Hera was the daughter of Rhea and Cronus, and was soon swallowed by Cronus to avoid having his power usurped. When Zeus and Rhea tricked Cronus into letting Hera come up, she was taken to Arcadia and raised by Temenus, and the seasons. When Zeus became King of the Heavens, he decided to take his sister Hera to be his queen. A tree with golden apples grew up at their marriage feast, and streams of ambrosia flowed past their couch. Zeus honeymooned on the island of Samos, Hera's birthplace, for three hundred years.

Zeus and Hera had several children, including Hephaestus, Ares, Hebe, and Eris. It is said that perhaps these gods were not conceived, but were created through parthenogenetic conception.

Hera had several religious functions, but she spent much time persecuting her husband's mistresses and their children. For example, Zeus proclaimed the next offspring born to him would be a king. Hera slowed the labor of Hercules' mother, Alcmena, and hastened that of another Zeus paramour, Nicippe/Sthenelus. The son of Nicippe came first, and he was Eurystheus, king of Mycenae and Tirnys. Hera was tricked into nursing Hercules when his mother abandoned him, fearing Hera. The name Hercules is derived from Hera's name. When Hera realized Hercules was nursing from her, she pulled him from her breast, and the milk that flowed became the Milky Way. Hercules was forever a thorn in Hera's side. However, after Hercules' death he became immortal, Hera allowed him to marry her daughter, Hebe.

In the Quest of the Golden Fleece, Hera is the gracious protector of the hero, Jason, and the inspirer of heroic deeds. Without her frequent aid the Argonauts could not have completed their goal.

The cow, the peacock, in its pride and gorgeous array, and the cuckoo, as herald of the spring (Hera's and Zeus' marriage season), were sacred to her. She was the protector of marriage, and married women were her peculiar care. She shared all their concerns. Hera along with her daughter, Eileithyia, was goddess of childbirth.

ACTIVITIES:
Hera activity

KEY TEST WORDS: (Know the material behind these items.)
Hera, Juno, Arcadia, Temenus, Samos, Milky Way, Hebe, peacock, cow, cuckoo.

The Olympians

The Lesser Deities

FOOTNOTES:
Hera's favorite companions, in periods of peace, were the Graces, and the Seasons. Juno, the Roman equivalent, was mostly regarded from the maternal point of view. The statue of her by Polykleitos was of gold and ivory and of colossal size. It represented her seated on a throne, holding in one hand a pomegranate, the symbol of marriage, and in the other a sceptre on which sat a cuckoo. On her head was a crown ornamented with figures of the Graces and the Hours.

SOURCES:
Jane Smith
Edith Hamilton's Mythology
Bulfinch's Mythology
"Manual of Mythology" by Alexander S. Murray