~Hera~

Hera is the Greek Goddess of Women and Marriage. She is the sibling of Zeus, Demeter, Poseidon, Hestia, and Hades. Zeus is also her unfaithful husband, making her the queen of the gods. Often spiteful and jealous, she is not liked by many.

Zeus and Hera were always fighting, mostly because of Zeus constant unfaithfulness to her. So Hera was often spiteful towards all of Zeus' lovers and offspring (all couple hundred of them). But she did have some children with her husband.

With Zeus, Hera birthed Ares, Hebe, Eris, and Eileithyia. She also had one more child. Since Zeus had given birth to Athena without her she decided to give birth Hephaestus without Zeus. Hephaestus, God of the Forge, was born ugly and because he was so ugly Zeus banished him from Mount Olympus.

Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical throne which, when she sat on it, didn't allow her to leave it. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go but he repeatedly refused. Dionysus, God of Wine, got him drunk and took him back to Olympus on the back of a mule. Hephaestus released Hera after being given Aphrodite as his wife.

Such a loving family. Just makes you all tingly in side, you know.

Lets go on to another story about Hera. There are no shortage in stories about her. She took part in Echo. In the story of Echo, Zeus was flirting and seducing a nymph and Hera grew jealous. She cursed the nymph to repeat only what was said by others. Thus the name Echo, which is the orgin for the word echo that we use in this day and age.

Okay another story. The one about Callisto and Arcas is an intresting one. Callisto, a follower of Artemis, had sworn to remain a virgin. Zeus had other plans, he was said to have "fallen in love" (liklyhood is that he was using the brain down south, not the one up north)and disguised himself as Artemis in order to lure her to him. Must remember Zeus is not a nice person, if a woman he wanted was not willing, he would rape her. Anyway Hera was furious and turned Callisto into a bear for revenge.

This is were Arcas comes into the story. Arcas was born out the union between Callisto and Zeus. Years later Arcas was out hunting (mind you he does not know his mother is a bear) and shoots a bear. Zeus seeing this puts them both among the stars and made the constolations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. (It is also possible that Artemis turned Callisto into a bear because of the lost of her virginity. But that seems unlikely for she tried to protect those woman who had been raped or were virgin)

Last thing about stories with her. Hercules is not her son and Hera hatted Hercules with a passion. Hera tried to prevent his brith by tying his mother's legs in knots, fortunatly the child had already been born. So Hera turned her into a weasle. Like I said nice lady...

She then sent two snakes to kill the baby. In the move it was Hades who sent the snakes and they got that part wrong but part about the baby throttling the snakes was right. Later Zeus tricked Hera into nursing Hercules but as soon as Hera figured out who the baby was, she ripped the baby away from her breast. When she did that some of her milk spilled in the heavens. The place where the milk was said to have spilled is now called "the Milky Way".

Anyway they aventually made peace. Some myths state that Hera befriended Heracles for saving her from a giant who tried to rape her, and that she even gave her daughter Hebe as his bride. But she supposedly gave him twelve tasks that got harder and harder so it seems unlikely that she would befriend him only to spirn him later on.

But thats just about it for Hera, Goddess of Women and Marriage. Very few could call her friend and even fewer could call her kind. She hatted the women her husband cheated with and hatted the offspring from the union between the women and Zeus. Many times Hera would kill both the woman and the children, even if it was rape. Even though she is the goddess of Women she hardly ever helped them as for Marriage I think Hera needs to go to marriage councling or get a divorce. Unlike her husband she remained true to him and never took a lover, which is strange for a greek goddess or anyone in Greese at that time. In Rome her name is Juno. Her symbol is a peacock feather and her animal is the peacock, proud and beautiful.

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