Hera
Zeus' sister
and wife, 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.
Her children were Ares, Hephaestus, Hebe and Illyria and the Romans called
her Juno.
Hera was the patron goddess of the landscape Argolis. In Olympia
her temple is even older than that of Zeus, and games to her honour were
held there for women.
On Samos
there was a famous temple dedicated to her, and her most important site was
the town Heraion, where Polycleitos
had made a statue of her in gold and ebony.
Hera also had the following epithets:
Acraea, Aegophagos, Alexandros, Ammonia, Antheia, Argeia, Bunaea, Chera, Hypercheiria,
Imbrasia, Pais, Pelasga, Pharygaea, Prodromia, Samia, Telchinia, Teleia.
