Hera the mythological queen of the Greek Gods
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.
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
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.