Hera the mythological queen of the Greek Gods

Hera, the mythological queen of the Greek Gods, was sister and wife of Zeus, daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Hera was the queen of heaven and the gods and goddess of women and marriage. She was generally described as an avenging goddess, punishing those that had displeased her severely. Her husband Zeus was constantly unfaithful to her, and she had a lot of persecuting to do because of this and the fact that she was very jealous.
Amongst her victims were Heracles, Echo, the Trojans because Paris had chosen Aphrodite as the most beautiful over her, Io, Leda and Leto.

Hera was born according to a legend, in Argos, Peloponnese, where she was worshiped since ancient times in her famous temple, Heraion. Other myths, however, acknowledge that the island of Samos, Arcadia or Corinth is the birthplace of the goddess. Her daughter was Eileithyia, goddess of motherhood.
Sister and lawful wife of Zeus, the queen of gods and men, had four children with Zaus, Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus and Eileithyia.

She was raised by the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. She is the queen of the sky and with her power regulates the movement of the stars that run through its vast expanse. But it is not equal to Zeus, because it is incomprehensible that heaven has two masters. So she is a woman in a lower rank than her husband, but she participates in his power and greatness.

Her wedding was celebrated majestically and was called a “sacred wedding” because it established the institution of marriage. All the gods of heaven and earth were present there with great eagerness. A single nymph, Chelone, did not want to honor weddings and so she transformed into a Turtle. At the weddings, the Earth gave her a tree that made golden apples and was planted on Mount Atlas, which was guarded by the dragon Ladon and the Hesperides.

She was a majestic and proud goddess, but very jealous and she kept torturing Zeus with her complaints about his infidelities and persecuted and severely punished her opponents. Nevertheless, she was impeccable in morals and therefore protected the sanctity of marriage and the good and moral conduct of men and gods.

Her revenge, jealousy and arrogance were proverbial and often caused unrest on Olympus and on earth. She did not tolerate any woman being superior to her in beauty. The queen of the Pygmies, who dared to claim to be more beautiful than the queen of the gods, was transformed into the famous crane bird.

She never forgot an insult and the Trojan War would soon end in honest peace, without winners and losers, if it were not for her hatred for Paris, which judged Aphrodite more beautiful and gave her the golden “apple of discord”. The insult to her despised beauty lasted until Troy collapsed into ruins.

Hera symbolizes the air, the earthly atmosphere. That is why they married her to the thin and fresh air above the atmosphere, that is, the Ether, Zeus. And because the movements of the earth’s atmosphere are said to disturb the peace of higher bodies because Zeus and Hera were constantly quarreling . As the goddess of the king of the gods she was the protector of various cities.

Worship

Hera, as the wife of the king of the gods, was the protector of various cities.The cities she preferred and loved were Samos, Argos and Carthage, where magnificent temples were built in her honor, which they called “Herea”. In her honor, there were also festivals called “Herea”, which were celebrated in Argos with all splendor and grandeur every five years. The crowd marched to the great temple of Hera in Argos where inside it was a statue of her, which was the work of Polykleitos, which competed in art and splendor that of Zeus and Athena by Pheidias. The procession was accompanied by a hundred oxen and a chariot by two white oxen, where the priestess of the goddess sat. The hundred oxen were slaughtered and sacrificed to the gods and their meat was distributed to the people. Then followed the games.

She was depicted sitting on a throne, with a diadem on her head and a gold scepter in her hand. Sometimes with her chariot dragged by her favorite animal, the peacock, she would go for a walk in the sky. Iris, was her messenger. Her sacred animals were the cow, the peacock and the cuckoo and her symbols were the diadem, the scepter and envy.