Hera

Kyle Language A - MYP 4 8 December 2011

= The Revenge and Fury of Mother Earth  =

Who is the queen of the Olympians? Known to the Greeks as Hera, she is one of the most beautiful and powerful goddesses. Despite her beauty, she is notorious for being insanely jealous of other women and often getting her revenge on others.(Lindemans)

Hera is the wife and perhaps a twin of Zeus, who is the the supreme power over all gods. He is also the son of Cronus who was eating all of his children including Hera. Zeus was hidden by his mother Rhea and grew up to make his father spit up all of his brothers and sisters.(Souli)

Also known as “Earth Mother”, (Sosa) Hera is not only one of the sky gods but she is also the greek goddess of women and marriage. ("Hera." //Theoi.com//) She was worshipped by many in ancient Greece. She was even lucky enough to have one of the first enclosed temples to be dedicated to her at Samos. Within her temples, her cult sacrificed offerings from the late 7th to 8th B.C. (Hera //Wikipedia//) They also celebrated her festival of the Great Daedala in Euboea on a 60 year cycle. (Sosa)

Known for jealousy, Hera hated more attractive women including all of the ones her husband committed adultery with. For example, she can’t stand Paris for choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful woman during a beauty contest. She is also an enemy of Hercules because he is a son of Zeus but not her son. Therefore, she tried to kill him many times to get her vengeance. One time when he was a baby, Hera put snakes in his crib but he managed to kill them. (Hera //Theoi.com//)

Hera’s sacred animals are the cow and the peacock. The cow is sacred to her because she is known as bopis or cow-eyed. The peacock is a symbol of pride and her wagon is even pulled by peacocks. A pomegranate is also sacred to her because it is a symbol of fertile blood and death often held by her. (Lindemans)

One day Zeus saw Hera and wanted to marry her without the knowledge of being family, but she was never interested in Zeus. When he realized his previous attempts failed, he found a way to force her to marry him. Zeus posed as a hurt cuckoo bird for Hera to nurture. (Aliki) When she picked him up, he turned to his normal form and began to rape her. To get her to marry him, he threatened her of telling everyone what had happened. Afraid of the embarrassment, she agreed to marry him for secrecy.(Sosa)

One time when Zeus was being cruel to the other gods, Hera teamed up with all of the other gods to plot against him. She found a way to drug him and tied him up to a couch. Then the gods began to argue. Some people that were still loyal to Zeus overheard them and came to help. Zeus was so furious towards Hera so that he hung her with golden anvils for the night. The whole time she was crying until Zeus finally released her with the warning to never try to revolt against him again like that again.(Sosa)

Hera has a truly interesting life story. She has problems with her own jealousy and husband and a vengeful nature. I think she is one of the best gods I have learned about and she can teach some great lessons.

Images - I uploaded these images 3 times in the right orientation and they will not stay...its this website! - Not Me

Works Cited

Lindemans, Micha. "Hera." //Encyclopedia Mythica: Mythology, Folklore, and Religion.//Web. 15 Dec. 2011. < [] >.

Sosa, Silvia. "Hera: The First Greek Goddess." //SBC.edu//. 1998. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. < [|www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/papers/sosahera/hera.html] >.

"Hera." //Theoi.com//. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. < [|www.theoi.com/Olympis/Hera.html] >.

"Hera." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. < [] >.

Aliki. //The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus//. New York, NY: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1994. Print.

Souli, Sofia A. //A Fantastic Voyage Into Greek Mythology//. Llioupolis: Michalis Toubis Editions, 1998. Print.