Being  thus  renowned  in  some  of  the  earliest  seats  of  the
Hellenic  race,  it  seems  likely  that  Hera  belonged  to  an  early  stage
of  the  religion  of  Greece.  It  has  been  disputed  whether  she  em-
bodies the  earth,  the  moon,  or  the  air ;  and  in  fact  the  various
tales  told  of  her  indicate  a  connection  sometimes  with  one  and
sometimes  with  the  other.  Hera  or  Era  ?eems  to  be  an  old
name  of  the  earth  in  Greece.  When  Hera  is  said  to  have
borne  by  her  own  power  Hephaestus  or  even  Typhaon,  we  may
interpret  this  myth  by  the  bursting  forth  of  subterranean  fires
from  the  ground.  When  Zeus  is  spoken  of  as  embracing  Hera
on  the  mountain  top  where  heaven  and  earth  meet,  we  naturally
identify  heaven  and  earth  with  the  husband  and  the  wife  re-
spectively. It  is  but  a  repetition  in  the  language  of  current
Greek  mythology  of  the  old  story  of  the  union  of  Uranus  and
Gaea.  Yet  on  the  other  hand  Hera  is  sometimes  identified  with
the  lower  air,  while  Zeus  is  regarded  as  the  upper  sky,  in  the
story  for  instance  of  Ixion,  who  mistook  a  cloud  for  Hera;
and  this  was  the  view  adopted  by  philosophers  and  theosophers,
from  Plato,  who  quibbles  about  "H/oa  and  d-qp  in  the  Cratylus,'^
downwards.  It  is  again  certain  that  there  was  in  Hera  some-
thing of  the  moon-goddess  :  this  appears  from  the  story  of  lo,
and  is  clearly  established  by  the  close  connection  maintained
by  the  Greeks  between  Hera  and  the  deities  of  partuiition.
