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Hera was the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea and was
born either on the island of Samos or at Argos. These two islands became the
chief seats of her worship in ancient Greece, but she was brought up in Arcadia
by Temenus, son of Pelasgus, or, according to Homer, by the Titans Oceanus and
Tethys. The Seasons were her nurses, which is a way of saying that Hera was a
goddess of the calendar year.
She was Zeus’ sister and equal to him in one thing
alone: that she could bestow the gift of prophecy on anyone she pleased.
Following the Olympians' overthrow of their father Cronus, who used to
swallow his children as they were born, she became his wife. But she
didn't do so willingly, and in fact she rejected his advances when he
courted her at Cnossus in Crete, or on Mount Thornax, since renamed
Mount Cuckoo.
Zeus finally resorted to trickery in order to win her
over, and transformed himself into a sad-looking and bedraggled cuckoo,
soaked from a sudden thunderstorm. Hera did not see through his
disguise, took pity on this poor creature and held it in her bosom to
warm it. Resuming his true shape, Zeus then used the opportunity to
ravish her and in shame she agreed to marry him.
The wedding feast was a huge and momentous bash and
all the gods brought wonderful gifts for the new couple. In particular,
Gaea (Mother Earth) gave Hera a tree with golden apples, which she
placed in her orchard on Mount Atlas. There the maidens called the
Hesperides and the dragon named Ladon guarded the golden apples, until
the great hero Heracles came by and stole three of them to fulfill one
of his labors.
Following the wedding party Hera and Zeus spent their
honeymoon on the island of Samos and it lasted three hundred years. To
them were born the gods Ares, Hephaestus and Hebe, even though some say
that Ares and his twin sister Eris (Strife) were conceived when Hera
touched a flower (perhaps the may-blossom), and Hebe when Hera touched a
lettuce. Some claim that Ilithyia (or Eileithyia), goddess of
childbirth, was her child by Zeus.
Even Hephaestus was said to be her son alone, created
when she got angry at Zeus for giving birth alone to Athena from his
head. In disgust at the sickly and ugly child she had birthed, Hera
flung Hephaestus from Olympus, and he fell for a whole day until he
landed in the sea, where the surf carried him to the island of Lemnos.
When Hephaestus grew up and was convinced to return
to Mount Olympus and to regain his rightful place among the gods, he
crafted a mechanical chair with arms that folded and imprisoned the
sitter. Thus trapping his mother, he made her swear an unbreakable oath
by the River Styx that indeed she alone gave birth to him, and that he
had no father. However, while some claim that Zeus was Hephaestus'
father, others hold that he was Hera's son by Talos, the nephew of the
inventor Daedalus.
Hera's name is usually taken to be a Greek word for 'lady',
or perhaps it derives from the pre-Hellenic Herwa
(Protectress). She was given the nickname "cow-faced" (in some
translations "ox-eyed") which has stuck with her through the ages, but
the Queen of the Olympians was very beautiful. In fact she was one of
the three contestants in the Judgment of Paris, which was held to
identify the most beautiful goddess, and which led to the Trojan War.
(Paris chose Aphrodite after she promised him the hand of gorgeous
Helen, forever incurring Hera and Athena's wrath.)
But her personality was not as attractive, for she
was frequently petty, cruel and vindictive, and in myths is most often
shown administering some sort of revenge on one of Zeus’ lovers or his
illegitimate children. Despite the important role Hera played in
religious circles, her mythological role is usually that of jealous wife
and shrew. In only one myth is she shown as a noble and gracious
protector of heroes and inspirer of heroic deeds, and that was when she
assisted Jason and the Argonauts in their Quest of the Golden Fleece.
Not that you could blame her - Zeus was anything but
a faithful husband, so Hera in her turn was not a loyal wife. In fact,
when he was young, Zeus drove his wife so mad with his antics that she
convinced the other gods to join in a revolt against her husband. Her
part was to drug Zeus until he was unconscious, and she did so
successfully. The scheming gods then took away the King of the
Olympians' fearsome thunderbolts and bound the sleeping Zeus with
rawhide thongs to a couch, taking care to tie 100 strong knots so that
he could not move.
They had not, however, planned what to do next and
began to quarrel over who would take Zeus’ place. Their leader awoke and
threatened his wife and the other mutineers with certain death unless
they immediately released him, but they had placed his thunderbolts out
of reach and just laughed at him.
The Nereid Thetis saw the Olympians arguing over the
leadership and knew that a civil war was about to break out on Olympus.
She hurried in search of the hundred-handed Briareus, whom Zeus had
freed from the prison of Tartarus, and snuck him into the palace. Still
full of gratitude to Zeus, Briareus was more than happy to come to his
master's help and, using every hand at once, was able to quickly untie
the many knots. Before the quarrelsome gods knew what was happening,
Zeus sprang from the couch and grabbed his thunderbolts. As the gods
fell to their knees begging and pleading for mercy, he seized Hera and
hung her from the sky with gold chains.
To further punish her, Zeus tied heavy anvils on her
feet to weigh her down. In excruciating pain she moaned and groaned all
night but none of the others dared to help her. For four days and nights
she was suspended from the sky, but her loud weeping kept Zeus from
falling asleep and finally he agreed to release her if she would swear
to never again rebel against him. She had little choice but to agree.
While Hera never again rebelled, she was still vexed
by his infidelities and often intrigued against Zeus's plans, managing
to humiliate him on more than one occasion.
Hera was the goddess of marriage and protector of
married women. Her sandals and chariot were made of pure gold, crafted
by her son Hephaestus. He also designed her splendid throne, described
here in fine fashion by Robert
Graves, from his wonderful book, Greek
Gods and Goddesses:
"Queen Hera had an ivory throne, with three
crystal steps leading up to it. Golden cuckoos and willow leaves
decorated the back, and a full moon hung above it. Hera sat on a white
cow skin, which she sometimes used for rain-making magic if Zeus could
not be bothered to stop a drought...she was his Queen, and perpetually
young and beautiful."
Some of the more famous victims of the wrath of Hera
included the greatest Greek hero, Heracles (Hercules),
whom she tormented relentlessly; Semele,
mother of Dionysus, god of wine, as well as Dionysus himself
and his parents, whom she caused to go mad; Leto,
mother of Apollo and Artemis; Lamia,
all of whose seven children, save for Scylla, Hera killed in a fit of
jealousy; Echo, who
could no longer use her voice in punishment, except in foolish
repetition of another's shout; the seer Teiresias, whom
she blinded for saying that women enjoyed sex more than men; Io, who
was changed into a cow and tormented by a gadfly sent by Hera; Callisto, who
was turned by Hera into a bear, leading to her tragic death; and many,
many more...
But Hera did help Hippodameia find happiness
through marriage to Pelops; this began the Heraean
Games, as Robert Graves tells us in The
Greek Myths:
"In gratitude to Hera for
facilitating her marriage with Pelops, Hippodameia summoned sixteen
matrons, one from every city of Elis, to help her institute the Heraean
Games. Every fourth year, ever since, the Sixteen Matrons, their
successors, have woven a robe for Hera and celebrated the Games; which
consist of a single race between virgins of different ages, the
competitors being handicapped according to their years, with the
youngest placed in front. They run clad in tunics of less than knee
length, their right breast bared, their hair flying free. Chloris,
Niobe's only surviving daughter, was the first victrix in these games;
the course of which has been fixed at five-sixths of the Olympic
circuit. The prize is an olive wreath, and a share of the cow sacrificed
to Hera; a victrix may also dedicate a statue of herself in her own
name"
Despite her often-ridiculous mythological
characterization, Hera's role in the religion of the day was great. She
was venerated in every home and Ilithyia (or Eileithyia), who was the
goddess of childbirth, was her daughter. Her worship was fervent and
extensive, particularly at Samos and Argos, and her divine position as
the goddess of women and marriage was accepted throughout most of
Greece.
Keep in mind that Hera was actually the only
married woman among the Olympians, for Aphrodite's 'marriage' to
Hephaestus can hardly be called legitimate, because it was an arranged
marriage with no commitment or loyalty.
In appearance, Hera is usually represented as a
majestic woman of mature age, with a beautiful forehead, large and
widely opened eyes, and with a grave and stern expression that commands
reverence. Her hair was adorned with a crown or a diadem, with a veil
frequently hanging down the back of her head, to characterize her as the
bride of Zeus.
Her animal is the cow, the most motherly of
animals, but not wanting to be thought of as plain-looking, she also
adopted the lion as her symbol, and the peacock and the cuckoo as her
birds.
Her other attributes are the veil, the diadem and the scepter. As
a former Death-goddess, Hera was also shown holding a pomegranate. On
Olympus, Hera had her very own messenger - the fleet-footed Iris,
goddess of the rainbow.
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GREEK STAMP HONORING HERA, QUEEN OF OLYMPIANS
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THE ANGRY ONE
Callimachus,
Hymn to Delos
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