And howling dogs in glimmering light advance
Ere Hecate comes.
Aeneid, Book VL (Dryden)
The night is lit by the full moon. This makes the path easy to follow, and she makes her way towards the crossroads. Most of her family and friends have made the journey before her, but she lagged behind as the fear of facing the image made her tremble. She pauses as she hears the howling of dogs, but only for a second before her fear pushes her forward. Her mother had told her stories about the dogs that howled to announce the arrival of Hecate. She must hurry now or risk having to meet the Goddess face to face. The image appears before her and she notices the three faces pointing in three different directions. She rushes to put her offering of fish and eggs at the feet of the goddess image as she whispers her prayers.
The people of the Middle Ages knew her as the Goddess of the Crossroads. Hecate Trivia was portrayed as a goddess with three heads. In many instances the three were animal heads. There is some controversy over exactly which animals depicted Hecate during this period, but the most common description includes a horse's head, a dog's head and a snake's head. Hecate was also immortalized as having three complete bodies that faced in different directions. Whichever image one chose to represent the goddess Hecate, we know for certain that people took her role seriously.
Wherever paths met, a figure of Hecate was placed at the junctions. She was a keeper of the paths and the one that carried the torches. Hecate was the goddess that was to protect those traveling, especially those that traveled at night.
People came to the crossroads on the eve of the full moon to leave offerings for Hecate in an effort to appease her and insure their own travels would be blessed and safe. Typical offerings included fish with eggs, fish with eggs and roe, and bread with goat cheese. There is even an obscure reference to a favorite fish, the red mullet, being sacrificed to Hecate.
The offerings left for Hecate became known as Hecates Supper. Once the food was offered to the goddess the person was to walk away and not look back. No one dared look back. The tales of unfortunate souls that turned to see what the sounds were that followed them kept people's curiosities under control. No one dared to look back toward the crossroads for fear of meeting their worst nightmare.
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