Aidonian's blog

Hera, Goddess of marriage, women, sky and the stars. She is the daugher of Kronos and Rheia, and sister to Zeus, Poseidon, Aidoneos, Demeter & Hestia. She is next to Queen of the Gods, also mother to various Gods like Hephaestos, Ares, Hebe, Eileithyia. The Romans called her Juno. She has various names and epithets which I will tell more about it, later. While it seems that originally she was regarded as nothing more than the wife of Zeus, the King of the Gods, over time, her worship became so important that She evolved to the title of Queen of the Gods, Mother of Gods and men, and Queen of the Sky, protector of women, childbirth and family. In myths, She doesn’t have a glamerous role to play where she is something seen as a jealous, scorned wife who exact revenges on the mistresses and illegitimate children of Zeus. Her cult was quite popular. The contrast bewteen her cult and her role in myths couldn’t be more different from eachother. It could very wel be that the myths were written down by mostly men and since ancient Greece was very patriarchal, it could explain why she was given such a role in myths. One reason why her cult could be popular was because of the importance of family and offspring in ancient Greek society. The family unit was central to the Greek society, as it is still today. Only today the family dynamic is very different at times. Today LGBTQ people can marry, have kids, adopts kids and raise them as their own. In ancient Greece, such a thing – to my knowledge- was not possible. The family unit was central, which meant that while it was ok to have male sexual partners, being married to a woman was central. The continuation of the family name was the most important thing of all. As society has evolved, Hera also becomes the protector of the family unit, even if the parents are of the same sex.

That She is powerful shows the myth where She organises a rebellion against Zeus, a rebellion that failed in the end and She got punished for it by hanging in the air with anvils attached to her feet.

Myth

Her marriage with Zeus also offered ample scope for poetical invention, and several places in Greece claimed the honor of having been the scene of the marriage, such as Euboea, Samos Which is not so uncommon. Many city-states try to do that gain legitimacy. Knossos in Krete, and Mount Thornax, in the south of Argolis. This marriage acts a prominent part in the worship of Hera under the name of hieros gamos; on that occasion all the gods honored the bride with presents, and Gaia presented to her a tree with golden apples, which was watched by the Hesperides in the garden of Hera, at the foot of the Hyperborean Atlas.

Zeus himself, according to Homer, listened to her counsels, and communicated his secrets to her rather than to other gods. Hera also thinks herself justified in censuring Zeus when he consults others without her knowing it, but she is, notwithstanding, far inferior to him in power; she must obey him unconditionally, and, like the other gods, she is chastised by him when she has offended him. Hera therefore is not, like Zeus, the queen of gods and men, but simply the wife of the supreme god. The idea of her being the queen of heaven, with regal wealth and power, is of a much later date. There is only one point in which the Homeric poems represent Hera as possessed of similar power with Zeus, she is able to confer the power of prophecy. But this idea is not further developed in later times.

Her character, as described by Homer, is not of a very amiable kind, and its main features are jealousy, obstinacy, and a quarrelling disposition, which sometimes makes her own husband tremble. Hence there arise frequent disputes between Hera and Zeus; and on one occasion Hera, in conjunction with Poseidon and Athena, contemplated putting Zeus into chains. Zeus, in such cases, not only threatens, but beats her; and once he even hung her up in the clouds, her hands chained, and with two anvils suspended from her feet. Hence she is frightened by his threats, and gives way when he is angry; and when she is unable to gain her ends in any other way, she has recourse to cunning and intrigues. Thus she borrowed from Aphrodite the girdle, the giver of charm and fascination, to excite the love of Zeus. By Zeus she was the mother of Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. 

Owing to the judgment of Paris, she was hostile towards the Trojans, and in the Trojan war she accordingly sided with the Greeks. Hence she prevailed on Helios to sink down into the waves of Oceanus on the day on which Patroclus fell.. In the Iliad she appears as an enemy of Herakles, but is wounded by his arrows, and in the Odyssey she is described as the supporter of Jason.

Cult

Hera had sanctuaries, and was worshipped in many parts of Greece, and later throughout the Roman empire, often in common with Zeus. Her worship there may be traced to the very earliest times: thus we find Hera, surnamed Pelasgis, worshipped at Iolcos. But the principal place of her worship was Argos, hence called the dôma Hêras. According to tradition, Hera had disputed the possession of Argos with Poseidon, but the river-gods of the country adjudicated it to her. Her most celebrated sanctuary was situated between Argos and Mycenae, at the foot of Mount Euboea. The vestibule of the temple contained ancient statues of the Charites, the bed of Hera, and a shield which Menelaus had taken at Troy from Euphorbus. The sitting colossal statue of Hera in this temple, made of gold and ivory, was the work of Polycletus. She wore a crown on her head, adorned with the Charites and Horae; in the one hand she held a pomegranate, and in the other a scepter headed with a cuckoo. Respecting the great quinquennial festival celebrated to her at Argos, see Hêraia. Her worship was very ancient also at Corinth, Sparta, in Samos, at Sicyon, Olympia, Epidaurus, Heraea in Arcadia, and many other places.

We still possess several representations of Hera. The noblest image, and which was afterwards looked upon as the ideal of the goddess, was the statue by Polycletus. She was usually represented as a majestic woman at a mature age, with a beautiful forehead, large and widely opened eyes, and with a grave expression commanding reverence. Her hair was adorned with a crown or a diadem. A veil frequently hangs down the back of her head, to characterize her as the bride of Zeus, and, in fact, the diadem, veil, scepter, and peacock are her ordinary attributes. A number of statues and heads of Hera still exist.

Hera bore several epithets:

• Ἀλέξανδρος (Alexandros) ‘Protector of Men’ (Alexandros) (among the Sicyonians)
• Αἰγοφάγος (Aigophágos) ‘Goat-Eater’ (among the Lacedaemonians)
• Ἀκραῖα (Akráia) ‘(She) of the Heights’
• Ἀμμωνία (Ammonia)
• Ἄνθεια (Antheia), meaning flowery
• Ἀργεία (Argéia) ‘(She) of Argos’
• Βασίλεια (Basíleia) ‘Queen’
• Βουναία (Bounáia) ‘(She) of the Mound’ (in Corinth)
• Βοῶπις (Boṓpis) ‘Cow-Eyed’or ‘Cow-Faced’
• Λευκώλενος (Leukṓlenos) ‘White-Armed’
• Παῖς (Pais) ‘Child’ (in her role as virgin)
• Παρθένος (Parthénos) ‘Virgin’
• Τελεία (Teléia) (as goddess of marriage)
• Χήρη (Chḗrē) ‘Widowed’
• Τελχινία (Telchinia), Diodorus Siculus write that she was worshiped by the Ialysians and the Cameirans (both were on the island of Rhodes). She was named like that because according to a legend, Telchines (Τελχῖνες) were the first inhabitants of the island and also the first who created statues of gods.
• Ζυγία (Zygia), as the presider over marriage. Her husband Zeus had also the epithet Zygius (Ζυγίος). These epithets describing them as presiding over marriage.

sources:

The Theoi Project

Bibliotheca Alexandria released a anthology dedicated to the Queen of the Heavens but unlike most Gods, there hasn’t appeared a book entirely dedicated to her like with Zeus, Apollon, Dionysos, etc…

So i would also recommend reading these books:

• hellenismos today
• Old Stones, New Temples
• Greek religion by Walter Burkert
• Gods of the Greeks & Heroes of the Greeks by Karl Kereniy
• Hellenismos