Cf. Macbeth , IV. i, the famous cauldron scene. Hecate was the Greek goddess regarded as the protectress of witches. Ruskin violently objected to the Darwinian theory and frequently caricatured the descent of man from the apes in this way. As is so often the case with his response to modern science, the hysteria seems to have been provoked by only too clear an understanding of the theory.