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HERA GODDESS ΗΡΗ


GENERAL INFO

I) What was Hera the goddess of?

QUEEN OF HEAVEN

Patron of: the Air; Clear skies; Rain; Storms; the Constellations
Favour: Clear skies; Rain-showers; Cool-breezes
Curse: Storms

GODDESS OF KINGS & EMPIRES

Patron of: Kings; Kingdoms; Empires; Royal dynasties; Politics

GODDESS OF MARRIAGE

Patron of: Maidens of marriageable age; Maiden virginity; Betrothals; 
Bride-price (dowry); Weddings; Marriage; Wives; Fidelity; Widows
Favour: Good betrothal; Marital harmony
Curse: Marital discord; Punishment of adulterers

GODDESS OF
WOMEN'S FERTILITY

Patron of: Menstruation; Women's fertility

GODDESS OF CHILDBIRTH

Patron of: Childbirth (the mother) (NB As goddesses of childbirth, Hera was protector of the mother, Artemis of the birthing infant)
Favour: Successful birth
Curse: Protracted labour; Death in childbirth

GODDESS OF HEIRS

Patron of: Heirs; Dynasties; Fidelity (legitimate heir & not the product of adultery); Inheritance
Favour: Birth of a male heir

II) What were her symbols, attributes,
sacred plants and animals?

SYMBOLS

Crown; Lotus-staff and Cuckoo

ATTRIBUTES

Lotus-staff; Crown; Cuckoo; Peacock; Pomegranate

CHARIOT

Drawn by peacocks

SACRED PLANTS / FLOWERS

Pomegranate (Greek "rhoa", "rhoie" or "side"); Willow (Greek "itea");
Lotus / waterlily (Greek "lotos")

SACRED ANIMALS

Heifer / young cow (Greek "damalis" or "portis"); Lion (Greek "leon")

SACRED BIRDS

Cuckoo (Greek "kokkux"); Peacock (Greek "taos"); 
Wide-winged hawk (Greek "?"); Crane (Greek "geranos")

PLANET OF HERA

Venus (named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love identified with Aphrodite). The Greeks called the planet "Aster Aphroditas" (Star of Aphrodite) or "Aster Heras" (Star of Hera), for the women's star was shared between the two goddesses.

DAY OF HERA

N/A

III) Who were the family & attendants of Hera?

FATHER

KRONOS Deposed Titan-King of the Gods, son of Ouranos the sky & Gaia the earth

MOTHER

RHEA Former Titan-Queen of the Gods, daughter of Ouranos the sky & Gaia the earth

HUSBAND

ZEUS King of the Gods

DIVINE CHILDREN

ARES God of War
HEPHAISTOS God of Metalworking
HEBE Goddess of Youth and Brides
EILEITHYIA Goddess of Childbirth
ERIS Goddess of Strife (including marital)

HERO CHILDREN

None

ATTENDANTS & MINIONS

EILEITHYIA Goddess of Childbirth
HEBE Goddess of Youth
IRIS Goddess of the Rainbow
THE HORAI Goddesses of the Seasons & Heavenly Law and Order
OKEANIDES Cloud-Nymphai
As Queen of Heaven, most of the gods would do her bidding

IV) Where and how was she worshipped?

PATRON OF REGIONS

Argos in Greece; Samos, Greek Island

HOLIEST SHRINE

Argos in the Argolis, Greece (where she was raised);
Samos, Greek Island (where she was born)

OTHER SHRINES

Temples throughout Greece; Major temple and Games held at Olympia in Elis, Greece

ASPECTS OF HERA

Khaos-Aer (the Air); Hemera (Day); Nyx (Night); Titanis Rheia (Flow);
Titanis Selene (the Moon); Titanis Eos (Dawn); Mother of Typhon (Typhoon, Smoke)

IDENTIFIED WITH
NON-GREEK GODS

Juno (Roman goddess); Isis (Egyptian goddess)

V) What were some popular myths about Hera?

SAGA OF THE GODS

* Hera and her siblings were swallowed at birth by their father Kronos. Zeus later conscripted Metis to feed the Titan-King a draught which made him disgorge the five.
* After Zeus birthed Athena from his head, Hera conceived her own child without intercourse. This son was born deformed, and Hera cast him out of heaven in disgust. Hephaistos, when grown, trapped his mother on a magical, binding throne as punishment of her earlier rejection.

LOVE STORIES

* Zeus seduced Hera in the shape of a cuckoo and the pair were wed in a secret ceremony.
* Ixion tried to seduce Hera, who reported his actions to Zeus. The god formed a simalcrum of the goddess out of clouds and sent it to the man. When he slept with this false Hera, Zeus sentenced him to spin for all eternity on a fiery wheel.

FAVOUR & BLESSINGS

* Hera supported the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece, aiding them on many occasions. Jason had earlier won her favour when he carried the goddess, disguised as an old woman, across a swollen river.

WRATH & PUNISHMENT

* Zeus transformed his lover Io into a cow when Hera appeared on the scene. She requested the heifer as a gift and set the giant Argos Panoptes to guard it. When he was slain, Hera sent a gadfly to torture Io, driving her to wander all the way to Egypt.
* Hera discovered the affair of Zeus and Semele and tricked the girl into asking Zeus to appear before her in his full glory. She did and was consumed by his fiery lightning.
* After the goddess learnt that Aiakos King of Aigina was an illegitimate son of Zeus, she poisoned the island's waters, killing the country's entire population.
* When Hera discovered the Titaness Leto was pregnant with Zeus' child, she sent her agents to drive the goddess from land to land, denying her a place to give birth.
* Zeus once declared that the next child born of his blood would rule in Mykenai. The god intended it to be Herakles, but Hera delayed his birth (almost killing his mother in the process) and sped up the delivery of his cousin Eurystheus. When Herakles was born, she sent serpents to his cradle to kill him.
* Hera drove Zeus' illegitimate son Herakles mad, compelling him to murder his own children. The hero was then forced to complete twelve labours for Eurystheus, and in the process Hera opposed him at every turn.
* The goddess was wrathful at losing to Aphrodite the prize of the Golden Apple adressed "to the Fairest". She took her anger out on the city Troy, supporting the Greeks, in a war over the elopement of unfaithful Helene (Aphrodite bribe to Paris for the prize).
* Hera turned the pygmy queen Gerana into a crane as punishment for claiming to be more beautiful than she.


PICTURES

I) Depictions of Hera in Greek Vase Painting

These images of Hera come from Ancient Greek Vases, painted approximately 2,500 years ago. NB Click on thumbnails to view full-size images.

II) Other Classical Depictions of Hera

Hera was also depicted in classical statues, stone reliefs, frescoes and coins.


SELECTED MYTHS (short versions)

I) Hera and the Trap of Hephaistos

"Hephaistos, when he was born, was cast out [of heaven] by Hera. In revenge he sent as a gift a golden chair with invisible fetters. When Hera sat down she was held fast, and Hephaistos refused to listen to any other of the gods save Dionysos - in him he reposed the fullest trust - and after making him drunk Dionysos brought him to heaven [and released Hera]." Source: Pausanias, Guide to Greece 1.20.3

II) Hera and Zeus Contest the Joys of Sex

"Teiresias saw two snakes sexually couples in the area of Kyllene, and when he injured them he changed from a man into a woman. Later, seeing the same snakes again mating, he was changed back into a man. Thus, when Hera and Zeus were arguing as to whether men or women enjoy sex more, they put the question to Teiresias. He said that on a scale of ten, women enjoy it nine times to men’s one. Whereupon Hera blinded him, and Zeus gave him the power of prophecy." Source: Apollodorus, The Library 3.71

III) Hera and the Lust of Ixion

"Ixion [a man who feasted with the gods on Olympos] fell in love with Hera and tried to rape her, and when Hera told Zeus about it, Zeus wanted to determine if her report was really true. So he fashioned a cloud to look like Hera, and laid it by Ixion’s side. When Ixion bragged that he had slept with Hera, Zeus punished him by tying him to a wheel, on which he was turned by winds up in the air." Source: Apollodorus E1.20

IV) Hera and the Pygmy-Queen Gerana

"A certain woman became queen and ruled over the Pygmaioi (Pygmies); her name was Gerana, and the Pygmaioi worshipped her as a god, paying her honours too august for a human being. The result was, they say, that she became so puffed up in her mind that she held the goddesses of no account. It was especially Hera, Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite that, she said, came nowhere near her in beauty. But she was not destined to escape the evil consequences of her diseased imagination. For in consequence of the anger of Hera she changed her original form into that of a most hideous bird and became the crane of today and wages war on the Pygmaioi because with their excessive honours they drove her to madness and to her destruction." Source: Aelian, On Animals 15.29

V) Hera, Io and the Peacock's Tail

"Juppiter [Zeus] [seduced the Nymphe Io, and] fore-sensing his spouse’s [Hera's] arrival, transformed poor Inachis [Io] into a sleek white heifer (lovely still although a cow). Saturnia [Hera], against her will, admired the creature and asked whose she was, and whence she came and to what herd belonged, pretending not to know the truth. He lied - ‘The earth had brought her forth’ - so to deflect questions about her birth. Then Saturnia [Hera] begged the heifer as a gift. What should he do? Too cruel to give his darling! Not to give - suspicious; shame persuades but love dissuades. Love would have won; but then - if he refused his wife (his sister too) so slight a gift, a cow, it well might seem no cow at all! The goddess won her rival, but distrust lingered and still she feared her husband’s tricks, till, for safe-keeping, she had given the cow to Arestorides [Argos] - Argus of the hundred eyes, all watching and on duty round his head, save two which took in turn their sleep and rest ... Heaven’s master [Zeus] could not endure Phoronis’ [Io’s] distress, and summoned his son [Hermes] ... and charged him to accomplish Argus’ death ... [So Hermes] visited him [Argos], and with many a tale he stayed the passing hours and on his reeds played soft refrains to lull the watching eyes ... [and Hermes] saw all Argus’ eyelids closed and every eye vanquished in sleep. He stopped and with his wand, his magic wand, soothed the tired resting eyes and sealed their slumber; quick then with his sword he struck off the nodding head and from the rock threw it all bloody, spattering the cliff with gore. Argus lay dead; so many eyes, so bright quenched, and all hundred shrouded in one night. Saturnia [Hera] retrieved those eyes to set in place among the feathers of her bird [the peacock] and filled his tail with starry jewels." Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.624

VI) Hera and the Death of Semele

"Zeus fell in love with Semele and slept with her, promising her anything she wanted, and keeping it all from Hera. But Semele was deceived by Hera into asking Zeus to come to her as he came to Hera during their courtship. So Zeus, unable to refuse her, arrived in her bridal chamber in a chariot with lightning flashes and thunder, and sent a thunderbolt at her. Semele died of fright, and Zeus grabbed from the fire her six-month aborted baby [Dionysos], which he sowed into his thigh." Source: Apollodorus 3.26


FURTHER INFO (7 detailed pages on Hera)

NOTE: Many of these sections are currently under construction (they will be available later in 2005-6)

PART 1: THE GODDESS HERA
Index of Hera pages
List of Homeric Titles
Illustrations from Greek Vase Paintings
Quotes - describing in detail her various divine functions

PART 2: MYTHS GENERAL
Quotes - general stories about Hera

PART 3: MYTHS WRATH
List of those Punished
Quotes - stories of those punished by the goddess

PART 4: MYTHS BLESSINGS
List of those Blessed
Quotes - stories of heroes blessed or assisted by the goddess

PART 5: MYTHS PERSECUTIONS
List of the Lovers & Children of Zeus Persecuted
Quotes - stories of the lovers & children of Zeus tormented by Hera

PART 6: TREASURES & ATTENDANTS
Lists of divine Possessions and Attendants
Quotes - items owned by the goddess; sacred plants and animals
Quotes - attendants of the goddess

PART 7: CULT OF HERA
List of Cult Titles
Quotes - cult of the goddess organised by region


PAGE BORDER: Derived from on an ancient Greek vase painting