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Hera

Hera (in Rome Juno)

Hera´s parents were Titan Gods, Kronos and Rhea. Kronos was afraid that his children were too powerful, so he swallowed them. Rhea was able to save Zeus, one of the child and future King of the Gods, and when Zeus grew up, he forced Kronos to vomit his siblings, Hera, Hestia, Demeter, Hades and Poseidon.

Hera was the seventh and last (in some traditions only) wife of Zeus, her brother. She ruled with him as a Queen of Gods at Olympus. She is the great Goddess of Argos and Goddess of marriage and married women. She had three children with Zeus. These children are Ares, God of war, Hebe, Goddess of youth and wife of Heracles after he was raised to Olympus as a God, and Eileithuia, Goddess of childbirth. Hera also has a son Hephaistos, God of fire and metalworking, by herself.

The cult of Hera is not associated with Zeus, but almost all legends were she is presented are connected to Zeus one way or another. The greatest centers of her cult were the ancient Heraion between Argos and Mycenea and she had a magnificent temple at the island of Samos. She also had a particularly close bond with Argolid, and sometimes is even Argive Hera or Hera Argeie, and its said that her home was at Argos.

Her name is believed to mean Lady or Mistress. As the Goddess who presides over the solemnization of marriage, she was also widely honored as Hera Teleia, and she could also be invoked as Zygia or Syzygia (she who unites in marriage). At Arcadia in Stymphalos, she was worshipped at three separate temples as Girl, Wife and Widow. The first was built when she was still a young virgin, the second when she married Zeus and third when she left Zeus for awhile because they had a fight.

Hera is shown as a tall and stately figure, crowned with a sort of diadem (sometimes with accompanying veil) or wearing a wreath, and carrying a scepter. She was said to be very beautiful, although her beauty was very different from Aphrodite’s. Homer refers to her as cow-eyed. Not because she looks like a cow, but because she had close connection with cattle and white cows were sacrificed to her.

As a Goddess of married woman, she would bring help to women in childbirth, she was honored as Hera Eileithuia at Argos and Athens and is presented in myth as taking direct action to ease the birth of Eurystheus. Zeus wanted to father a great hero by Alkmene, a mortal woman, who was destined to give birth to a son that would benefit human race and also help the Gods. He wanted his son to be a king of Argos, and he boasted his plans to the other Gods. Eileithuia, Goddess of childbirth and daughter of Zeus and Hera, heard his plans and told about them to Hera. Zeus said that the first boy that would be born in the day that Heracles was to be born, was going to be a king. Hera hated that Zeus had many mistresses, and also the illegitimate children that were born from those unions, and she did not want his bastard son to become king. Fortunately for Hera also the wife of Sthenelos, king of Mycenae, was also pregnant. Hera sent her daughter Eileithuia to guard Alkmene so that his son was not to be born in time, then she went to help in birth of Eurystheus, and he was born before Heracles and because of that he got the destiny that was promised to Hercules by Zeus.

Hera was never invoked or portrayed as a mother, and she had no close connections with the children who came to be scripted to her. These are of diverse origin, and it will be noted that they were not deities of the very highest dignity. Hera was not at all kind to her malformed son Hephaistos, God of fire and metalworking. It is said that he was thrown out of heaven during his younger days. In one account Hera threw him out because she was ashamed of his deformity and when he landed in the sea below, he was rescued by Thetis, daughter of sea God Nereus and Eurynome, one of the sea-nymphs (Okeanids) and a daughter of Titan Okeanos. They sheltered him in their cave beneath the ocean for nine years. He repaid for their care and protection by fashioning all kinds of fine jewelry. Hephaistos avenged his mothers actions by sending him a golden throne that tied her when she sat on it. Other Gods tried to get Hephaistos to come home to free his mother, but he refused until Dionysos, God of wine, was able to get him drunk and then bring him back. In the end Hephaistos was accepted by other Gods, because he was magnificent in metal working and was able to create all kinds of beautiful items as well as design palaces.

Most myths about Hera fall into two groups, those that tell how she married Zeus and those of more negative nature that tell how she persecuted mistresses and illegitimate children of Zeus. In one tradition Zeus saw Hera alone, and decided to seduce her. He assumed a form of a cuckoo , and after stirring up a violent thunderstorm, he flew over to Hera as she was sitting on the mountain Pron and alighted on her lap. Feeling pity for the wet and bedraggled bird, she sheltered it under her robe, at which point Zeus returned to his original form and proceeded to make love to her. Although she resisted him at first, she yielded to him as soon as he promised to marry her. There are four notable stories about Heras wreath against mistresses and children of Zeus. One which she persecuted Leto while she was pregnant with the divine twins Artemis and Apollo by Zeus, one against Semele and her son Dionysos and his nurses, one against Io, an Argive mistress of Zeus and ofcource the most famous about her hate toward Hercules, heroic son of Heracles.

Hera tried to make Heracles life as hard as possible, usually succeeding. After the death of Heracles, Hera finally accepted him in Olympus and let him marry her daughter Hebe, Goddess of youth. In some stories Hera also adopts Heracles after he was accepted among Gods as one of them.

Sacred Days :

Phases of the moon dedicated to her:
Days 10-12 Dedicated to Hera queen of heaven and creatrix, representing the power of inspiration.
Festivals:
June is named after Juno (Hera) and dedicated to her.
13 November Roman festival Feronia, the Goddess of this name, along with Juno (Hera), Minerva (Athena) and Jupiter (Zeus) was worshiped.
In the Goddess calendar, that is popularized by Irish pagan group Hera´s time is 16 May to 12 June. In that time she is domain Goddess.





List of Gods : "Hera" - 135 records

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Name ▲▼Origin ▲▼Description ▲▼

"Garåñuś"
Italy A shepherd of gigantic bodily strength, who is said to have come from Greece into Italy in the reign of Evander, and slew Cacus. Aurelius Victor calls him Recaråñuś, but both writers agree in identifying him with the Greek Heracles. Italy
King name
"Geryones Geryon"
Greek A son of Chrysaor and Calirrhoe, a fabulous king of Hesperia, who is described as a being with three heads, and possessing magnificent oxen in the island of Erytheia. He acts a prominent part in the stories of Heracles. Greek
God name
"Gilgamesh"
Greek A demigod of superhuman strength who built a great wall to defend his people from external threats, a sort of Sumerian equivalent to the Greek Heracles.

"Griffin"
Greek Griffon or Gryphon, has the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. In heraldry the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature.
God name
"HERYSAF (he who is upon his lake)"
Egypt Primeval deity åśśociated both with Osiris and Re. Herysaf is a ram god said to have emerged from the primeval ocean, possibly recreated in the form of a sacred lake at Hnes, the capital of Lower Egypt for a time at the beginning of the third millennium (during the First Intermediate Period). The god is depicted with a human torso and the head of a ram wearing the atef crown of Lower Egypt. Herysaf began as a local deity but took on national importance as the soul (ba) of RE, and of OSIRIS. Herysaf's sanctuary was enlarged by Rameses II and the god is said to have protected the life of the last Egyptian pharaoh when the Persian and later Macedonian dominations began. He eventually became syncretized with HERAKLES in Greco-Roman culture and Hnes became known as Herakleopolis ...
Goddess name
"Hadad"
Western Semitic / Syrian / Phoenician weather god. Derived from the Akkadian deity ADAD. In texts found at the site of the ancient Canaanite capital of Ugarit [Ras Samra] , the name of Hadad apparently becomes a substitute for that of BAAL. His voice is described as roaring from the clouds and his weapon is the thunderbolt. His mother is the goddess ASERAH. During Hellenic times he was predominantly worshiped at Ptolemais and Hierapolis. His Syrian consort is ATARGATIS, who overshadowed him in local popularity at Hierapolis. Statues of the two deities were carried in procession to the sea twice yearly. According to the Jewish writer Josephus, Hadad also enjoyed a major cult following at Damascus in the eighth and ninth centuries BC. By the third century BC the Hadad-Atargatis cult had extended to Egypt, when he becomes identified as the god SUTEKH. In the Greek tradition his consort becomes HERA.See also ADAD....
God name
"Harsaphes"
Egypt God of Herakleopolis, represented with ram's head. Harsaphes was eventually åśśimilated with Osiris and Re. Egypt
God name
"Hebe"
Greek The personification of youth, is described as a daughter of Zeus and Hera ( Apollodorus i), and is, according to the Iliad IV, the minister of the gods, who fills their cups with nectar; she åśśists Hera in putting the horses to her chariot and she bathes and dresses her brother Ares. She was married to Heracles after his apotheosis. Greek
Goddess name
"Hebe"
Greek Goddess of youth. The daughter of ZEUS and HERA and the consort of HERAKLES. The cup-bearer of the gods of Olympus. In the Roman pantheon she becomes JUVENTAS....

"Hecate"
Greek A mysterious divinity, who, according to the most common tradition, was a daughter of Persaeus or Perses and Asteria, whence she is called Perseis. Others describe her as a daughter of Zeus and Demeter, and state that she was sent out by her father in search of Persephone; others again make her a daughter of Zeus either by Pheraea or by Hera; and others, lastly, say that she was a daughter of Leto or Tartarus. Greek
God name
"Helara"
Greek A daughter of Orchomenus, became by Zeus the mother of Tityus, but the god, from fear of Hera, concealed her under the earth. Greek

"Helice"
Greek A daughter of Lycaon, was beloved by Zeus, but Hera, out of jealousy, metamorphosed her into a she-bear, whereupon Zeus placed her among the stars, under the name of the Great Northern Bear.
Goddess name
"Hemera"
Greek The light of the terrestrial regions as Aether is the light of the heavenly regions. The Protogenos and the female personification of day. Both were the offspring of Erebus and Nyx. Hemera was closely identified with Hera, the wife of Zeus, and Eos the goddess of the morning red, who brings up the light of day from the east. Greek
God name
"Hendursaga"
Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian God of the law. He was titled by Gudea of Lagas ”herald of the land of Sumer.”...
God name
"Hephaestus"
Greek The god of fire, was, according to the Homeric account, the son of Zeus and Hera The Romans, when speaking of the Greek Hephaestus, call him Vulcan or Vulcåñuś, although Vulcåñuś was an original Italian divinity. Later traditions state that he had no father, and that Hera gave birth to him independent of Zeus, as she was jealous of Zeus having given birth to Athena independent of her. Greek
God name
"Hephaistos"
Greek The god of smiths and metal-workers was the son of Hera. He was born lame, and his mother was so displeased at the sight of him that she flung him out of Olympus. Other accounts say that Zeus threw him out for taking his mother's part in a quarrel which occurred between them. Hephaistos's lameness, according to this account, was the consequence of his fall. He was a whole day falling, and at last alighted in the island of Lemnos, which was thenceforth sacred to him. Greek
Hero name
"Hera"
Greek Probably identical with kera, mistress, just as her husband, Zeus, was called eppos in the Aeolian dialect. The derivation of the name has been attempted in a variety of ways, from Greek as well as oriental roots, though there is no reason for having recourse to the latter, as Hera is a purely Greek divinity, and one of the few who, according to Herodotus, were not introduced into Greece from Egypt. Greek
Goddess name
"Hera/ Here"
Greek A goddess of childbirth, marriage, motherhood, of the sky, & storms
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Sources:
Michael Jordan, Encyclopedia of gods 2002
Michael Senior, Who´s who in mythology 1985
Elizabeth Hallan, Mytologian Jumalat (Gods and Goddesses, 96) 1997
Nigel Pennick, the Pagan book of days 1992
Arthur Cotterell, Mytologia: Jumalia, Sankareita, Myyttejä 2005
Robin Hard, the Routledge handbook of Greek mythology 2004