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Hera
The queen of the Olympian deities. She is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea,
and wife and sister of Zeus. Hera was mainly worshipped as a goddess of
marriage and birth. It is said that each year Hera's virginity returns by bathing
in the well Canathus. The children of Hera and Zeus are the smith-god
Hephaestus, the goddess of youth Hebe, and the god of war Ares. According
to some sources, however, her children were conceived without the help of a
man, either by slapping her hand on the ground or by eating lettuce: thus they
were born, not out of love but out of lust and hatred.
Writers represented Hera as constantly being jealous of Zeus's various
amorous affairs. She punished her rivals and their
children, among both goddesses and mortals, with implacable fury. She placed two serpents in the
cradle of Heracles; she had Io guarded by a hundred-eyed giant; she drove the
foster-parents of Dionysus mad, and tried to prevent the birth of Apollo and
Artemis. Even Zeus usually could not stand up to her.
Sometimes when he
got angry, he chained her to the mountain of Olympus by fastening anvils to
her feet. However, most of the time Zeus resorted to stratagems: he either hid
his illegitimate children, or he changed them into animals.
Hera's main sanctuary was at Argos in the
Peloponnesus, where she was
worshipped as the town goddess. Also, in this town the
Heraia, public
festivities, were celebrated. Other temples stood in Olympia,
Mycene, Sparta, Paestum, Corinth, Tiryns,
Perachora, and on the islands of Samos and Delos.
The peacock (the symbol of pride; her wagon was pulled by peacocks) and the
cow (she was also known as Bopis, meaning "cow-eyed", which was later
translated as "with big eyes") are her sacred animals. The crow and the
pomegranate (symbol of marriage) are also dedicated to her. Other attributes
include a diadem and a veil. Hera is portrayed as a majestic, solemn woman.
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