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 ▲▼ |
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"Lityerses" | Greek |
Lived in Phrygia, engaged in rural pursuits, and hospitably received all strangers that påśśed his house, but he then compelled them to åśśist him in the harvest, and whenever they allowed themselves to be surpåśśed by him in their work, he cut off their heads in the evening, and concealed their bodies in the sheaves, accompanying his deed with songs. Heracles, however, slew him, and threw his body into the Maeander. Greek |
Demon name
"Lybie and Lamia" | Greek |
Lybie was the mother of Lamia by Poseidon and as there are virtually no references to Lybie in clåśśical literature it seem likely that Lamia, Lybie and the Lamiae are all variations of the same myth concerning the beautiful queen of Libya, daughter of Belus and Libya. Lamia, in Greek mythology, queen of Libya. She was beloved by Zeus, and when Hera robbed her of her children out of jealousy, she killed every child she could get into her power. Hence Lamia came to mean a female bogey or demon, whose name was used by Greek mothers to frighten their children; from the Greek she påśśed into Roman demonology. Greek |
"Mastor" | Greek |
Two mythical personages, one the father of Lycophron in Cythera, and the other the father of Halitherses in Ithaca. |
God name
"Monoecus" | Greek |
A surname of Heracles, signifying the god who lives solitary, perhaps because he alone was worshipped in the temples dedicated to him. Greek |
"Musaeus" | Greek |
A semi-mythological personage, to be clåśśed with Olen, Orpheus, and Pamphus. He was regarded as the author of various poetical compositions, especially as connected with the mystic rites of Demeter at Eleusis, over which the legend represented him as presiding in the time of Heracles. Greek |
Hero name
"Oeolycus" | Greek |
A son of Theras of Sparta and brother of Aegeus, was honoured at Sparta with an heroum. Greek |
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God name
"Ogdoad" | Egypt |
Primordial forces. The elements of chaos, eight in number, which existed before the creation of the Sun god and which are known from Khemnu in Middle Egypt (Greek Heliopolis). The Ogdoad also had a sanctuary at Medinet Habu. They created, out of themselves rather than by sexual coupling, the mound which emerged from the primeval waters and upon which rested the egg from which the young Sun god emerged. They are usually depicted as baboons heralding the Sun as it rises. They are grouped in pairs and include NUN and NAUNET representing the primordial abyss, KEK and KAUKET representing darkness, HEH and HAUHET representing infinity, and AMUN and AMAUNET representing hidden power.... |
Spirit name
"Olokun" | Africa |
The patron orisa of the descendants of Africans that were carried away during the Maafa, the Transatlantic Slave Trade or Middle Påśśage. Olokun works closely with Oya, deity of Sudden Change, and Egungun, Collective Ancestral spirits, to herald the way for those that påśś to ancestorship, as it plays a critical role in death (Iku), Life and the transition of human beings and spirits between these two existences. |
King name
"Omphale" | Greek |
A daughter of the Lydian king Jardåñuś, and wife of Tmolus, after whose death she undertook the government herself. When Heracles, in consequence of the murder of Iphitus, was ill of a serious disease, and received the oracle that he could not be released unless he served some one for wages for the space of three years, Hermes, accordingly, sold Heracles to Omphale, by whom he became the father of several children. Greek |
Monster name
"Opinicus" | Arabic |
A fabulous monster, composed of dragon, camel, and lion, used in heraldry. It forms the crest of the Barber Surgeons of London. |
"Palaemon" | Greek |
Signifies the wrestler, as in the surname of Heracles in Lycophron but it also occurs as a proper name of several mythical personages. |
God name
"Palici" | Greek |
Twin gods, originating in Sicily. They were sometimes said to have been the sons of Zeus by Thaleia the daughter of Hephaestus, sometimes the sons of Zeus by Aetna. While she was pregnant with the twins, Thaleia, fearing Hera's jealousy hid in the earth and when the time came the twin boys emerged from the ground, which explains their name 'the Returners'. Greek |
"Panthera" | East |
A hypothetical beast which lived in the East. Reynard affirmed that he had sent her majesty the queen a comb made of panthera bone, "more lustrous than the Rainbow, more odoriferous than any perfume, a charm against every ill, and a universal panacea." France |
"Parthenope" | Greek |
1. A daughter of Stymphalus, and by Heracles the mother of Eueres. (Apollodorus. ii) |
"Patroclus" | Greek |
1. A son of Heracles by Pyrippe. (Apollodorus. ii) |
"Pheres" | Greek |
1. A son of Cretheus and Tyro, and brother of Aeson and Amythaon; he was married to Periclymene, by whom he became the father of Admetus, Lycurgus, Eidomene, and Periapis. He was believed to have founded the town of Pherae in Thessaly. |
"Phyleus" | Greek |
A son of Augeias, was expelled by his father from Ephyra, because he gave his evidence in favour of Heracles. He then emigrated to Dulichium. By Ctimene or Timandra Phyleus became the father of Meges, who is hence called Phyleides. Greek |
"Porphyrion" | s |
One of the sons of Uråñuś and Gaia. He attempted to rape Hera and she set him against Dionysus, promising the giant Hebe's hand in marriage if he could defeat him. Zeus smote him with lightning and Heracles finally shot him with an arrow. |
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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
