Hera
(Roman – Juno)
Name: Date: Per:
Both the sister and the wife of Zeus, the queen of the Greek Olympian gods, and the protector of marriage and women's lives. Her symbols were the peacock, a symbol of showy pride, and the pomegranate, a symbol of fertility. (In ancient Athens, people often gave pomegranates to brides in honor of Hera, and a large proportion of weddings took place in the month dedicated to the goddess—roughly June.) Women all over Greece worshiped Hera (whom the Romans identified with an ancient Italian protector of women—Juno), offering her regular prayers and sacrifice. Although her function of overseeing childbirth eventually passed to a minor goddess, Eileithyia
(whom the Romans called Lucina), the latter was usually depicted as Hera's daughter and/or assistant.
A number of different versions of Hera's birth and later marriage to Zeus existed in ancient times. The most famous and widely accepted was that she was one of the six original children of the Titans Kronos and Rhea (the others being Hestia, Demeter,
Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus). Kronos swallowed the infant Hera, along with the others, except for Zeus, who later forced Kronos to regurgitate the brood. Subsequently, Zeus had love affairs with various goddesses until deciding that Hera was the only one worthy of being his permanent mate. In a popular alternate version, Zeus saw his sister
Hera walking in the woods near Argos (a city that became one of the two main centers of her worship in Greece, the other being the Aegean island of Samos).
Consumed with desire for her, he caused a thunderstorm, disguised himself as a bird, and took refuge inside her dress. There, he changed back to his true form, embraced her, and promised to marry her. Although the most predominate version has the disgruntled Hera tricking him. S he turned herself into the most beautiful bird and fluttered around the enamored Zeus. He instantly fell in the love with the bird’s beauty and said that if he could marry the bird, he would. Upon hearing this, the bird transformed back to Hera and she held him to his pledge.
At any rate, Zeus was not alone in lusting after Hera. During the famous battle between the gods and the giants, a giant named Porphyrion tried to rape her, but
Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt. When another giant, Ephialtes, made advances on
Hera, her sister Demeter intervened and slew the interloper.
Yet Hera quite often showed that she was capable of taking care of herself, sometimes helping and other times hindering various mortals. She helped the hero
Jason, for example, in his quest for the Golden Fleece, in large part to punish Pelias, king of Iolcos (who had earlier committed sacrilege by stabbing his stepmother to death at the goddess's altar). On the other hand, Hera persecuted the Trojans during their famous war with the Greeks. The goddess's anger was provoked by the Trojan prince, Paris, when he failed to award her the prize for most beautiful goddess in the famous Judgment of Paris.
In fact, Hera became so intent on helping the Greeks against the Trojans that she risked incurring her husband's wrath. He had warned her and the other gods to stop siding with one army or the other. But she sought and found a way to help the Greeks

behind his back. ―Hera, poised on her golden throne, looked down, stationed high at her post aloft Olympus's peak,‖ writes Homer in the Iliad.
―She saw great Zeus at rest on the ridge and craggy heights of Ida [a mountain located to the southeast of Troy] … and her heart filled with loathing. What could she do?—Queen Hera wondered…. How could she outmaneuver Zeus, the mastermind … with his battle-shield of storm and thunder? At last one strategy struck her mind as best; she would dress in all her glory and go to Ida—perhaps the old desire would overwhelm the king to … make immortal love [with her] and she might drift an oblivious, soft warm sleep across his eyes and numb that seething brain.‖ ( Iliad 14.187–
203)
Hera's plan worked. After she and Zeus made love, he fell asleep (thanks to the god of sleep, Hypnos, who helped Hera) and the sea god Poseidon, who also supported the
Greeks against the Trojans, turned the tide of battle in favor of the Greek army.
(Eventually Zeus woke up, ordered Poseidon to desist, and scolded Hera for her scheme.)
This was not the only time that Zeus and Hera found themselves at odds. One of the most famous of their spats was an argument over who enjoyed sex more—men or women? Hera insisted that men enjoyed sex more, and Zeus claimed it was women.
To settle the argument, they asked the opinion of a mortal named Tiresias (because he was the only being they knew of who had been both male and female in his lifetime).
Tiresias told them that women enjoy sex more, which made Hera so angry that she blinded the poor man. Because Zeus could not ―undo‖ the acts of another god, the reward Tiresias, or make up for Hera’s punishment, Zeus granted him the power of prophesy. Thus, although he could not see, he could see into the future.
Most of the bad feelings between Hera and her husband, however, stemmed from
Zeus's frequent extramarital affairs. Hera was renowned for her jealousy and punishment of his lovers and their relatives. Perhaps the most famous example was her hatred and persecution of the hero Heracles, provoked by Zeus's love affair with a mortal woman, Alcmena, Heracles' mother. Hera also persecuted Io, a princess of
Argos, after Zeus had seduced her. Trying to save the girl from his wife's wrath, the god turned Io into a young cow. But Hera saw through the ruse and sent gadflies to sting Io.
Later Zeus had the talkative nymph Echo keep Hera engaged in conversation while he went to help Io and remove her from Argos. Hera, however, saw through the ploy and punished Echo by making this chatty nymph only able to speak the last words spoken by someone else. Hera then demanded that Zeus give her the cow Io which later would become one of her symbols.
Even in her anger and jealousy, however, Hera never had affairs and only has a few children of significance: Ares (war) and Hebe (youth) both with Zeus and Hephaestus
(manly crafts) whom she bore herself in retaliation to Zeus producing Athena and
Dionysus ―on his own.‖ Hephaestus was supposed to be her triumph, showing Zeus that she was just as powerful as he, however, Hephaestus would be born crippled and ugly. He became her embarrassment and she did nothing when he was cast from Mt.
Olympus. Later he would seek his vengeance against her.