ABSTRACT
From earliest times the Greeks and Romans met new peoples with their own gods. Their religion was basically animistic, in that it assigned semi-human identity and personality to natural forces. Since weather and human emotions are pretty standard, it proved easy enough to syncretise most new deities into the Graeco-Roman belief system. The mother of the goddess was Asteria, “the starry one”, a member of the race of proto-gods called Titans. Zeus once tried to seduce Asteria, and pursued her until she fled Olympus. An ancient goddess, Hecate was present in the war of the Titans, the literally titanic struggle by which Zeus overthrew the elder generation of gods and established his rule in heaven. Hekate whom Zeus the son of Kronos honours above all others. He gave her splendid gifts, a share of the earth and the barren sea. The other familiar, the black dog, was originally Hecuba, the wife of King Priam of Troy.
