Hera

Hera, the wife of Zeus,
was the last of his divine companions. She was the daughter of Cronus and
Rhea. Her mother entrusted her to Tethys, who brought her up on the very
edge of the world in a place called Oceanus while Zeus was struggling with
the Titans. This is one legend, but it also is held that Zeus and his
sister had a long betrothal, which dates back to the time when Cronus
still ruled the world. There are numerous stories relating to the union of
Zeus and Hera. One version by Pausanias tells how young Hera found a
cuckoo stiff and cold on a wintry day and held it to her breast to warm
it. The bird was none other than Zeus, who had disguised himself as such
to overcome his sister's refusal to satisfy his desire for her. But Hera
did not yield to him until he promised to make her his legal wife. Also,
is told the story of how each year the goddess bathes in the sacred stream
at Nauplia, and thus recovered her virginity.

Hera and Zeus

At the time, the marriage of Zeus and Hera was of great religious
significance because it amounted to an act of worship on which the
fertility of the world depended. Homer, in Book XIV of the Iliad,
describes a very human version of this union between the god and goddess,
but almost everywhere in Greek rites persisted a commemoration (or the
provocation by magic) of their marriage. Usually on the occasions a statue
of the goddess was decked in the apparel of a young bride and carried
though the city to a sanctuary to where a marriage bed was proffered.
Different cities had various versions of the ceremony. Poets usually set
the marriage in the garden of Hephaetus in the far west. Others had the
golden apples ripening in the garden be wedding a present from Gaea to the
goddess, who thought they were so beautiful that she planted them in her
garden by the sea.

Family tree

Three children came from this divine marriage, Ares,
Eileithyia, and Hebe; as for Hera's fourth child, Hephaestus, Zeus usually
is not credited as the father. Hera, the goddess protecting wives and
legal marriages, was jealous of Zeus, whose innumerable infidelities she
found hard to forgive, and she was particularly ardent in her hatred and
pursuit of the illegitimate children fathered by her husband. This was
particularly true of Hercules
who she forced into the service of Eurystheus. At times Zeus punished Hera
for her acts of violence. For example, when returning to Greece after
taking the city of Troy the goddess raised a terrible storm at sea to
wreck the ship of Hercules. This angered Zeus who literally suspended the
goddess from Olympus
by attaching an anvil to both of Hera's feet. But once Hercules was
deified, Hera was totally reconciled with him and gave him the hand of
Hebe.

Myths

When Zeus bore Athena
by himself, Hera gave birth to Typhaon without him. This terrible creature
resembled neither the gods nor men. He was reminiscent of the monster
Typhon that battled Zeus on behalf of the original earth goddess Gaia.

Facts

Hera was one of the three goddesses who entered the contest of beauty on
Mount Ida in Phrygia. Zeus appointed the shepherd Paris
to judge it, and he chose Aphrodite,
which angered Hera and caused her bitter resentment against Troy. In the
course of the Trojan War Hera favored the Achaeans, protecting Achilles
(whose mother, Thetis, was said to have been brought up by Hera), and
conferring immortality on Menelaus.

Symbols

Hera was the principal goddess of the city of Argos where she had a
famous temple. The peacock was her emblem, and its plumage was considered
to the image of the hundred eyes of Argos, the watcher that she had set to
watch Io. The goddess was often portrayed with a pomegranate in her hand,
the symbol of fertility.