legends might indeed relate to her cult. Hecate[79] is a real spectral goddess of night and phantoms, a Mar; she is represented as riding, and in Hesiod occurs as the patron of riders. She sends the horrible nocturnal fear phantom, the Empusa, of whom Aristophanes says that she appears inclosed in a bladder swollen with blood. According to Libanius, the mother of Aischines is also called Empusa, for the reason that [Greek: e)k skoteinô~n to/pôn toi~s paisi\n kai\ tai~s gynaixi/n ô(rma~to]."[1]
Empusa, like Hecate, has peculiar feet; one foot is made of brass, the other of ass' dung. Hecate has snake-*like feet, which, as in the triple form ascribed to Hecate, points to her phallic libido nature.[80] In Tralles, Hecate appears next to Priapus; there is also a Hecate Aphrodisias. Her symbols are the key,[81] the whip,[82] the snake,[83] the dagger[84] and the torch.[85] As mother of death, dogs accompany her, the significance of which we have previously discussed at length. As guardian of the door of Hades and as Goddess of dogs, she is of threefold form, and really identified with Cerberus. Thus Hercules, in bringing up Cerberus, brings the conquered mother of death into the upper world. As spirit mother (moon!), she sends madness, lunacy. (This mythical observation states that "the mother" sends madness; by far the majority of the cases of insanity consist, in fact, in the domination of the individual by the material of the incest phantasy.) In the mysteries of Cerberus, a rod, called [Greek: leuko/phyllos],[2] was broken off. This rod protected
