Talk:Hecate

Currently the lead has a note on how to pronounce her name. This is a very poor choice, imho. Her name's pronunciation is not self-evident. The pronunciation SHOULD BE EXPLICITLY GIVEN - as is usual for most uncommon words, especially those with a pronunciation that isn't what the average English language speaker would expect. (I was surprised it wasn't Hek ate or He ka tee.) Put the pronunciation in the lead, not in a note.98.21.213.85 (talk) 19:44, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Adjusted in version 1256680015 - BrimoTrimorphos ^(🗨) 03:28, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

The pronunciation needs revised. Since her name has some significant dialectic variability through history, I would argue that the primary pronunciation, which is currently cited from the OED, is not ideal to present as the primary one. Since she is primarily considered an ancient goddess, the pronunciation listed as primary should be an ancient one, and should be the one listed in note a. describing pronunciations of Ἑκάτη.

That said, this note is currently unsourced. A cursory glance at the IPA guide for Ancient Greek on wiktionary would suggest the pronunciations listed in this note as Attic or Doric dialects of Ancient Greek would probably be preferable, but I am not going to change it without good sourcing.

The upshot I think is that the OED pronunciation, while a worthwhile source for modern British pronunciation is not what you'd hear in most Classics departments (and in fact was drummed out of students by my professors in my mythology classes) and wasn't even how I've heard it pronounced by most Hellenic reconstruction practitioners when I used to interact with them regularly.

The pronunciation reflected by the Wiktionary guide to Ancient Greek for η as being pronounced as /-tɛː/ a long open-mid front unrounded vowel.

TL:DR - If we can find a good source, this should be represented as /'hekátɛː/ or hek-AH-teh since that's generally considered a more "correct" pronunciation in scholarly circles. 169.197.72.250 (talk) 04:45, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

I was pretty certain dogs were not eaten in Hecatean rituals, so I went through the primary sources and I was correct. Fixed the entry and provided context. JasonPouris (talk) 15:05, 6 February 2025 (UTC)

The source cited there wasn't a great one (it was about a hundred years old), and we were taking the lazy route of quoting several few sentences from it. I can't find clear sourcing for dogs having been eaten during rituals to Hecate; if this is true, the fact that I'm unable to find mention of it in discussions of Hecate's association with dogs is enough to suggest that its mention there was WP:UNDUE. I've removed your reworking, though, as we can't provide our own original analysis (see WP:OR), especially when that analysis is contrary to the cited source. – Michael Aurel (talk) 22:13, 6 February 2025 (UTC)

Understood! As long as the incorrect dog-eating is gone, I'm happy. Thank you~ JasonPouris (talk) 19:34, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

ekás in greek for far, distant. Examples like in ACAdemy, HEKAton hekanton number 100 dialectical transformation of the k to h and the t to d HUndred, HECtares, the k to c CEntury, perCEnt, CEntimeters.... ~2025-32329-45 (talk) 19:15, 21 November 2025 (UTC)