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In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; ; in Ionic Greek and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Olympus, sister and wife of Zeus, and daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. One of her defining characteristics in myth is her jealous and vengeful nature in dealing with any who offended her, especially Zeus's numerous adulterous lovers and illegitimate offspring.
Her iconography usually presents her as a dignified, matronly figure, upright or enthroned, crowned with a polos or diadem, sometimes veiled as a married woman. Elderkin(1937), "The marriage of Zeus with Hera" She is the patron goddess of lawful marriage. She presides over weddings, blesses and legalises marital unions, and protects women from harm during childbirth. Her sacred animals include the Cattle, cuckoo, and Peafowl. She is sometimes shown holding a pomegranate as an emblem of immortality. Her Roman counterpart is Juno. Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.
The Proto-Indo-European root might have meant either 'the female who is attached/coupled' or 'the female who attaches herself' (as in both socially and physically or emotionally).
Many , such as Heracles, Heraclitus, Herodotus and Herodicus, derive from Hera.Van der Toorn, Karel; Becking, Bob; van der Horst, Pieter Willem (1999), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (second ed.), Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, : [5] p.401-402
Hera may have been the first deity to whom the Greeks dedicated an enclosed roofed temple sanctuary, at Samos about 800 BCE. It was replaced later by the Heraion of Samos, one of the largest of all Greek temples (altars were in front of the temples under the open sky). There were many temples built on this site, so the evidence is somewhat confusing, and archaeological dates are uncertain.
The temple created by the Rhoecus sculptors and architects was destroyed between 570 and 560 BCE. This was replaced by the Polycrates temple of 540–530 BCE. In one of these temples, we see a forest of 155 columns. There is also no evidence of tiles on this temple suggesting either the temple was never finished or that the temple was open to the sky.
Earlier sanctuaries, whose dedication to Hera is less certain, were of the Mycenaean type called "house sanctuaries".Martin Persson Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion (Lund) 1950 pt. I.ii "House Sanctuaries", pp 77-116; H. W. Catling, "A Late Bronze Age House- or Sanctuary-Model from the Menelaion, Sparta," BSA 84 (1989) 171-175. Samos excavations have revealed votive offerings, many of them late 8th and 7th centuries BCE, which show that Hera at Samos was not merely a local Greek goddess of the Aegean. The museum there contains figures of gods and suppliants and other votive offerings from Armenia, Babylon, Iran, Assyria, and Egypt, testimony to the reputation which this sanctuary of Hera enjoyed, and the large influx of pilgrims. Compared to this mighty goddess, who also possessed the earliest temple at Olympia and two of the great fifth and sixth-century temples of Paestum, the termagant of Homer and the myths is an "almost... comic figure," according to Walter Burkert.Walter Burkert, p. 132, including quote; Burkert: Orientalizing Revolution.
Though the greatest and earliest free-standing temple to Hera was the Heraion of Samos, in the Greek mainland Hera was especially worshipped as "Argive Hera" ( Hera Argeia) at her sanctuary that stood between the former Mycenaean city-states of Argos and Mycenae,Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.13.6Her name appears, with Zeus and Hermes, in a Linear B inscription (Tn 316) at Mycenean Pylos (John Chadwick, The Mycenaean World Cambridge 1976:89). where the festivals in her honor called Heraean Games were celebrated. "The three cities I love best," she declares in the Iliad, book iv, "are Argos, Sparta and Mycenae of the broad streets." There were also temples to Hera in Olympia, Ancient Corinth, Tiryns, Perachora and the sacred island of Delos. In Magna Graecia, two Doric temples to Hera were constructed at Paestum, about 550 BCE and about 450 BCE. One of them, long called the Temple of Poseidon was identified in the 1950s as a temple of Hera.P.C. Sestieri, Paestum, the City, the Prehistoric Acropolis in Contrada Gaudo, and the Heraion at the Mouth of the Sele (Rome 1960), p. 11, etc. "It is odd that there was no temple dedicated to Poseidon in a city named for him (Paestum was originally called Poseidonia). Perhaps there was one at Sele, the settlement that preceded Paestum," Sarantis Symeonoglou suggested (Symeonoglou, "The Doric Temples of Paestum" Journal of Aesthetic Education, 19.1, Special Issue: Paestum and Classical Culture: Past and Present Spring p. 50.
The Daedala fire festival on Cithaeron near Plataea, included an account of Hera's quarrel with Zeus and their reconciliation.Burkert (1998), "Greek religion", p. 63.
Hera's importance in the early archaic period is attested by the large building projects undertaken in her honor. The temples of Hera in the two main centers of her cult, the Heraion of Samos and the Heraion of Argos in the Argolis, were the very earliest monumental constructed, in the 8th century BCE. At Argos the Dorians "Heraion" was built on the hill of Prosymna near Mycenaean Greece hero-tombs. At Samos the cult activity near the altar begun in late Mycenean period and a big altar was built in the 9th century BC.Kyrieleis, H. (1993). "The Heraion at Samos".p.128
During the Hellenistic period (), Greek culture spread outside Greece across the Eastern Mediterranean region as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great. The Hellenistic religion was often syncretic, and the Greek gods were identified with local deities as different aspects or names of the same divinity. Hera was identified with various local mother goddess. As an example, the work On the Syrian Goddess suggests a cult worshipped a goddess that was simultaneously the Syrian goddess Atargatis and Hera. This even extended to early Christianity some; the Legend of Aphroditian identifies Hera with the Virgin Mary, perhaps due to one of Hera's abilities being her miraculous restoration of her own virginity.
In the same vein, British scholar Charles Francis Keary suggests that Hera had some sort of "Mother goddess" worship in ancient times,Keary, Charles Francis. Outlines of primitive belief among the Indo-European races. New York: C. Scibner's Sons. 1882. p. 176.Renehan, Robert. HERA AS EARTH-GODDESS: A NEW PIECE OF EVIDENCE. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie
Neue Folge, 117. Bd., H. 3/4 (1974), pp. 193-201. [41] Harrison, Jane Ellen. Myths of Greece and Rome. 1928. pp. 12-14 connected to her possible origin as a Pelasgian goddess (as mentioned by Herodotus).Keary, Charles Francis. Outlines of primitive belief among the Indo-European races. New York: C. Scibner's Sons. 1882. p. 176 (footnote nr. ii). In Greece the Mediterranean goddess of nature is the bride of the Greek sky-god . In her fest Daedala Hera is related to the nymph Plataia (consort of Zeus), an old forgotten form of the Greek earth-goddess. Plataia may be related to Gaia who is occasionally identified with Hera.West (2007) "Indoeuropean poetry and myth" 174-175
According to Homeric Hymn II to Delian Apollo, Hera detained Eileithyia to prevent Leto from going into labor with Artemis and Apollo, since the father was Zeus. The other goddesses present at the birthing on Delos sent Iris to bring her. As she stepped upon the island, the divine birth began. In the myth of the birth of Heracles, it is Hera herself who sits at the door, delaying the birth of Heracles until her protégé, Eurystheus, had been born first.Homer, Iliad 19.95ff.
The Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo makes the monster Typhon the offspring of archaic Hera in her ancient form, produced out of herself, like a monstrous version of Hephaestus, and whelped in a cave in Cilicia. Iliad, ii. 781-783) She gave the creature to Python to raise.
In the Temple of Hera, Olympia, Hera's seated cult figure was older than the warrior figure of Zeus that accompanied it. Homer expressed her relationship with Zeus delicately in the Iliad, in which she declares to Zeus, "I am Cronus' eldest daughter, and am honourable not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are king of the gods."
However, it remains a controversial claim that an ancient matriarchy or a cultural focus on a monotheistic Great Goddess existed among the ancient Greeks or elsewhere. The claim is generally rejected by modern scholars as insufficiently evidenced.See, for example, the following:
Hera was also worshipped as a virgin: there was a tradition in Stymphalia in Arcadia that there had been a triple shrine to Hera the Girl (Παις Pais), the Adult Woman (Τελεια Teleia), and the Separated (Χήρη Chḗrē 'Widowed' or 'Divorced').Farnell, I 194, citing Pausanias 8.22.2 ' Pindar refers to the "praises of Hera Parthenia the" Olympian ode 6.88 In the Argolis, the temple of Hera in Ermioni near Argos was to Hera the Virgin.S. Casson: "Hera of Kanathos and the Ludovisi Throne" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 40.2 (1920), pp. 137-142, citing Stephanus of Byzantium sub Ernaion. At the spring of Kanathos, close to Nauplia, Hera renewed her virginity annually, in rites that were not to be spoken of ( arrheton).Pausanias, 2.38.2-3 . In her fire-festival Daedala at Plataia the puppet of the goddess was bathed in the river Asopos before the wedding ceremony. In the festival "Toneia" at Samos the image of the goddess was purified, bounted in willows and then probably hanged on a tree.O'Brian Joan (1993), "The transformation of Hera", p.54-55 Robert Graves interprets this as a representation of the new moon (Hebe), full moon (Hera), and old moon (Hecate), respectively personifying the Virgin (Spring), the Mother (Summer), and the destroying Crone (Autumn).Robert Graves (1955), The Greek Myths.Barbara G. Walker (1983), The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p.392
Her archaic association was primarily with cattle, as a Cow Goddess, who was especially venerated in "cattle-rich" Euboea. On Cyprus, very early archaeological sites contain bull skulls that have been adapted for use as masks (see Bull (mythology)). Her familiar Homeric epithet Boôpis, is always translated "cow-eyed". In this respect, Hera bears some resemblance to the Ancient Egyptian deity Hathor, a maternal goddess associated with cattle. Hera absorbed the cult of her heifer-priestess Io and may be related to the Vedic period earth-goddess Prithvi.
Scholar of Greek mythology Walter Burkert writes in Greek Religion, "Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos." At Argos in a Greek myth the priestess of Hera Phoronis ties her mistress to an aniconic pillar. At Samos Hera's plank was tied on a willow tree to ensure fertility.
Other traditions, however, appear to give Hera different upbringings. Pausanias states that she was nursed as an infant by the three daughters of the river Asterion: Euboia, Prosymna, and Acraea.Pausanias, 2.17.1. Furthermore, in the Iliad, Hera states she was given by her mother to Tethys to be raised: "I go now to the ends of the generous earth on a visit to the Okeanos, whence the gods have risen, and Tethys our mother who brought me up kindly in their own house, and cared for me and took me from Rheia, at that time when Zeus of the wide brows drove Kronos underneath the earth and the barren water."
In the Iliad, Zeus implies their marriage was some sort of elopement, as they lay secretly from their parents.Homer, Iliad 14.295–299. Pausanias records a tale of how they came to be married in which Zeus transformed into a cuckoo to woo Hera. She caught the bird and kept it as her pet; this is why the cuckoo is seated on her sceptre.Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.17.4. According to a scholion on Theocritus' Idylls, when Hera was heading toward Mount Thornax alone, Zeus created a terrible storm and transformed himself into a cuckoo who flew down and sat on her lap. Hera covered him with her cloak. Zeus then transformed back and took hold of her; because she was refusing to sleep with him due to their mother, he promised to marry her.Scholia on Theocritus' Idylls 15.64.
In one account Hera refused to marry Zeus and hid in a cave to avoid him; an earthborn man named Achilles convinced her to give him a chance, and thus the two had their first sexual intercourse.Ptolemaeus Chennus, New History Book 6, as epitomized by Patriarch Photius in his Myriobiblon 190.47 According to a version attributed to Plutarch, Hera had been reared by a nymph named Macris on the island of Euboea, but Zeus stole her away, where Mt. Cithaeron "afforded them a shady recess." When Macris came to look for her ward, the mountain-god Cithaeron drove her away, saying that Zeus was taking his pleasure there with Leto.Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica 3.1.84a-b; Hard, p. 137.
According to Callimachus, their wedding feast lasted three hundred years.Callimachus, Aetia fragment 48 All the gods and mortals were invited, but a nymph named Chelone was disrespectful or refused to attend, so Zeus thus turned her into a tortoise. The Apples of the Hesperides that Heracles was tasked by Eurystheus to take were a wedding gift by Gaia to the couple.Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11.
After a quarrel with Zeus, Hera left him and retreated to Euboea, and no word from Zeus managed to sway her mind. Cithaeron, the local king, then advised Zeus to take a wooden statue of a woman, wrap it up, and pretend to marry it. Zeus did as told, claiming "she" was Plataea, Asopus's daughter. Hera, once she heard the news, disrupted the wedding ceremony and tore away the dress from the figure only to discover it was but a lifeless statue, and not a rival in love. The queen and her king were reconciled, and to commemorate this the people there celebrated a festival called Daedala. During the festival, a re-enactment of the myth was celebrated, where a wooden statue of Hera was chosen, bathed in the river Asopus and then raised on a chariot to lead the procession like a bride, and then ritually burned.
According to Diodorus Siculus, Alcmene, the mother of Heracles, was the very last mortal woman Zeus ever slept with; following the birth of Heracles, he ceased to beget humans altogether.Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.14.4.
Either way, Artemis was born first (earlier sources make no mention of them being twins, so Artemis could be any age older than Apollo) and then assisted with the birth of Apollo.Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 1.4.1; Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 35, giving as his sources Menecrates of Xanthos (4th century BCE) and Nicander of Colophon; Ovid, Metamorphoses vi.317-81 provides another late literary source. Some versions say Artemis helped her mother give birth to Apollo for nine days. Another variation states that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo.
Later, Tityos attempted to rape Leto at the behest of Hera. He was slain by Artemis and Apollo.
This account of the birth of Apollo and Artemis is contradicted by Hesiod in Theogony, as the twins are born prior to Zeus's marriage to Hera.
In another version, Dionysus was originally the son of Zeus by either Demeter or Persephone. Hera sent her Titans to rip the baby apart, from which he was called Zagreus ("Torn in Pieces"). Zeus rescued the heart; or, the heart was saved, variously, by Athena, Rhea, or Demeter.Seyffert Dictionary Zeus used the heart to recreate Dionysus and implant him in the womb of Semele—hence Dionysus became known as "the twice-born". Certain versions imply that Zeus gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her. Hera tricked Semele into asking Zeus to reveal his true form, which killed her. Dionysus later managed to rescue his mother from the underworld and have her live on Mount Olympus.
Hera's wrath against Zeus's son continued and while Heracles was still an infant, Hera sent two serpents to kill him as he lay in his cot. Heracles throttled the snakes with his bare hands and was found by his nurse playing with their limp bodies as if they were a child's toys.
According to an earlier source, however, Hera had nothing to do with the snakes in Heracles’ crib. Pherecydes said that “it was Amphitryon who put the serpents in the bed, because then he would know which of the two children was his, and that when Iphicles fled, and Heracles stood his ground, he knew that Iphicles was begotten of his body.”
One account of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she pulled him from her breast and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day. Her milk also created a white flower, the lily. Unlike any Greeks, the Etruscans instead pictured a full-grown bearded Heracles at Hera's breast, a reference to his adoption by her when he became an Immortal: he had previously wounded her severely in the breast.
When Heracles reached adulthood, Hera Insanity, which led him to murder his family and this later led to him undertaking his famous labours (Alternatively, according to Euripides’ Herakles, this happened after his labors had been completed). Hera assigned Heracles to labour for King Eurystheus at Mycenae. She attempted to make almost all of Heracles's twelve labours more difficult. When he fought the Lernaean Hydra, she sent a Karkinos to bite at his feet in the hopes of distracting him. Later Hera stirred up the Amazons against him when he was on one of his quests, claiming that he kidnapped their queen, Hippolyte. When Heracles took the cattle of Geryon, he shot Hera in the right breast with a triple-barbed arrow: the wound was incurable and left her in constant pain, as Dione tells Aphrodite in the Iliad, Book V. Afterwards, Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them and scatter them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the water level of a river so much that Heracles could not ford the river with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. When he finally reached the court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera.
That was not the only time Heracles had violently attacked Hera, either. After murdering Iphitus of Oechalia in cold blood and seeking purification for the crime from Neleus, king of Pylos, Neleus and his fourteen children turned him away. After being purified elsewhere, “Heracles then marched against Neleus and not only sacked Pylos, but even wounded Hera, who was fighting as Neleus’ ally. As for Neleus himself, Heracles killed him and his children, except for the youngest, Nestor.” D Scholium on Homer’s Iliad, 5.392
Eurystheus also wanted to sacrifice the Cretan Bull to Hera. She refused the sacrifice because it reflected glory on Heracles. The bull was released and wandered to Marathon, becoming known as the Marathonian Bull.
Some myths state that in the end, Heracles befriended Hera by saving her from Porphyrion, a giant who tried to rape her during the Gigantomachy, and that she even gave her daughter Hebe as his bride. Whatever myth-making served to account for an archaic representation of Heracles as "Hera's man", it was thought Decorum for the builders of the Heraion at Paestum to depict the exploits of Heracles in bas-relief.Kerenyi, p 131
The goddesses quarreled bitterly over it, and none of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the enmity of the other two. They chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Troy prince. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, they appeared before Paris to have him choose. The goddesses undressed before him, either at his request or for the sake of winning. Still, Paris could not decide, as all three were ideally beautiful, so they resorted to bribes. Hera offered Paris political power and control of all of Asia Minor, while Athena offered wisdom, fame, and glory in battle, and Aphrodite offered the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as a wife, and he accordingly chose her. This woman was Helen, who was, unfortunately for Paris, already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. The other two goddesses were enraged by Paris' decision and, after the Trojan War started through Helen's abduction by Paris, they sided with the Greeks., Paris]]
Hera plays a substantial role in The Iliad, appearing in several books throughout the epic poem. She makes many attempts to thwart the Trojan Army. In books 1 and 2, Hera declares that the Trojans must be destroyed and persuades Athena to aid the Achaeans in battle, and she agrees to assist with interfering on their behalf.
In book 5, Hera and Athena plot to harm Ares, who had been seen by Diomedes in assisting the Trojans. Diomedes called for his soldiers to fall back slowly. Hera saw Ares's interference and asked Zeus for permission to drive Ares away from the battlefield. Hera encouraged Diomedes to attack Ares and he threw his spear at the god. Athena drove the spear into Ares's body, and he bellowed in pain and fled to Mount Olympus, forcing the Trojans to fall back.
In book 8, Hera tries to persuade Poseidon to disobey Zeus and help the Achaean army. He refuses, saying he doesn't want to go against Zeus. Determined to intervene in the war, Hera and Athena head to the battlefield. However, seeing the two flee, Zeus sent Iris to intercept them and make them return to Mount Olympus or face grave consequences. After prolonged fighting, Hera sees Poseidon aiding the Greeks and giving them the motivation to keep fighting.
In book 14 Hera devises a plan to deceive Zeus. Zeus set a decree that the gods were not allowed to interfere in the mortal war. Hera is on the side of the Achaeans, so she plans a Deception of Zeus where she seduces him, with help from Aphrodite, and tricks him into a deep sleep, with the help of Hypnos, so that the Gods could interfere without the fear of Zeus.Homer. Iliad, Book 14, Lines 153-353.
In book 21, Hera continues her interference with the battle as she tells Hephaestus to prevent the river from harming Achilles. Hephaestus sets the battlefield ablaze, causing the river to plead with Hera, promising her he will not help the Trojans if Hephaestus stops his attack. Hephaestus stops his assault and Hera returns to the battlefield where the gods begin to fight amongst themselves. After Apollo declines to battle Poseidon, Artemis eagerly engages Hera for a duel. Hera however treats the challenge as unimportant, easily disarming the haughty rival goddess and beating her with her own weapons. Artemis is left retreating back to Mount Olympus in tears to cry at Zeus's lap.
As a result of his experiences, Zeus and Hera asked him to settle the question of which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women; Hera claimed it was men. When Tiresias sided with Zeus, Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy.
An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, Chariclo, begged her to undo her curse, but Athena could not; she gave him a prophecy instead.
Importance
According to Walter Burkert, both Hera and Demeter have many characteristic attributes of Pre-Greek ."The goddesses of Greek polytheism, so different and complementary"; Greek mythology scholar Walter Burkert has observed, in Homo Necans (1972) 1983:79f, "are nonetheless, consistently similar at an earlier stage, with one or the other simply becoming dominant in a sanctuary or city. Each is the Great Goddess presiding over a male society; each is depicted in her attire as Potnia Theron "Mistress of the Beasts", and Mistress of the Sacrifice, even Hera and Demeter."
Matriarchy
There has been considerable scholarship, reaching back to Johann Jakob Bachofen in the mid-nineteenth century,Bachofen, Mutterrecht 1861, as Mother Right: An Investigation of the Religious and Juridical Character of Matriarchy in the Ancient World. Bachofen was seminal in the writings of Jane Ellen Harrison and other students of Greek myth. about the possibility that Hera, whose early importance in Greek religion is firmly established, was originally the goddess of a matriarchal people, presumably inhabiting Greece before the Hellenes. In this view, her activity as goddess of marriage established the patriarchal bond of her own subordination: her resistance to the conquests of Zeus is rendered as Hera's "jealousy", the main theme of literary anecdotes that undercut her ancient cult.Slater 1968.
Walter Burkert notices that the ancient Kourotrophos figure is almost absent in Crete, and the nomination Mother Goddess was not the underlying principle in the Minoan religion.Burkert(1985), "Greek religion": p.41
Youth
Hera was most known as the matron goddess, Hera Teleia, but she presided over weddings as well. In myth and cult, fragmentary references and archaic practices remain of the sacred marriage of Hera and Zeus.Farnell, Cults I 191-193 At Plataea, there was a sculpture of Hera seated as a bride by Callimachus, as well as the matronly standing Hera.Pausanias, 9.2.7- 9.3.3 ; Pausanias explains this by telling the myth of the Daedala.
Festivals
The marriage of Zeus with Hera is the main theme in most Greek festivals celebrated in honour of the goddess. In the cults of Hera the dances and rites are performed by young married women. These choral dances reenacted early myth and ritual.Claude Calame(1977), "Choruses of Young women in Ancient Greece", 2.126-133 Burkert notices that "the disappearing and retrieval of Hera in some cults has parallels with other fertility cults". The Greek aetiological myths (etiology) give a reasonable explanation of the ritual and replicate its structural form. This is accurate for "aitia" related to initiation rituals from youth to maturity.Claude Calame(2001), "Choruses of Young women in Ancient Greece" p.17-18. Ancient accounts refer to the retirement of Hera after a quarrel with Zeus. Hera's wrath may indicate the wrath and jealousy of the Greek wife.Comp. the myth of Typhon: Nilsson, "Geschichte", Vol I p.432 Other accounts refer to cultic trees or pillars.O'Brian (1993), "The transformation of Hera": p.36 and rituals of the goddess of vegetation. Some accounts are related to rituals of the Bronze Age before the splitting of the "Mistress of the animals" into separate goddesses.O'Brian (1993), "The transformation of Hera": p.60-61
Emblems
In Hellenistic imagery, Hera's chariot was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of Alexander. Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, refers to it as "the Persian bird." The peacock motif was revived in the Renaissance iconography that unified Hera and Juno.Seznec, Jean, The Survival of the Pagan Gods: Mythological Tradition in Renaissance Humanism and Art, 1953 A bird that had been associated with Hera on an archaic level, when most of the Aegean goddesses were associated with "their" bird, was the cuckoo, which appears in mythic fragments concerning the first wooing of a virginal Hera by Zeus.
Temples of Hera
[[File:Agrigento-TempleD-Plan-bjs.png|thumb|right|280px|Agrigento-TempleD-of Hera]]
Mythology
Birth
Hera is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and the sibling of Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus.Hansen, p. 67; Hesiod, Theogony 453–9. Cronus was fated to be overthrown by one of his children; to prevent this, he swallowed all of his newborn children whole until Rhea tricked him into swallowing a stone instead of her youngest child, Zeus. Zeus grew up in secret and then tricked his father into regurgitating his siblings, including Hera. Zeus then led the revolt against the Titans, banished them, and divided the dominion over the world with his brothers, Poseidon and Hades.
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Marriage with Zeus
Hera is the goddess of marriage and childbirth rather than motherhood, and much of her mythology revolves around her marriage with her brother Zeus. She is charmed by him and she seduces him; he cheats on her and has many children with other goddesses and mortal women; she is intensely jealous and vindictive towards his children and their mothers; he is threatening and violent to her.
Leto and the Twins: Apollo and Artemis
In the early works of Homer and Hesiod, Hera displays no inherent animosity towards Leto or her children (for being children of an affair, that is. She quarrels with them for political reasons in the Iliad). In Hesiod’s Theogony, Leto is presented as one of Zeus’ wives prior to Hera, giving no indication that Hera disliked them. In later variations of this story, our earliest account being the Homeric Hymns to Delian Apollo, Hera was enraged when she discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father; especially when she was told that Apollo would be more dear to Zeus than Hera's son Ares. Hera received help from Ares and Iris to prevent Leto from giving birth, whence they “threatened all the cities which Leto approached, and prevented them from receiving her.”"Callimachus, Hymn to Delos" Alternatively, Juno convinced the nature spirits to prevent Latona (Leto) from giving birth on Solid earth, the mainland, any island at sea, or any place under the sun,Hyginus, Fabulae 140). but Poseidon felt pity to Leto and guided her to the floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island where Leto was able to give birth to her children.Hammond. Oxford Classical Dictionary. 597-598. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. The island later became sacred to Apollo. Alternatively, Hera kidnapped her daughter Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods bribed Hera with a beautiful necklace nobody could resist and she finally gave in.
Semele and Dionysus
When Hera learned that Semele, daughter of Cadmus King of Thebes, was pregnant by Zeus, she disguised herself as Semele's nurse and persuaded the princess to insist that Zeus show himself to her in his true form. When he was compelled to do so, having sworn by Styx,Hamilton, Edith (1969). "Mythology". his thunder and lightning destroyed Semele. Zeus took Semele's unborn child, Dionysus, and completed its gestation sewn into his own thigh.
Heracles
Hera is the stepmother and enemy of Heracles. The name Heracles means "Glory of Hera". In Homer's Iliad, when Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Zeus announced to all the gods that on that day a child by Zeus himself, would be born and rule all those around him. Hera, after requesting Zeus to swear an oath to that effect, descended from Mount Olympus to Argos and made the wife of Sthenelus (son of Perseus) give birth to Eurystheus after only seven months, while at the same time preventing Alcmene from delivering Heracles. This resulted in the fulfillment of Zeus's oath in that it was Eurystheus rather than Heracles. In Pausanias' recounting, Hera sent witches (as they were called by the Thebans) to hinder Alcmene's delivery of Heracles. The witches were successful in preventing the birth until Galanthis, daughter of Tiresias, thought of a trick to deceive the witches. Like Galanthis, Historis announced that Alcmene had delivered her child; having been deceived, the witches went away, allowing Alcmene to give birth.Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.11.3
Trojan War
A prophecy stated that a son of the sea-nymph Thetis, with whom Zeus fell in love after gazing upon her in the oceans off the Greek coast, would become greater than his father.Scholiast on Homer's Iliad; Hyginus, Fabulae 54; Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.217. Possibly for this reason,Apollodorus, 3.168. Thetis was betrothed to an elderly human king, Peleus son of Aeacus, either upon Zeus's orders,Pindar, Nemean 5 ep2; Pindar, Isthmian 8 str3–str5. or because she wished to please Hera, who had raised her.Hesiod, Catalogue of Women fr. 57; Cypria fr. 4. All the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles) and brought many gifts.Photius, Myrobiblion 190. Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited and was stopped at the door by Hermes, on Zeus's order. She was annoyed at this, so she threw from the door a gift of her own:Hyginus, Fabulae 92. a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "To the fairest").Apollodorus, E.3.2. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.
Minor stories
The Golden Fleece
Hera hated Pelias, king of Iolcus, because he had killed Sidero, his step-grandmother, in one of her temples. She later convinced his nephew Jason to kill Pelias. The Golden Fleece was the item that Jason needed to get his mother Alcimide freed, which he obtained with the help of the sorceress Medea, who was influenced by the goddess. At the request of Hera, Aelous calmed all the winds but the "steady" west wind, to aid their crew, the Argonauts, on their journey home.Apollonius of Rhodes, 4.757–769, 4.757–769 & 4.818–822
Cydippe
Cydippe, a priestess of Hera, was on her way to a festival in the goddess's honor. The oxen which were to pull her cart were overdue and her sons, Biton and Cleobis, pulled the cart the entire way (45 stadia, 8 kilometers). Cydippe was impressed with their devotion to her and Hera, and so asked Hera to give her children the best gift a god could give a person. Hera ordained that the brothers would die in their sleep. This honor bestowed upon the children was later used by Solon as proof when trying to convince Croesus that it is impossible to judge a person's happiness until they have died a fruitful death after a joyous life.Herodotus' History, Book I
Ixion
When Zeus had pity on Ixion and brought him to Olympus and introduced him to the gods, instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful for Hera. Zeus found out about his intentions and made a cloud in the shape of Hera, who was later named Nephele, and tricked Ixion into coupling with it. From their union came Centaurus. So Ixion was expelled from Olympus and Zeus ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning. Therefore, Ixion was bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, first spinning across the heavens, but in later myth transferred to Tartarus.Kerenyi 1951, p.160
Olympian Rebellion
In the Iliad, Homer tells of another attempted overthrow, in which Hera, Poseidon, and Athena conspire to overpower Zeus and tie him in bonds. It is only because of Thetis, who summons Briareus, one of the Hecatoncheires, to Olympus, that the other Olympians abandon their plans (out of fear for Briareus).Gantz, p. 59; Hard 2004, p. 82; Homer, Iliad 1.395–410.
Aëtos
According to the myth, Aëtos was a beautiful boy born of the Gaia. While Zeus was young and hiding in Crete from his father Cronus who had devoured all of Zeus's siblings, Aëtos became friends with the god and was among the first beings to swear fealty to him as new king. But years later, after Zeus had overthrown his father and become king in his place, Zeus's wife Hera turned Aëtos into an eagle, out of fear that Zeus loved him. Thus the eagle became the sacred bird of Zeus, and a symbol of power and kingship.Sophocles frag 320.Servius, Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 1.394
Tiresias
Tiresias was a priest of Zeus, and as a young man, he encountered two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of Hera, married, and had children, including Manto. After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes; depending on the myth, either she made sure to leave the snakes alone this time, or, according to Fabulae, trampled on them and became a man once more.Hygini, Fabulae, LXXV
Io and Argus
The myth of Io has many forms and embellishments. Generally, Io was a priestess of Hera at the Heraion of Argos. Zeus lusted after her and either Hera turned Io into a heifer to hide her from Zeus, or Zeus did so to hide her from Hera but was discovered. Hera had Io tethered to an olive-tree and set Argus Panoptes () to watch over her, but Zeus sent Hermes to kill him. (1996). 019866172X, Oxford University Press. 019866172X Infuriated, Hera then sent a gadfly (Greek oistros, compare Estrus cycle) to pursue and constantly sting Io, who fled into Asia and eventually reached Egypt. There Zeus restored her to human form and she gave birth to his son Epaphus.
Gerana
Gerana was a queen of the Pygmies who boasted she was more beautiful than Hera. The wrathful goddess turned her into a crane and proclaimed that her bird descendants should wage eternal war on the Pygmy folk.Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.89 - 91
Lamia
Lamia was a lovely queen of Libya, whom Zeus loved; Hera in jealousy robbed Lamia of their children, either by kidnapping and hiding them away, killing them, or causing Lamia herself to kill her own offspring.: "Because of Hera ... she lost or: the children she bore". Lamia became disfigured from the torment, transforming into a terrifying being who hunted and killed the children of others.Duris of Samos (d. 280 B. C.), Libyca, quoted by
Children
Angelos Zeus An underworld goddess Her story only survives in scholia on Theocritus' Idyll 2. She was raised by nymphs. One day she stole Hera's anointments and gave them away to Europa. To escape her mother's wrath, she tried to hide. Hera eventually ceased prosecuting her, and Zeus ordered the Cabeiroi to cleanse Angelos. They performed the purification rite in the waters of the Acherusia Lake in the Greek underworld. Consequently, she received the world of the dead as her realm of influence, and was assigned the epithet katachthonia ("she of the underworld").Scholia on Theocritus, Idyll 2. 12 referring to Sophron Ares Zeus God of war According to Hesiod's Theogony, he was a son of Zeus and Hera. Theogony 921–922. Arge Zeus A nymph A nymph daughter of Zeus and Hera. Charites Not named Goddesses of grace and beauty Though usually considered as the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, or Dionysus and Coronis according to Nonnus,Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48.548 the poet Colluthus makes them the daughters of Hera, without naming a father.Colluthus, Rape of Helen 173 Eileithyia Zeus Goddess of childbirth In Theogony and other sources, she is described as a daughter of Hera by Zeus. Although, the meticulously accurate mythographer Pindar in Seventh Nemean Ode mentions Hera as Eileithyia's mother but makes no mention of Zeus. Eleutheria Zeus Personification of liberty Eleutheria is the Greek counterpart of Libertas (Liberty), daughter of Jupiter (Zeus) and Juno (Hera) as cited in Hyginus, Fabulae Preface. Eris Zeus Goddess of discord In the Iliad, Eris is described as the sister of Ares, which would make her the daughter of Hera and Zeus in Homer. Hebe Zeus Goddess of youth She was a daughter of Zeus and Hera.Hesiod, Theogony 921–922; Homer, Odyssey 11. 604–605; Pindar, Isthmian 4.59–60; Apollodorus, 1.3.1, and later authors. In a rare alternative version, Hera alone produced Hebe after being impregnated by eating lettuce. A fragment by Callimachus describes Hera holding a feast to celebrate the seventh day after the birth of Hebe. Pindar states that Hebe stays by her mother's side in Olympus forever.Pindar, Nemean 10.17 Hephaestus Zeus God of fire and the forge Attested by Hesiod, Hera was jealous of Zeus's giving birth to Athena with Metis, so she gave birth to Hephaestus without union with Zeus Theogony 924–929. (though Homer has Hephaestus refer to "father Zeus"In Homer, Odyssey viii. 312 Hephaestus addresses "Father Zeus"; cf. Homer, Iliad i. 578 (some scholars, such as Gantz, Early Greek Myth, p. 74, note that Hephaestus's reference to Zeus as 'father' here may be a general title), xiv. 338, xviii. 396, xxi. 332. See also Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.22.). In some versions, Zeus threw Hephaestus off Mount Olympus because he protected Hera from his advances. Homeric Hymn to Apollo 316–321; Homer, Iliad 18.395–405.Homer, Iliad 1.590–594; Valerius Flaccus, ii, 8.5; Apollodorus, i, 3 § 5. Apollodorus confounds the two occasions on which Hephaestus was thrown from Olympus.
In other versions, Hera was the one who threw Hephaestus out of disgust for his ugliness. He gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical throne that did not allow her to leave once she sat on it.Guy Hedreen (2004) The Return of Hephaistos, Dionysiac Processional Ritual and the Creation of a Visual Narrative. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 124 (2004:38–64) p. 38 and note.Karl Kerenyi (1951) The Gods of the Greeks, pp 156–158. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go, but he repeatedly refused. Dionysus got him drunk and took him back to Olympus on the back of a mule.The return of Hephaestus on muleback to Olympus accompanied by Dionysus was a theme of the Attic vase painters, whose wares were favored by Etruscans. The return of Hephaestus was painted on the Etruscan tomb at the "Grotta Campana" near Veii (identified by Peterson; the "well-known subject" was doubted in this instance by A. M. Harmon, "The Paintings of the Grotta Campana", American Journal of Archaeology 16.1 (January - March 1912):1-10); for further examples, see Hephaestus#Return to Olympus. Hephaestus released Hera after being given Aphrodite as his wife. Pasithea Dionysus (?) One of the Charites Although in other works Pasithea doesn't seem to be born to Hera, Nonnus made the Grace Hera's daughter.Nonnus, Dionysiaca 31.186 Elsewhere in the book, Pasithea's father is said to be Dionysus,Nonnus, Dionysiaca 15.91 but it's unclear whether those two together are meant to be Pasithea's parents. Prometheus Eurymedon God of forethought Although usually Prometheus is said to be the son of Iapetus by his wife ClymeneHesiod, Theogony 507 or Asia,Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.2.2 Hellenistic poet Euphorion made Prometheus the son of Hera by the giant Eurymedon, who raped the young goddess while she was still living with her parents.Scholium on the Iliad 14.295Gantz, pp. 16, 57; Hard, p. 88. Typhon – Serpent-monster Typhon is presented both as the son of Hera (in Homeric Pythian Hymn to Apollo) and as the son of Gaia (in Hesiod's Theogony). According to the Homeric Hymns (6th century BCE), Typhon was the Parthenogenesis child of Hera, whom she bore alone as a revenge at Zeus who had given birth to Athena. Hera prayed to Gaia to give her a son as strong as Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant.Homeric Hymns 306–348. Stesichorus, Fragment 239 (Campbell, pp. 166–167) also has Hera produce Typhon alone to "spite Zeus". Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise, and Typhon grew up to become a great bane to mortals.Gantz, p. 49, remarks on the strangeness of such a description for one who would challenge the gods. The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, however, has Typhon born in Cilicia as the offspring of Cronus. Gaia, angry at the destruction of the Giants, slanders Zeus to Hera. So Hera goes to Cronus and he gives her two eggs smeared with his own semen, telling her to bury them, and that from them would be born one who would overthrow Zeus. Hera, angry at Zeus, buries the eggs in Cilicia "under Arimon", but when Typhon is born, Hera, now reconciled with Zeus, informs him.Kirk, Raven, and Schofield. pp. 59–60 no. 52; Ogden 2013b, pp. 36–38; Gantz, pp. 50–51, Ogden 2013a, p. 76 n. 46.
Genealogy
Art and events
See also
Footnotes
Notes
(1998). 9780674362819, Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674362819
External links
Categories: Children Of Cronus, Marriage Goddesses, Queens In Greek Mythology, Metamorphoses Characters, Deities In The Iliad, Mythological Rape Victims, Mythology Of Heracles, Divine Women Of Zeus, Characters In The Odyssey, Deities In The Aeneid, Greek Goddesses, Queens Of Heaven, Mothers Of The Twelve Olympians, Childhood Goddesses, Characters In The Argonautica, Household Deities, Domestic And Hearth Deities, Women Of The Trojan War, Health Deities, Health Goddesses, Twelve Olympians, Shapeshifters In Greek Mythology, Cattle Deities
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