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The origin of the word ‘trivia’ is no trivial matter. Indeed, the roots of words are never inconsequential. They are so important, in fact, that the old Hebrew dictionaries listed words in their root order. We might claim that since a root has its consequences in so many words, it is commonplace. But that proves its significance, not its insignificance.



Moreover, an ordinary term may prove to be of uncommon import when thoroughly examined. We seldom conduct such an examination, for employing words in their etymological sense during the usual course of communications would delay and confuse discourse rather than clarify our meanings. Still, it serves our present purpose to pause and consider the original meaning of ‘trivia.’



Trivia meant "three ways." In Latin, ‘trivialis’ appertained to the crossroads where three roads met, which came to be known, in towns, as the ‘trivium’, or public place. The term ‘trivium’ was eventually used to denote the first three of the seven liberal arts – grammar, rhetoric, dialectics – because in ancient cities teachers who could not afford to rent space rendered their services at the public crossroads, the trivium.



The earliest intersections were three-way roads, a main road eventually joined by a side road. Honest travelers encountered one another at the crossroads, yet robbers and murderers lurked nearby. Thugs entered the main roads from side paths to mug and murder their prey and run off with the plunder, leaving the victims for dead. Although evil may be found alongside good everywhere, crossroads acquired a particularly bad reputation associated with death, demons, devils, witches and company. Fortunately, certain steps may be taken in various countries to dispose of evil at the crossroads, or at least to pass it along to someone else. Sir George Frazer mentioned several proven methods in his The Golden Bough:



In England, demons may be trapped in a small log and placed at the crossroads, where passersby may contemptuously step over it to keep the devil down. It is advisable to set out food at crossroads out side of towns in Bali, and then go back to town and make a lot of noise to drive the devils out to the feast. A Chinese sorcerer may set a trap baited with wine, liver, and other goodies to catch the devils at crossroads. In Japan, rub coins on the unlucky body to transfer ill-luck to the coins; throw them away at the crossroads.



Disease may be hammered into the ground at Roman crossroads with a nail. The next passerby will catch the disease when stepping over the nail and carry it away with him. Disease may be more easily transferred to an effigy in Africa and buried at the crossroad so someone else will catch it and carry it far away. However, to do so constitutes a capital crime, subject to the death penalty. Also in Africa and elsewhere, it is best to burn the bodies of suicides at crossroads. Plato recommended in his Laws that Greek parricides be cast naked onto the crossroads; thereafter the magistrates should assemble and cast stones at the body to purify the city of criminal pollution. While in Asia be sure to drive scapegoats including human beings to the crossroads to get rid of evil.

By the way, a goat may be sacrificed at the crossroads in Greece to induce the wolves to spare the flocks and herds nearby.



In Sweden, at the Midnight Fires celebration, bonfires are lit at the crossroads to scare away witches. The youth of Bohemia assemble at the crossroads on Walpurgis Night, where they crack whips to drive away the witches. On St. George's Day, Slavs have a child collect three stones from three crossroads as part of a complicated procedure to ward off witches. Most tragically, bewitched objects were once burned at crossroads in Wales so witches could then be burned there with impunity



Given all the fuss about crossroads, we are not surprised to learn that ancient Romans set up a crossroad’s goddess to protect people from evil, providing that she was adequately propitiated. Her name was Trivia, or "she-of-three-ways." ‘Trivia' was a cognomen for the Greek Hecate ("far-reaching"). Today Hecate is known in her debased or vulgar form, as the Queen of Witches. Her images, called Hecataea in Greek, were set up at crossroads in ancient times to ward off evil. Her statue had three heads: that of a dog, a horse, and a lion. The three heads typified the three phases of the moon: full, waxing, and waning. A feast was laid out at the crossroads under a full moon to placate Hecate and obtain her favors. She was offered black lambs, dogs, eggs, milk, and honey. Since she was sometimes associated with Diana (Artemis), she was also called Diana of the Crossroads.



Hecate was, in her later form, a Terrible Goddess. However, at least in my opinion, she was originally a more benign and kinder goddess of production, a goddess who, like Kali, looked rather bad after men had beaten her up for a long time. The Greek poet Hesiod (8th century B.C.) said she was originally a beneficent goddess who ruled several natural spheres. Actually, very little is known about her origins. The Greeks were confused by her: they knew she really was quite different than either Selene or Artemis they eventually associated her more with Demeter and Persephone. Scholars believe she was probably an orgiastic (of course) earth goddess, a foreigner to Greece, probably from a Phrygian or Thracian cult.



Modern scholars have written off Hecate as a minor goddess, claiming that she was of no national importance to patriarchal Greece, callously underrating her as an "evil thing,” a product of the decline of Hellenism. Feminists today are wont to claim that Greece was much more of a man’s world than it is today. That is to say, women were property, virtual slaves to be confined indoors and to be disposed of at will. What we know of history does not support this extreme view; or at least there were exceptional women who graced the public with their virtues although jealous men figured those virtues were vices. No doubt the stronger sex held the bulk of the religious as well as the political power where religion was the worship of power, and politics was the relative distribution of that power. Although there were priestesses within some cults, women had a subordinate position in formal religion, which men allegedly fashioned with cool reason rather than fiery emotion. Women had recourse to witchcraft, to the occult, and to "hysteria" if they could get away with it. Their influence within the home was large, however, and that influence eventually grew outside of the home into a widespread mysticism which was disastrous to the old religion.



Hecate, in any event, was popular among Greek women, who were not writing many books in those days for modern philologists to unearth. Hecate was the favorite goddess of the housewife. Little images of Hecate were placed in front of doors in Athens to avert evil. She was the Mistress of Spirits to the ordinary housewife, who purified her house by smoking it and sweeping it, then taking those sweepings, along with the household ghosts therein, to the crossroads. Yes, to the crossroads, because women are tidy, and that is where ghosts belong.



Hecate was an important goddess as far as Zeus, the king of gods, was concerned. Zeus allowed Hecate the Titan to keep her three-fold powers over Earth, Sea, and Sky. In fact Hecate was the only Titan who retained her privilege. Zeus also gave her a share of Olympus. Hecate’s surname was often given as Chthonia; her chthonic functions were a matter of great pride to her although she was not confined to Earth.



According to an old Thessalian tale, Hecate was abandoned at a crossroads just after she was born, and was rescued and raised by shepherds. She picked up her affection for dogs from the shepherds: she is always attended by her hounds, now known as the hounds of hell. Dogs guard us from evil and have an uncanny ability to find things such as food, bodies, drugs and so on. Hecate used her dogs to hunt when not attending her flocks, so it is no wonder she was confused with Artemis. Like many women of her day, she sometimes occupied herself with a truck garden, hence she was associated with growth from decay, with the Underworld.



In the good old days, Hecate helped men obtain victory, wealth, and wisdom. She sat by kings when they judged. She brought good luck to fishermen and hunters. She worked with Hermes to increase livestock. She was the foster-mother of children. Medea, the famous Colchian sorceress who married Jason, leader of the Argonauts, was Hecate’s daughter, priestess, and in effect her double. Medea was well versed in black and white magic. After she fell in love with Jason, she lulled the dragon to sleep so Jason could steal the Golden Fleece, and then went along with him on his journey, helping him with his great exploits.



But behold Hecate when male imagination runs wild during the battle of the sexes because the weaker sex deserves vengeance. What a ghastly picture she cuts. She comes our way like a bat out of hell, tall as a football field, and riding on a dragon! She is snake-footed, snake-haired, and snake-shouldered. She carries a blazing torch in one hand and a sword in the other, or, when it is extremely dark, a torch in both hands. Beware, for she carries a whip and a cord with her as well, and her hounds are howling for red meat.



Before our trivial account draws to a close, we pay due homage to Hermes, the King of the Road whom Hecate was wont to assist from time to time. Quadrangular images of Hermes were set alongside country roads and along the streets of Athens. At the crossroads, heaps of stones dedicated to Hermes were piled up as purification tallies: passersby who added stones to the piles rid themselves of guilt, especially blood-guilt due to killing. Eventually there were so many heaps of stones that they became "trivial as signposts."



Now we know that the word trivia is really no trivial matter. The term is derived from the Latin goddess Trivia, who is the Greek goddess Hecate, and whose influence is still as "far reaching" as Apollo's. If you say trivia is not trivial, and someone asks you what you mean by that, have them meet you at the crossroads where the trivium is taught.