Triple Goddess Pendant

The most prominent ancient Triple Goddess was Diana, who was equated with the Greek Hecate. According to Robert Graves, who popularized the concept of in the 20th century (see below), Hecate was the "original" triple moon goddess. Diana and Hecate were both represented in triple form from the early days of their worship, and Diana in particular came to be viewed as a triunity of three goddesses in one, which were viewed as distinct aspects of a single divine being: "Diana as huntress, Diana as the moon, Diana of the underworld."[2] Additional examples of the goddess Hecate viewed as a triple goddess associated with witchcraft include Lucan's tale of a group of witches, written in the 1st century BCE. In Lucan's work (LUC. B.C. 6:700-01) the witches speak of "Persephone, who is the third and lowest aspect of our goddess Hecate...".[3] Another example is found in Ovid's Metamorphosis (Met. 7:94–95), in which Jason swears an oath to the witch Medea, saying he would "be true by the sacred rites of the three-fold goddess."[4]

The neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry was the first to record an explicit belief that the three aspects of Hecate (an important goddess in the Neoplatonic tradition of Late Antiquity) represented the phases of the moon: new, waxing, and full. In his 3rd century AD work On Images, Porphyry wrote: "the moon is Hekate, the symbol of her varying phases and of her power dependent on the phases. Wherefore her power appears in three forms, having as symbol of the new moon the figure in the white robe and golden sandals, and torches lighted: the basket, which she bears when she has mounted high, is the symbol of the cultivation of the crops, which she makes to grow up according to the increase of her light: and again the symbol of the full moon is the goddess of the brazen sandals."[5] Porphyry also associated Hecate with Dionysus, who he said they set beside her partially "on account of their growth of horns".