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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 ▲▼
God name
"Herabe"
Huli God who causes insanity. Huli
Hero name
"Heracles"
Greek The most celebrated of all the heroes of antiquity. The traditions about him are not only the richest in substance, but also the most widely spread for we find them not only in all the countries round the Mediterranean, but his wondrous deeds were known in the most distant countries of the ancient world.
God name
"Hermes"
Greek A son of Zeus and Maia, the daughter of Atlas, was born in a cave of Mount Cyllene or in Olympus. In the first hours after his birth, he escaped from his cradle, went to Pieiria, and carried off some of the oxen of Apollo. The herald and messenger of the gods, of his travelling from place to place and the concluder of treaties and the promoter of social intercourse and of commerce among men. Regarded as the maintainer of peace, and as the god of roads, who protected travellers, and punished those who refused to åśśist travellers who had mistaken their way. Greek
Goddess name
"Hesperides"
Greek These goddesses of evenings and the golden light of Sunset were the famous guardians of the golden apples which Ge had given to Hera at her marriage with Zeus. Their names are Aegle, Erytheia, Hestia, and Arethusa, but their descent is not the same in the different traditions; sometimes they are called the daughters of night or Erebus (Theogony of Hesiod 215), sometimes of Phorcys and Ceto, sometimes of Atlas and Hesperis, whence their names Atlantides or Hesperides, and sometimes of Hesperus, or of Zeus and Themis Greek
King name
"Hippoçõõñ"
Greek The eldest, but natural son of Oebalus and Bateia, and a step­brother of Tyndareus, Icarius and Arene, at Sparta. After his father's death, Hippoçõõñ expelled his brother Tyndareus, in order to secure the kingdom to himself; but Heracles led Tyndareus back and slew Hippoçõõñ and his sons. Greek

"Hippolyte"
Greek A daughter of Ares and Otrera, was queen of the Amazons, and a sister of Antiope and Melanippe. She wore, as an emblem of her dignity, a girdle given to her by her father; and when Heracles, by the command of Eurystheus, came to fetch this girdle, Hippolyte was slain by Heracles. Greek

"Hippotes"
Greek 1. The father of Aeolus. 2. A son of Phylas by a daughter of Iolaus, and a great-grandson of Heracles. When the Heracleidae, on their invading Peloponnesus, were encamped near Naupactus, Hippotes killed the seer Carnus, in consequence of which the army of the Heracleidae began to suffer very severely, and Hippotes by the command of an oracle was banished for a period of ten years. Greek

"Historis"
Greek A daughter of Teiresias, and engaged in the service of Alcmene. By her cry that Alcmene had already given birth, she induced the Pharmacides to withdraw, and thus enabled her mistress to give birth to Heracles. Greek
King name
"Hylas"
Greek A son of Theiodamas, king of the Dryopes, by the nymph Menodice or a son of Heracles, Euphemus, or Ceyx. He was the favourite of Heracles, who, after having killed his father, Theiodamas, took him with him when he joined the expedition of the Argonauts. When the Argonauts landed on the coast of Mysia, Hylas went out to fetch water for Heracles but when he came to a well, his beauty excited the love of the Naiads, who drew him down into the water, and he was never seen again. Greek

"Iole"
Greek The last beloved of Heracles, and a daughter of Eurytus of Oechalia. According to some writers, she was a half-sister of Dryope.
Goddess name
"Iris (rainbow)"
Greek / Roman Messenger goddess. The special attendant of the goddess HERA, Iris is a virgin goddess who forms the Rainbow bridge between heaven and earth. Depicted with wings and carrying a staff....
God name
"Is”um"
Mesopotamian / BabylonianAkkadian Minor god. The brother of SAMAS', the Sun god, and an attendant of the plague god ERRA. He may have been a god of fire and, according to texts, led the gods in war as a herald but was nonetheless generally regarded as benevolent. Known particularly from the Babylonian legend of Erra and Is“um. Also ENDURSAGA....
Goddess name
"Juno"
Roman A Roman goddess of marriage and the long-suffering wife of Jupiter. Like her Greek equivalent, Hera, she was the protector of women, in particular married women. A festival took place in her honour on the calends (first) of March. Roman
Cyclop name
"Kronos or Cronus"
Greek A son of Uråñuś and Ge, and the youngest among the Titans. He was married to Rhea, by whom he became the father of Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Cheiron is also called a son of Cronus. At the instigation of his mother, Cronus unmanned his father for having thrown the Cyclopes, who were likewise his children by Ge, into Tartarus. Out of the blood thus shed sprang up the Erinnyes. Greek

"Ladon"
Greek The dragon who was believed to guard the apples of the Hesperides. He is said to have been able to åśśume various tones of voice, and to have been the offspring of Typhon and Echidna but he is also called a son of Ge, or of Phorcys and Ceto. He had been appointed to watch in the gardens of the Hesperides by Juno, and never slept; but he was slain by Heracles and the image of the fight was placed by Zeus among the stars. Greek
King name
"Lamia"
Greek A female phantom, by which children were frightened. According to tradition, she was originally a Libyan queen, of great beauty and a daughter of Belus. She was beloved by Zeus, and Hera in her jealousy robbed her of her children. Lamia, from revenge and despair, robbed others of their children, and murdered them; and the savage cruelty in which she now indulged rendered her ugly, and her face became fearfully distorted. Zeus gave her the power of taking her eyes out of her head, and putting them in again. Greek

"Leto"
Greek In Latin Latona, according to Hesiod (Theogony of Hesiod), a daughter of the Titan Coeus and Phoebe, a sister of Asteria, and the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus, to whom, she was married before Hera. Greek

"Lichas"
Greek An attendant of Heracles. He brought to his master the deadly garment, and as a punishment, was thrown by him into the sea, where the Lichadian islands, between Euboea and the coast of Locris, were believed to have derived their name from him. Greek
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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