Triple deity

[1][2][3] In classical religious iconography or mythological art,[4] three separate beings may represent either a triad who typically appear as a group (the Greek Moirai, Charites, and Erinyes; the Norse Norns; or the Irish Morrígan) or a single deity notable for having three aspects (Greek Hecate, Roman Diana).

[5] Georges Dumézil proposed in his trifunctional hypothesis that ancient Indo-European society conceived of itself as structured around three activities: worship, war, and toil.

Interpreting various deities, including the Iranian Anāhitā and the Roman Juno, he identified what were, in his view, examples of this.

[15] In his commentary on Virgil, Maurus Servius Honoratus said that the same goddess was called Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpina in hell.

[18] Spells and hymns in Greek magical papyri refer to the goddess (called Hecate, Persephone, and Selene, among other names) as "triple-sounding, triple-headed, triple-voiced..., triple-pointed, triple-faced, triple-necked".

In one hymn, for instance, the "Three-faced Selene" is simultaneously identified as the three Charites, the three Moirai, and the three Erinyes; she is further addressed by the titles of several goddesses.

Inscriptions to these deities have been found in Gaul, Spain, Italy, the Rhineland and Britain, as their worship was carried by Roman soldiery dating from the mid-first to third century AD.

The c. fourth-century Gnostic text "Trimorphic Protennoia" presents a threefold discourse of the three forms of Divine Thought: the Father, the Son, and the Mother (Sophia).

In addition, Modalism holds that the Holy Spirit is not a separate person from the Father either, but is simply a term that describes God in action.

[37] Peter H. Goodrich interprets the literary figure of Morgan le Fay as a manifestation of a British triple goddess in the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

[citation needed] Hecate will never join in that offence:Unjust is the request you make, and IIn kindness your petition shall deny;Yet she that grants not what you do implore,Shall yet essay to give her Jason more;Find means t' encrease the stock of Aeson's years,Without retrenchment of your life's arrears;Provided that the triple Goddess joinA strong confed'rate in my bold design.