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HERA GODDESS ΗΡΗ
GENERAL
INFO
I)
What was Hera the goddess of?
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QUEEN OF HEAVEN
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Patron of: the Air; Clear
skies; Rain; Storms; the Constellations
Favour: Clear skies; Rain-showers; Cool-breezes
Curse: Storms
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GODDESS OF KINGS &
EMPIRES
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Patron of: Kings; Kingdoms;
Empires; Royal dynasties; Politics
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GODDESS OF MARRIAGE
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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
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GODDESS OF
WOMEN'S FERTILITY
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Patron of: Menstruation;
Women's fertility
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GODDESS OF CHILDBIRTH
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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
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GODDESS OF HEIRS
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Patron of: Heirs; Dynasties;
Fidelity (legitimate heir & not the product
of adultery); Inheritance
Favour: Birth of a male heir
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II)
What were her symbols, attributes,
sacred plants and animals?
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SYMBOLS
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Crown; Lotus-staff and
Cuckoo
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ATTRIBUTES
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Lotus-staff; Crown; Cuckoo;
Peacock; Pomegranate
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CHARIOT
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Drawn by peacocks
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SACRED PLANTS
/ FLOWERS
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Pomegranate (Greek "rhoa",
"rhoie" or "side"); Willow (Greek
"itea");
Lotus / waterlily (Greek "lotos")
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SACRED ANIMALS
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Heifer / young cow (Greek
"damalis" or "portis"); Lion
(Greek "leon")
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SACRED BIRDS
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Cuckoo (Greek "kokkux");
Peacock (Greek "taos");
Wide-winged
hawk (Greek "?");
Crane (Greek "geranos")
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PLANET OF HERA
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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.
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DAY OF HERA
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N/A
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III)
Who were the family & attendants of Hera?
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FATHER
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KRONOS Deposed Titan-King of
the Gods, son of Ouranos the sky & Gaia the
earth
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MOTHER
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RHEA Former Titan-Queen of
the Gods, daughter of Ouranos the sky & Gaia
the earth
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HUSBAND
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ZEUS King of the Gods
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DIVINE CHILDREN
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ARES God of War
HEPHAISTOS God of Metalworking
HEBE Goddess of Youth and Brides
EILEITHYIA Goddess of Childbirth
ERIS Goddess of Strife (including marital)
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HERO CHILDREN
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None
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ATTENDANTS & MINIONS
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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
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IV)
Where and how was she worshipped?
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PATRON OF REGIONS
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Argos in Greece; Samos,
Greek Island
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HOLIEST SHRINE
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Argos in the Argolis, Greece
(where she was raised);
Samos, Greek Island (where she was born)
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OTHER SHRINES
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Temples throughout Greece;
Major temple and Games held at Olympia in Elis,
Greece
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ASPECTS OF HERA
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Khaos-Aer (the Air); Hemera
(Day); Nyx (Night); Titanis Rheia (Flow);
Titanis Selene (the Moon); Titanis Eos (Dawn);
Mother of Typhon (Typhoon, Smoke)
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IDENTIFIED WITH
NON-GREEK GODS
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Juno (Roman goddess); Isis (Egyptian
goddess)
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V)
What were some popular myths about Hera?
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SAGA OF THE GODS
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* 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.
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LOVE STORIES
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* 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.
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FAVOUR & BLESSINGS
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* 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.
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WRATH & PUNISHMENT
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* 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.
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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
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