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Hera: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Hera
Hera is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and the sister of Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Her name, Hera, has several possible and mutually exclusive etymologies, with one possibility connecting it to the Greek word for season, another to the word for beloved, and yet another to the meaning of ripe for marriage. In the Iliad, Homer uses the formula boōpis potnia Hērē, which translates to cow-eyed mistress Hera, suggesting a deep connection to cattle and the earth. This epithet is not merely descriptive but points to her origins as a form of the Mediterranean goddess of nature, possibly a cow goddess who was especially venerated in cattle-rich Euboea. Her ancient connection with her sacred animal, the cow, still existed in historical times, and she is probably related to Near-Eastern forms of cow-goddesses such as Hathor or Bat. The Greek earth-goddess Gaia is occasionally identified with Hera, and in some cults she may be identified with the earth-goddess. Her iconography usually presents her as a dignified, matronly figure, upright or enthroned, crowned with a polos or diadem, sometimes veiled as a married woman. Her sacred animals include the cow, cuckoo, and peacock, and she is sometimes shown holding a pomegranate as an emblem of immortality.
The Jealous Wife
One of her defining characteristics in myth is her jealous and vengeful nature in dealing with any who offended her, especially Zeus's numerous adulterous lovers and illegitimate offspring. In the Iliad, Zeus implies their marriage was some sort of elopement, as they lay secretly from their parents. Pausanias records a tale of how they came to be married in which Zeus transformed into a cuckoo to woo Hera. She caught the bird and kept it as her pet; this is why the cuckoo is seated on her sceptre. According to a scholion on Theocritus's Idylls, when Hera was heading toward Mount Thornax alone, Zeus created a terrible storm and transformed himself into a cuckoo who flew down and sat on her lap. Hera covered him with her cloak. Zeus then transformed back and took hold of her; because she was refusing to sleep with him due to their mother, he promised to marry her. In one account Hera refused to marry Zeus and hid in a cave to avoid him; an earthborn man named Achilles convinced her to give him a chance, and thus the two had their first sexual intercourse. According to a version attributed to Plutarch, Hera had been reared by a nymph named Macris on the island of Euboea, but Zeus stole her away, where Mt. Cithaeron afforded them a shady recess. When Macris came to look for her ward, the mountain-god Cithaeron drove her away, saying that Zeus was taking his pleasure there with Leto. According to Callimachus, their wedding feast lasted three hundred years. All the gods and mortals were invited, but a nymph named Chelone was disrespectful or refused to attend, so Zeus thus turned her into a tortoise. The Apples of the Hesperides that Heracles was tasked by Eurystheus to take were a wedding gift by Gaia to the couple. After a quarrel with Zeus, Hera left him and retreated to Euboea, and no word from Zeus managed to sway her mind. Cithaeron, the local king, then advised Zeus to take a wooden statue of a woman, wrap it up, and pretend to marry it. Zeus did as told, claiming she was Plataea, Asopus's daughter. Hera, once she heard the news, disrupted the wedding ceremony and tore away the dress from the figure only to discover it was but a lifeless statue, and not a rival in love. The queen and her king were reconciled, and to commemorate this the people there celebrated a festival called Daedala. During the festival, a re-enactment of the myth was celebrated, where a wooden statue of Hera was chosen, bathed in the river Asopus and then raised on a chariot to lead the procession like a bride, and then ritually burned.
Hera is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. She is also the sister of Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus.
What is the meaning of the epithet cow-eyed mistress Hera?
The epithet cow-eyed mistress Hera translates from the Greek formula boōpis potnia Hērē and suggests a deep connection to cattle and the earth. This title points to her origins as a form of the Mediterranean goddess of nature who was especially venerated in cattle-rich Euboea.
How did Zeus woo Hera according to the myth recorded by Pausanias?
Zeus transformed himself into a cuckoo to woo Hera and she kept the bird as her pet. This myth explains why the cuckoo is seated on her sceptre.
What role does Hera play in the Iliad regarding the Trojan War?
Hera makes many attempts to thwart the Trojan Army and persuades Athena to aid the Achaeans in battle. She also devises a plan to deceive Zeus by seducing him with the help of Aphrodite and Hypnos to allow the gods to interfere in the war.
What festivals are celebrated in honor of Hera and what do they involve?
The festival Daedala of Hera is a fire festival where a puppet of the goddess is married to Zeus and then ritually burned. The Argive Heraia is a new year festival that includes an armed procession of male citizens and a footrace for young girls.
Why did Hera turn Aëtos into an eagle?
Hera turned Aëtos into an eagle out of fear that Zeus loved him. This transformation made the eagle the sacred bird of Zeus and a symbol of power and kingship.
Hera plays a substantial role in The Iliad, appearing in several books throughout the epic poem. She makes many attempts to thwart the Trojan Army. In books 1 and 2, Hera declares that the Trojans must be destroyed and persuades Athena to aid the Achaeans in battle, and she agrees to assist with interfering on their behalf. In book 5, Hera and Athena plot to harm Ares, who had been seen by Diomedes in assisting the Trojans. Diomedes called for his soldiers to fall back slowly. Hera saw Ares's interference and asked Zeus for permission to drive Ares away from the battlefield. Hera encouraged Diomedes to attack Ares and he threw his spear at the god. Athena drove the spear into Ares's body, and he bellowed in pain and fled to Mount Olympus, forcing the Trojans to fall back. In book 8, Hera tries to persuade Poseidon to disobey Zeus and help the Achaean army. He refuses, saying he doesn't want to go against Zeus. Determined to intervene in the war, Hera and Athena head to the battlefield. However, seeing the two flee, Zeus sent Iris to intercept them and make them return to Mount Olympus or face grave consequences. After prolonged fighting, Hera sees Poseidon aiding the Greeks and giving them the motivation to keep fighting. In book 14 Hera devises a plan to deceive Zeus. Zeus set a decree that the gods were not allowed to interfere in the mortal war. Hera is on the side of the Achaeans, so she plans a Deception of Zeus where she seduces him, with help from Aphrodite, and tricks him into a deep sleep, with the help of Hypnos, so that the Gods could interfere without the fear of Zeus. In book 21, Hera continues her interference with the battle as she tells Hephaestus to prevent the river from harming Achilles. Hephaestus sets the battlefield ablaze, causing the river to plead with Hera, promising her he will not help the Trojans if Hephaestus stops his attack. Hephaestus stops his assault and Hera returns to the battlefield where the gods begin to fight amongst themselves. After Apollo declines to battle Poseidon, Artemis eagerly engages Hera for a duel. Hera however treats the challenge as unimportant, easily disarming the haughty rival goddess and beating her with her own weapons. Artemis is left retreating back to Mount Olympus in tears to cry at Zeus's lap. In the Iliad, Homer tells of another attempted overthrow, in which Hera, Poseidon, and Athena conspire to overpower Zeus and tie him in bonds. It is only because of Thetis, who summons Briareus, one of the Hecatoncheires, to Olympus, that the other Olympians abandon their plans out of fear for Briareus.
Hera hated Pelias, king of Iolcus, because he had killed Sidero, his step-grandmother, in one of her temples. She later convinced his nephew Jason to kill Pelias. The Golden Fleece was the item that Jason needed to get his mother Alcimide freed, which he obtained with the help of the sorceress Medea, who was influenced by the goddess. At the request of Hera, Aelous calmed all the winds but the steady west wind, to aid their crew, the Argonauts, on their journey home. The myth of Io has many forms and embellishments. Generally, Io was a priestess of Hera at the Heraion of Argos. Zeus lusted after her and either Hera turned Io into a heifer to hide her from Zeus, or Zeus did so to hide her from Hera but was discovered. Hera had Io tethered to an olive-tree and set Argus Panoptes to watch over her, but Zeus sent Hermes to kill him. Infuriated, Hera then sent a gadfly to pursue and constantly sting Io, who fled into Asia and eventually reached Egypt. There Zeus restored her to human form and she gave birth to his son Epaphus. Cydippe, a priestess of Hera, was on her way to a festival in the goddess's honor. The oxen which were to pull her cart were overdue and her sons, Biton and Cleobis, pulled the cart the entire way, 45 stadia, 8 kilometers. Cydippe was impressed with their devotion to her and Hera, and so asked Hera to give her children the best gift a god could give a person. Hera ordained that the brothers would die in their sleep. This honor bestowed upon the children was later used by Solon as proof when trying to convince Croesus that it is impossible to judge a person's happiness until they have died
The Goddess of Birth
a fruitful death after a joyous life. When Zeus had pity on Ixion and brought him to Olympus and introduced him to the gods, instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful for Hera. Zeus found out about his intentions and made a cloud in the shape of Hera, who was later named Nephele, and tricked Ixion into coupling with it. From their union came Centaurus. So Ixion was expelled from Olympus and Zeus ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning. Therefore, Ixion was bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, first spinning across the heavens, but in later myth transferred to Tartarus. Aëtos was a beautiful boy born of the earth. While Zeus was young and hiding in Crete from his father Cronus who had devoured all of Zeus's siblings, Aëtos became friends with the god and was among the first beings to swear fealty to him as new king. But years later, after Zeus had overthrown his father and become king in his place, Zeus's wife Hera turned Aëtos into an eagle, out of fear that Zeus loved him. Thus the eagle became the sacred bird of Zeus, and a symbol of power and kingship. Tiresias was a priest of Zeus, and as a young man, he encountered two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of Hera, married, and had children, including Manto. After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes; depending on the myth, either she made sure to leave the snakes alone this time, or, according to Hyginus, trampled on them and became a man once more. As a result of his experiences, Zeus and Hera asked him to settle the question of which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women; Hera claimed it was men. When Tiresias sided with Zeus, Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy. An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, Chariclo, begged her to undo her curse, but Athena could not; she gave him a prophecy instead. Gerana was a queen of the Pygmies who boasted she was more beautiful than Hera. The wrathful goddess turned her into a crane and proclaimed that her bird descendants should be cranes.
Hera was most known as the matron goddess, Hera Teleia, but she presided over weddings as well. In myth and cult, fragmentary references and archaic practices remain of the sacred marriage of Hera and Zeus. At Plataea, there was a sculpture of Hera seated as a bride by Callimachus, as well as the matronly standing Hera. Pausanias explains this by telling the myth of the Daedala. Hera was also worshipped as a virgin: there was a
The Deception of Zeus
tradition in Stymphalia in Arcadia that there had been a triple shrine to Hera the Girl, the Adult Woman, and the Separated, Widowed or Divorced. Pindar refers to the praises of Hera Parthenia, the Maidenly. In the region around Argos, the temple of Hera in Hermione near Argos was to Hera the Virgin. At the spring of Kanathos, close to Nauplia, Hera renewed her virginity annually, in rites that were not to be spoken of, arrheton. In her fire-festival Daedala at Plataia the puppet of the goddess was bathed in the river Asopos before the wedding ceremony. In the festival Toneia at Samos the image of the goddess was purified, bounted in willows and then probably hanged on a tree. Robert Graves interprets this as a representation of the new moon, Hebe, full moon, Hera, and old moon, Hecate, respectively personifying the Virgin, the Mother, and the destroying Crone. The marriage of Zeus with Hera is the main theme in most Greek festivals celebrated in honour of the goddess. In the cults of Hera the dances and rites are performed by young married women. These choral dances reenacted early myth and ritual. Ancient accounts refer to the retirement of Hera after a quarrel with Zeus. Hera's wrath may indicate the wrath and jealousy of the Greek wife. Other accounts refer to cultic trees or pillars and rituals of the goddess of vegetation. Some accounts are related to rituals of the Bronze Age before the splitting of the Mistress of the animals into separate goddesses. During Hera's famous fest Hecatombaia, one hundred oxen, or Argive Heraia, the priestess of Hera was carried on a chart drawn by white-heifers to the sanctuary. The festival included an armed procession of male citizens and the prize of the contest was a bronze shield. The Argive festival was a new year festival and the new male citizens introduced themselves in the community. It is not verified that the festival was originally a wedding processional ceremony. At Argos Hera controlled the seasonal goddesses Horae. Near the Heraion of Argos there was the stream Eleutherion, water of freedom. The priestess of Hera used it for purifications and the sacrifices were kept secret, aporrheta. The festival Daedala of Hera was a fire festival. The citizens of Plataia maintained from prehistoric times the processional wedding ceremony. A puppet named Hera was married with Zeus. The puppet was washed in the river Asopos and it was carried on a cow-drawn chart to the top of Kithairon. There the puppet was burned together with other idols. Pausanias in the aetiological myth mentions the retirement of Hera after a quarrel with Zeus and their reconciliation. The nymph Plataia, consort of Zeus is an old
The Golden Fleece and the Argonauts
form of the Greek earth-goddess and she may be related to Gaia. The name of the island was Parthenia in the Carian period. In the Samian festival Toneia, Hera was originally a goddess of fertility. The festival included initiation rites of girls and probably boys from youth to maturity. At the beginning of the festival a xoanon of Hera was carried on a plank to the sea and then back to the coast. This custom reminds the cult of the Hittite-Hurrian god of fertility Telepinu. In the aetiological myth of Menedotus the image of Hera was bathed, bounted in willows and finally hidden or hanged. The participants tried to find it. Zeus was absent, and the processional wedding ceremony was introduced later. Hera-Acraea was the protectress of the castle. The Corinthian Heraia was a mourning festival. Hera is related to Medea, the wife of Jason, a foreign goddess who was introduced in Greece. In the myth of the Argonauts Hera is the protectress of Jason. The scholiast of Euripides suggests that the cult of Acraea is related to the cult of Adonis. Every year seven boys and seven girls with shorn hair and wearing black garments were dedicated to the goddess. Annual sacrifices were performed for the killed children of Medea. In the festival Heraia young girls competed in a footrace. The race was held every four years and only virgin women were allowed to attend the games. The prize was an olive wreath. Traditionally the custom was established by Hipodameia and choral dances were performed in honour of her. A marriage-ceremony was probably part of the festival. The choral dances and the dressing of parthenoi indicate that the festival was an initiation ritual from youth to maturity. The relation of Hera with parthenoi, virgins, seems to connect her with the goddess of vegetation. Traditionally the festival was introduced from Argos. The image of Hera was carried on a chart drawn by white heifers. The festival included games and sacrifices. There was a contest between young boys for killing a female goat with their spears and they got her as a prize. In the aetiological myth Hera retired to the woods after a quarrel with Zeus and her place was discovered by a female goat. Then she was obliged to return. Like the bride who took her bride-bath, Hera bathed every year in the spring Kanathos and recovered annually her virginity. This is one of the holy secrets, aporrheta, at the mysteries which they celebrated in honour of Hera. The hieros gamos of Zeus with the earth goddess, finally named Hera, was celebrated near the river Theren. The ritual continued unchanged from very ancient times. The original name of the Minoan goddess could be Britomartis, Diktynna or Hellopis. On a Minoan depiction the goddess seems to arrive on a chariot during spring and she disappears in winter. In Hellenistic imagery, Hera's chariot was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of Alexander. Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, refers to it as the Persian bird. The peacock motif was revived in the Renaissance iconography that unified Hera and Juno. A bird that had been associated with Hera on an archaic level, when most of the Aegean goddesses were associated with their bird, was the cuckoo, which appears in mythic fragments concerning the first wooing of a virginal Hera by Zeus. Her archaic association was primarily with cattle, as a Cow Goddess, who was especially venerated in cattle-rich Euboea. On Cyprus, very early archaeological sites contain bull skulls that have been adapted for use as masks. Her familiar Homeric epithet Boôpis, is always translated cow-eyed. In this respect, Hera bears some resemblance to the Ancient Egyptian deity Hathor, a maternal goddess associated with cattle. Hera absorbed the cult of her heifer-priestess Io and may be related to the Vedic earth-goddess Prithvi. Scholar of Greek mythology Walter Burkert writes in Greek Religion, Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos. At Argos in a Greek myth the priestess of Hera Phoronis ties her mistress to an aniconic pillar. At Samos Hera's plank was tied on a willow tree to ensure fertility.