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Hera (Here), probably identical with kera, mistress, just as her husband, Zeus,
was called errhos in the Aeolian dialect (Hesych.). 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 (ii. 50), were
not introduced into Greece from Egypt.
Hera was, according to some accounts, the eldest daughter of Cronos and Rhea,
and a sister of Zeus (Hom. Il. xvi. 432; comp. iv. 58; Ov. Fast. vi. 29). Apollodorus
(i. 1,5), however, calls Hestia the eldest daughter of Cronos; and Lactantius
(i. 14) calls her a twin-sister of Zeus. According to the Homeric poems (Il. xiv.
201), she was brought up by Oceanus and Thetys, as Zeus had usurped the throne
of Cronos; and afterwards she became the wife of Zeus, without the knowledge of
her parents. This simple account is variously modified in other traditions. Being
a daughter of Cronos, she, like his other children, was swallowed by her father,
but afterwards released (Apollod.), and, according to an Arcadian
tradition, she was brought up by Temenus, the son of Pelasgus (Paus. viii. 22.2;
August. de Civ. Dei, vi. 10). The Argives,
on the other hand, related that she had been brought up by Euboea, Prosymna,
and Acraea, the three daughters of the river Asterion (Paus. ii. 7.1; Plut. Sympos.
iii. 9); and according to Olen, the Horae were her nurses (Paus. ii. 13.3). Several
parts of Greece also claimed the honour of being her birthplace; among them are
two, Argos and Samos,
which were the principal seats of her worship (Strab.; Paus. vii. 4.7; Apollon.
Rhod. i. 187). Her marriage with Zeus also offered ample scope for poetical invention
(Theocrit. xvii. 131), and several places in Greece claimed the honour of having
been the scene of the marriage, such as Euboea
(Steph. Byz. s. v. Karustos), Samos
(Lactant. de Fals. Relig. i. 17), Cnossus
in Crete (Diod. v. 72), and
Mount Thornax, in the south of Argolis
(Schol. ad Theocrit. xv. 64; Paus. ii. 17.4, 36.2). This marriage acts a prominent
part in the worship of Hera under the name of hieros gamos; on that occasion all
the gods honoured the bride with presents, and Ge 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 (Apollod. ii. 5.11; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 484). The
Homeric poems know nothing of all this, and we only hear, that after the marriage
with Zeus, she was treated by the Olympian gods with the same reverence as her
husband (Il. xv. 85; comp. i. 532, iv. 60). Zeus himself, according to Homer,
listened to her counsels, and communicated his secrets to her rather than to other
gods (xvi. 458, i. 547). Hera also thinks herself justified in censuring Zeus
when he consults others without her knowing it (i. 540); 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 (iv. 56, viii. 427,
463). 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 (Hygin. Fab. 92; Ov. Fast. vi. 27, Heroid.
xvi. 81; Eustath. ad Hom.). There is only one point in which the Homeric poems
represent Hera as possessed of similar power with Zeus, viz. she is able to confer
the power of prophecy (xix. 407). But this idea is not further developed in later
times (Comp. Strab.; Apollon. Rhod. iii. 931). 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 (i.
522, 536, 561, v. 892). 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 (viii. 408, i. 399). 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 (viii. 400, 477, xv. 17; Eustath.
ad Hom.). 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 (xix. 97). Thus she borrowed from Aphrodite the girdle,
the giver of charm and fascination, to excite the love of Zeus (xiv. 215). By
Zeus she was the mother of Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus (v. 896, Od. xi. 604, Il.
i. 585; Hes. Theog. 921; Apollod. i. 3.1). Respecting the different traditions
about the descent of these three divinities see the separate articles.
Properly speaking, Hera was the only really married goddess among
the Olympians, for the marriage of Aphrodite with Ares can scarcely be taken into
consideration; and hence she is the goddess of marriage and of the birth of children.
Several epithets and surnames, such as Eigeithuia, Gamelia, Zulia, Teleia, contain
allusions to this character of the goddess, and the Eileithyiae are described
as her daughters (Hom. Il. xi. 271, xix. 118). Her attire is described in the
Iliad (xiv. 170); she rode in a chariot drawn by two horses, in the harnessing
and unharnessing of which she was assisted by Hebe and the Horase (iv. 27, v.
720, viii. 382, 433). Her favourite places on earth were Argos,
Sparta, and Mycenae
(iv. 51). Owing to the judgment of Paris, she was hostile towards the Trojans,
and in the Trojan war she accordingly sided with the Greeks (ii. 15, iv. 21, xxiv.
519). Hence she prevailed on Helius to sink down into the waves of Oceanus on
the day on which Patroclus fell (xviii. 239). In the Iliad she appears as an enemy
of Heracles, but is wounded by his arrows (v. 392, xviii. 118), and in the Odyssey
she is described as the supporter of Jason. It is impossible here to enumerate
all the events of mythical story in which Hera acts a more or less prominent part;
and the reader must refer to the particular deities or heroes with whose story
she is connected.
Hera had sanctuaries, and was worshipped in many parts of Greece,
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 doma Heras (Pind. Nem. x. imt.; comp. Aeschyl. Suppl. 297). According
to tradition, Hera had disputed the possession of Argos
with Poseidon, but the river-gods of the country adjudicated it to her (Paus.
ii. 15.5) 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 sceptre headed with a cuckoo. (Paus. ii. 17, 22; Strab.; Stat. Theb. i. 383).
Respecting the great quinqnennial festival celebrated to her at Argos,
see Diet. of Ant. s. v. Eraia. Her worship was very ancient also at Corinth
(Paus. ii. 24, 1; Apollod. i. 9.28), Sparta
(iii. 13.6, 15.7), in Samos
(Herod. iii. 60; Paus. vii. 4.4; Strab.), at Sicyon
(Paus. ii. 11.2), Olympia
(v. 15.7), Epidaurus (Thucyd.
v. 75; Paus. ii. 29.1), Heraea
in Arcadia (Paus. viii. 26.2),
and many other places.
Respecting the real significance of Hera, the ancients themselves
offer several interpretations: some regarded her as the personification of the
atmosphere (Serv. ad Aen. i. 51), others as the queen of heaven or the goddess
of the stars (Eurip. Helen. 1097), or as the goddess of the moon (Plut. Quaest.
Rom. 74), and she is even confounded with Ceres, Diana, and Proserpina (Serv.
ad Virg. Georg. i. 5). According to modern views, Hera is the great goddess of
nature, who was every where worshipped from the earliest times. The Romans identified
their goddess Juno with the Greek Hera 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 characterise
her as the bride of Zeus, and, in fact, the diadem, veil, sceptre, and peacock
are her ordinary attributes. A number of statues and heads of Hera still exist.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hera (Ionic, Here, and in Attic, Hera: the name is often connected
with the Latin hera; but on this,). In Greek mythology, the queen of heaven, eldest
daughter of Cronus and Rhea, sister and lawful consort of Zeus. According to Homer,
she was brought up in her youth by Oceanus and Tethys. But every place in which
her worship was localized asserted that she was born there, and brought up by
the Nymphs of the district. She is said to have long lived in secret intimacy
with Zeus before he publicly acknowledged her as his lawful consort. Her worshippers
celebrated her marriage (hieros gamos) in the spring time. In the oldest version
of the story it took place in the Islands of the Blessed, on the shore of the
Ocean stream, where the golden apple-tree of the Hesperides sprang up to celebrate
it. But this honour, too, was claimed by every place where Here was worshipped.
According to one local story, Zeus obtained the love of Here by stealth, in the
form of a cuckoo.
Here seems originally to have symbolized the feminine aspects
of the natural forces of which Zeus is the masculine representative. Hence she
is at once his wife and his sister, shares his power and his honours, and, like
him, has authority over the phenomena of the atmosphere. It is she who sends clouds
and storms, and is mistress of the thunder and lightning. Her handmaids are the
Horae or goddesses of the season, and Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. Like Zeus,
men worship her on mountains, and pray to her for rain. The union of sun and rain,
which wakes the earth to renewed fertility, is symbolized as the loving union
of Zeus and Here. In the same way a conflict of the winds is represented as the
consequence of a matrimonial quarrel, usually attributed to the jealousy of Here,
who was regarded as the stern protectress of honourable marriage. Hence arose
stories of Zeus illtreating his wife. It was said that he scourged her, and hurled
Hephaestus from heaven to earth when hurrying to his mother's assistance; that
in anger for her persecution of his son Heracles, he hung her out in the air with
golden chains to her arms and an anvil on each foot. There were also old legends
which spoke of Here allying herself with Athene and Poseidon to bind Zeus in chains.
Zeus was only rescued by the giant Aegaeon, whom Thetis called to his assistance.
The birth of Athene was said to have enraged Here to such a pitch that she became
the mother of Typhon by the dark powers of the infernal regions. In fact, this
constant resistance to the will of Zeus, and her jealousy and hatred of her consort's
paramours and their children, especially Heracles, become in the poets a standing
trait in her character.
In spite of all this, Homer represents her as the most majestic
of all the goddesses. The other Olympians pay her royal honours, and Zeus treats
her with all respect and confides all his designs to her, though not always yielding
to her demands. She is the spotless and uncorruptible wife of the king of Heaven;
the mother of Hephaestus, Ares, Hebe, and Ilithyia, and indeed may be called the
only lawful wife in the Olympian court. She is, accordingly, before all other
deities the goddess of marriage and the protectress of purity in married life.
She is represented as of exalted but severe beauty, and appears before Paris as
competing with Aphrodite and Athene for the prize of loveliness. In Homer she
is described as of lofty stature, large eyes (boopis), white arms (leukolenos),
and beautiful hair. On women she confers bloom and strength; she helps them, too,
in the dangerous hour of childbirth. Her daughters Hebe and Ilithyia personify
both these attributes.
In earlier times Here was not everywhere recognized as the
consort of Zeus; at the primitive oracle of Dodona, for instance, Dione occupies
this position. The Peloponnesus may be regarded as the earliest seat of her worship,
and in the Peloponnesus, during the Homeric period, Argos, Mycenae, and Sparta
are her favourite seats. Of these, according to the poet, she is the passionate
champion in the Trojan War. In later times the worship of Here was strongly localized
in Argos and Mycenae. At Argos she took the same commanding position as Athene
at Athens, and the year was dated by the names of her priestesses. Between these
cities, at the foot of Mount Euboea, was situated the Heraeum (Heraion), a temple
held in great honour. At Corinth she was the goddess of the acropolis. At Elis
a garment was offered her every five years by sixteen ladies chosen for the purpose,
and maidens held a race in her honour on the race-course at Olympia. Boeotia had
its feast of the Daedala; Samos its large and splendid temple, built by Polycrates.
The cuckoo was sacred to her as the messenger of spring, the season in which she
was wedded to Zeus; so were the peacock and the crow, and among fruits the pomegranate,
the symbol of wedded love and fruitfulness. Hecatombs were offered to her in sacrifice,
as to Zeus.
In works of art she is represented as seated on a throne in
a full robe, covering the whole figure. On her head is a sort of diadem, often
with a veil; the expression of the face is severe and majestic, the eyes large
and wide open, as in the Homeric description. The ideal type of Here was found
in the statue by Polyclitus in the temple at Argos. This was a colossal image,
in gold and ivory, representing the goddess on her throne, her crown adorned with
figures of the Graces and the Seasons, a pomegranate in one hand, and in the other
a sceptre with the cuckoo on the top. The Farnese Here at Naples, and the Ludovisi
Iuno in Rome, are copies of this work. The Romans identified Here with their own
Iuno.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
To Hera, Homeric Hymns (ed. Hugh G. Evelyn-White)
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