Hecate, an ancient Greek goddess still honored today

Hecate is a very recognizable goddess, the only one to be depicted with three heads or three bodies, as her realm includes the heavens, the earth, and the sea. Since she could easily move from one to the other, she was known to be the guardian of crossroads. That is where we often find her striking statues, but also at cemeteries, as she was associated with communication with the dead. 

A very well-preserved example of Hecate is this statue made in Italy after an original created by the sculptor Alcamenes between 430 and 420 BC for the Acropolis in Athens, where she marked the transition from the sacred hill to the rest of the city. 

Hecate’s roots go back 8,000 years, when she was seen as ‘the guardian of the threshold’, standing at city gates, for instance. In the figurative sense, she became an inner guide to those coping with a personal crisis. 

Hecate had her own temple, and the largest is to be found in Lagina, near the modern city of Muğla in southwest Turkey. It stood in the center of the sacred precinct and dates to the 2^nd century BC.  Her sanctuary invites even today’s visitor to look beyond the archaeological site to find a place of profound energy. 

The frieze that ran around the temple walls can now be seen at the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, where the scenes are astutely presented high above the ground to mimic their original placement. We recognize mythological scenes, including the life of Zeus and the Carian gods, as well as scenes of Gigantomachy and Amazonomachy.

[Picture from Turkish Archaeological News]

In Hellenistic times, the Seleucids expanded the sanctuary to become one of the most important in Caria. Lagina continued flourishing under Roman rule. Emperor Augustus helped rebuild the sacred shrine after it was damaged by a Parthian attack in 40 BC. Thereafter, the Romans popularized the Temple of Hecate by creating a yearly festival that attracted people from all over the Empire. 

Lagina kept its importance until it was destroyed by the catastrophic earthquake of 365 AD that hit the entire Eastern Mediterranean. The rise of Christianity led to building a large Basilica on the ruins between the central altar and the Temple of Hecate. It is known to have served until the 6^th century AD. 

Lagina was connected to nearby Stratonikeia by a Sacred Road, 8.5 kilometers long and about 3.5 meters wide. This situation clearly reminds me of the Sacred Road that linked Miletus to Didyma (see: Miletus, Alexander’s first siege in Asia). A similar stone-paved road was lined with Nymphaea and wells, and dotted with small settlements offering comfort to the pilgrims. Yearly processions in honor of Hecate were organized between Stratonikeia and Lagina, beside the grand religious festivities that were held every four years, like those between Miletus and Didyma. 

Unique and significant was the key-carrying ceremony that symbolized the ability to move between life and death, the conscious and the unconscious, the old and the new. A young girl, the key-bearer, would carry a sacred key between Lagina and Stratonikeia, accompanied by a choir of young girls singing hymns. They would enter the sanctuary and start religious ceremonies. At this point, the gates of the temple would be opened by the key-bearer as the participants would take their places on the steps along the western edge of the sanctuary to attend the ceremony. 

Amazingly, even today, Lagina continues to be a place of pilgrimage where many visitors still bring their offerings of pomegranates, apples, wheat, garlic, and, occasionally, even fish. Archaeologists do not support this kind of gift as they fear damaging the fragile ruins. 

All in all, today’s visitors have their own way to interpret the worship of Hecate. It must be said that the journey feels very symbolic because her temple of Lagina stands close to a power plant, near a three-way junction. The location still underscores the role of the goddess of the crossroads. 

Although initially, Hecate was known for positive qualities as a protector, a source of wisdom, and a cosmic force, modern pilgrims and devotees particularly revere Hecate as a goddess of pathways and a bringer of light. 

What a beautiful support and safe haven in our troubled world!

Iran’s cultural heritage endangered

There should be a law to protect our cultural heritage from war. Well, yes, there is, but who is enforcing it?
 
After the barbaric destruction carried out for several years since 2014 by IS, the Islamic State, in countries like Syria, Iraq, and Libya, we are now seeing similar damage inflicted by our ‘civilized’ world on Iran. By the end of March 2026, 120 museums and heritage sites in Iran had been damaged, whether they were UNESCO World Heritage Sites or not.
 

I held my breath, fearing for sites like Susa, Hamadan, Persepolis, and Pasargadae, although there are no nearby towns or industrial plants to justify an attack. So far, I had not heard anything about bombing ancient sites in Iran until I came across this article, “Severed Spaces: Documenting Cultural Heritage at Risk in Iran,” published by The Ancient Near East Today (Neumann, K. 2026).

 

The article tells of destruction all over Iran, but I concentrated on the capital, Tehran, and on the world-renowned city of Isfahan. Yes, I am drifting away from Alexander, but after all, Iran remains part of his ambitious heritage!

 

The first picture after a panoramic view of Maidan Square in Isfahan is that of the shattered Hall of the Marble Throne in Golestan Palace, Tehran, whose unique mirror walls and ceilings I recognized immediately. 

Before

After [picture from ANEToday]

Mirrors with perfect reflection were invented by the Venetian artisans of Murano, who created clear glass backed with an amalgam of tin and mercury. They jealously kept their manufacturing secret until the 17^th century. This is exactly when the Golestan Palace was built, using tiny hand-cut mirror mosaics to create geometric and floral patterns. A most expensive work of art, now lying in shatters all over the floor.

Inside Ali Qapu Palace

The gem of Isfahan is Maidan Square (Naqsh-e Jahan Square), measuring 160 x 560 meters, that counts several unique buildings on the UNESCO World Heritage List that have been damaged by military strikes. 

They include the Royal Mosque, famous for its wonderful acoustics, and the Ali Qapu Palace, which occupies a commanding position in the middle of the long side of the square opposite the Lotfollah Mosque. All noteworthy buildings at the very heart of Isfahan.

Inside the Pavilion of 40 Columns

One block to the west lies the Chehel Sotou or Pavilion of 40 Columns, which has suffered damage from shockwaves as well.

 
Beyond the damage and destruction of buildings, there is the danger of looting once the walls of palaces, mosques, museums, and other public buildings have crumbled down. It is so easy to smuggle small(er) antiquities out of the city and out of the country over the roads of the black market. 

With the economic decline in a country at war, illegal trade is a simple way to survive. That is understandable, but it does not justify the means.

How the Arabs saved our knowledge from antiquity

In my post, The story around Alexander’s copy of the Iliad, I briefly mentioned how the Abbasid Caliphs in Persia largely contributed to preserving the knowledge of the ancient Greeks. 

A few years ago, my attention was drawn to the glory days of Baghdad around 1000 AD, a city built inside a circle surrounding the central Abbasid Palace, a symbol of power and unity. More amazing than its shape was the fact that its Caliphs invested in hiring scholars to translate ancient Greek documents into Arabic. 

[Baghdad under the early Caliphs. Attribution]

Baghdad was built along the Tigris River in 762 AD, as the residence of Caliph Al-Mansur, the founder of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasid Dynasty was named after the uncle of Prophet Muhammad. A Caliph was the title of the civil and religious leader of a Muslim state, seen as representing Allah on earth. 

Al-Mansur was the first Caliph to honor astrologers. The most famous astrologer was Mash’allah from Basra, who served the Caliphs from 762 to 809 AD. Al-Mansur was convinced that it was written in the stars that the Abbasids were the legitimate successors of the Persian Sassanid Empire. They had been in power from 224 until 651 AD, when they were conquered by the Muslims. Since astrology did not exist in Arabic, Al-Mansur needed to revert to Persian and Greek astrological texts. As a result, he needed these ancient texts to be translated into Arabic.

By 786 AD, Caliph Harun al-Rashid established the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, which originally may have been a Library, where scholars from across the Muslim world would organize their translations. The idea caught on, and other centers flourished a few centuries later in Cordoba and Granada in Spain, as well as in Cairo, Egypt. 

In the western Roman world, we saw our ancient knowledge and know-how disappear into the dark Middle Ages soon after the Fall of Rome in 476 AD. In the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, however, the science of Antiquity survived despite the rise of Christianity. Constantine the Great had made it the official religion, renaming its capital Byzantium after himself, Constantinople.

When Islam entered the stage in the 7^th century AD, the Abbasid Caliphate, established in Damascus, was a serious competitor to Constantinople. In about 750 AD, the Caliphate was transferred from Damascus to Baghdad, meaning that the center of power moved east from a Greek-speaking region to a non-Greek-speaking area. Followed a series of wars between the Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire that lasted until the 11^th century. 

All that time, the knowledge from Antiquity flowed into Baghdad, where a vast translation project was set up, and top translators were highly rewarded in gold. They concentrated on matters like astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and even music theory. Aristotle was still held in high esteem, his works as well as his comments. Later translations included Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest, a mathematical and astronomical treatise on the motions of the stars and planets; Euclid's book on geometry; the medical works of Hippocrates and Galen; and Plato’s Republic and Laws. Many other ancient books were translated from Greek, Pahlavi, Neo-Persian, and Syriac into Arabic. 

Simultaneously with this translation movement, Islamic science developed, involving philosophers and scientists alike. A name that stands out is that of Ibn Sina, better known as Avicenna (980-1037), the Father of Early Medicine, whose work was standard in Europe for centuries. Another figure was Al-Khwarizmi (780-860), the Father of Algebra, who introduced the algorithms.

By the mid-11^th century, the ideas of antiquity reached Europe in Arabic, traveling to Sicily and Muslim Spain. Over time, they had been enriched with the knowledge that the Caliphs in the Middle East had acquired and developed. We owe it to the Abbasids that the knowledge from classical antiquity reached Europe, where it was generally translated into Latin. 

The Abbasid Caliphate ended in 1258 when Baghdad was sacked by the Mongols. The city was looted and thoroughly destroyed. The invaders burned piles of books, including those that were held in the House of Wisdom. 

Without Baghdad and its western expansion, we would have remained stuck in the dark Middle Ages, and there would not have been a Renaissance.