually, she transformed into a symbol of blood shed and violence. “Her association with witches and demons eroded and 'infernalized' her Olympian status, changing her completely into the Hecate we know from later traditions, the receiver of table scraps and canine blood” (Slayford-Wei). In Alex Aronson’s book titled Psyche and Symbol in Shakespeare, he describes the myth of Hecate as “an archetype of evil, fundamentally matriarchal in nature” (Aronson pg 229). Some sources say she is the mother of Scylla and one of the queens of the underworld. She is also called the goddess of crossroads, often symbolized by the number three. Hecate is said to have intimate knowledge of herbs, poisons and plants. Hecate appears (or is mentioned) several times in Shakespeare's plays, most notably in Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear. The latter is the play this essay will focus on. By analyzing King Lear through the eyes of Hecate, the reader can see how King Lear's curse to Cordelia in which he invokes the goddess' name skews the path of the play and sends it into its conclusion of mass bloodshed and death.

In Psyche and Symbol, Aronson reconstructs a Shakespearean archetype of Hecate, listing the characteristic attributes she depicts in the works of the playwright. “Once Hecate has been addressed in prayer, there is no return to normal living,” he writes (Aronson pg 232). This facet of the Hecate archetype is utterly true of King Lear. When Lear is attempting to divvy up his kingdom, Cordelia’s answer angers him in such a way that he curses her, invoking the goddess’ name in the process. Let it be so!/Thy truth then be thy dower!/ For, by the sacred radiance of the sun/ The mysteries of Hecate and the night/By all operations of the orbs/ From whom we do exist and cease to be/ Here I disclaim all my paternal care/ Propinquity, and property of blood/And as a stranger to my heart and me/ Hold thee from this for ever “(Act 1 Scene 1 Line 105-114).It is this curse that changes the direction of the entire story. Hecate is the goddess of crossroads, symbolized by the number three and it is at this point of the play that Lear finds himself at his own crossroads; a choice between three daughters and how to divide the kingdom among them. Aronso states that Shakespeare incorporated Hecate, “as a metaphor of evil closely associated with the tragic universe he created in these plays” (Aronso pg 230). Thus, Lear’s initial invocation of Hecate represents a break from the stable world he had known, to one of madness and bloodshed. By scorning Cordelia in this manner, he opens himself, and his kingdom, to the evil influence of the Hecate archetype, which physically manifests itself in his daughters Regan and Goneril. 

Lear’s daughters are the ultimate emanations of Hecate. Both are driven by their lust for power and cause much of the mass bloodshed in the play. In myth, Hecate is symbolized by a serpent, and often depicted as part snake in artist renderings. At one point in the work, Albany refers to Goneril as a “gilded serpent,” and Lear states In Act 2, Scene 4 that she "struck me with her tongue, / Most serpent-like, upon the very heart," further fortifying the idea of these daughters as Hecate figures. Their deaths, and Cordelia’s, are also symbolic of Goneril and Regan’s Hecate-esque status. As previously stated, Hecate is often associated with poison, and is frequently depicted holding a dagger and rope in artists’ representations (Aronso pg 255). Goneril kills Regan with poison, and subsequently commits suicide with a knife. “What means this bloody knife?...Your lady, sir, your lady! And her sister/By her is poisoned; she confesses it” (Act 5 Scene 3 Lines 223-228).  Shakespeare utilized this association in Hamlet in the scene where Lucianus pours poison in the King’s ear. “Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected/ With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected” (Act 3 Scene 2). In King Lear the poison that kills Regan is an indication of her status as a Hecate archetype, and the knife Goneril uses to commit suicide is indicative of the dagger Hecate is often associated with. Cordelia is hung on the orders of her sister, alluding to the final symbol of Hecate, the rope. Their deaths represents the infecting aspect of greed and lust for power, and its ability to destroy innocence. Aronson forties this realization when he states, “...these women-figures [Regan and Goneril] are themselves emanations of Hecate, over life-size in their greed for power, or their corruption through lust, or both”. The deaths of Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia in a manner symbolic of the Hecate archetype function as a representation of the corruption that has permeated Lear’s kingdom, and his mind. 

Lear is psychologically connected with his kingdom, and when it begins to disintegrate, so does his mental state. The tempest that swirls throughout the pages of the play is both a literal storm as well as a psychic one. Thus, the characters in Lear can be interpreted as representing different aspects of Lear’s psyche. Goneril and Regan are, in jungian terms, his Anima. The Anima is described as being a “personification of all feminine psychological tendencies in a man’s psyche”(Thury 479). The daughters’ status as Hecate figures represent Lear’s mental corruption and greed for flattery that initially catalyzed the collapse of his kingdom, “Nothing could have subdued nature to such a lowness but his unkind daughters,” Lear states (Act 3, Scene 4, line 65). In this instance, the nature Lear is referring to is both the literal world around him as well as his own psychological nature. The conflict between Anima and self is manifested in the action of the play and helps one to better understand the violent and death-ridden conclusion of Shakespeare’s work.

Aronso claims that at the heart of the Hecate myth lies a clash between patriarchal and matriarchal systems of culture, a clash that is echoed in the pages of King Lear. “The hero, be he son, husband or father, is, in terms of the archetypal symbol (Hecate) always in danger of losing his masculine independence, of being first blinded and then swallowed by the maternal unconscious,” he writes (Aronso pg 250). In Lear, this metaphorical blindness is made literal when Cornwall and Regan put out the eyes of Gloucester. His blinding symbolizes his inability to recognize his son Edmund as a corrupt traitor and his son Edgar as morally correct. The Hecate-figure Regan elucidates this for the reader when she says to Gloucester, “Thou call’st on him [Edmund] that hates thee. It was he/That made the overture of thy treasons to us” (Act 4 Scene 1 Lines 89-90). Gloucester’s physical blindness is indicative of Lear’s psychological one. He is initially “blinded” by the maternal unconscious, his Hecate-esque daughters. They falsely flatter him in order to inherit the kingdom whilst Cordelia tells him the truth and is subsequently shunned and cursed. “Whenever Hecate appears in the world of Shakespeare tragedies, she forms part of a prayer or invocation addressed to the powers of darkness to bring about the death of someone whose destruction would be the sacrifice required to ensure the victory of evil over good,” writes Aronson (Aronson pg 250). Lear’s initial curse on Cordelia comes into fruition in the final act of the play. She is hung, fulfilling the sacrifice Aronson was alluding to. Yet even with this tragedy, Lear finds redemption at the conclusion of Shakespeare’s work. He is reconciled with Cordelia, however briefly, and the violent deaths of Regan, Goneril, and Edmund, characters who caused much of the blood shed and tragedy in the play, symbolize a cleansing of his psyche. In other words, the deaths of the Hecate figures are indicative of Lear’s rejection of the maternal unconscious. Man’s consciousness has won over the unconscious. 

By interpreting King Lear through the archetype Hecate, one can identify the connection to mythos that Shakespeare drew upon and better understand the underlying complexities of the play. King Lear is not merely an exploration of a physical world, but a psychological one as well. The presence of Hecate in Lear demonstrates a corrosion of the kingdom, and concurrently, of the mind. Though the Hecate figures are finally defeated at the conclusion of the play, symbolizing the triumph of the conscious over the unconscious, it has come too late for Lear. He dies, leaving Edgar to utter the final warning to the audience. “The weight of this sad time we must obey/ Speak what we feel not what we ought to say./ The oldest hath borne most; we that are young/ Shall never see so much nor live so long” (Act 5, Scene 3, Lines 323-326).

Works Cited

Aronson, Alex. Psyche and Symbol in Shakespeare . Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1972. Print.

Shakespeare, William, and Alan Durband. King Lear. Woodbury, NY: Barron's, 1986. Print.

Slayford-Wei, Lian. "The Greek Goddess Hecate: Then and Now." Helium. Helium, 19 May 2009. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.

Thury, Eva M. and Margaret K. Devinney. Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths. New York: Oxford University Press. 2009