Lagina is an ancient city near Yatağan, an industrial district in Turkey, which was in a territory under the control of the old town Stratonicea. While Stratonicea was the center of governing, Lagina, where an ancient temple for Hecate is located, was the center for religion at the time.
Lagina also takes an important place for Turkish archaeology. This was the first place a Turkish archaeology team did research, starting in 1891. Osman Hamdi Bey, the painter of The Tortoise Trainer, led the team, and he is considered the founder of Turkish archaeology.
Hecate is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hecate is the Goddess of Crossroads that appears in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and Hesiod’s famous poem, Theogony. Considering the temple dedicated to her in Lagina, it can even be concluded that she may have originated in Lagina or somewhere close to there in Anatolia.
Her earlier personality was friendly, and it was thought that she granted help to people who were doing athletic activities and fishing. In time her character in people’s minds got meaner and more dangerous. People associate her with mystery and magic after a while. Today, many people are still honoring Hekate, the Triple Goddess, on the Dark Moon.
Ancient people worshiped Hecate in the temple in Lagina. The temple was built in the 2nd century BC.
There is only one ancient temple of Hecate in the world, and that is in the ancient city of Lagina, near the modern city called Yatağan in Turkey. This is one of the reasons why today people think that Hecate might have originated from somewhere around this area.