One of the most revered goddesses of antiquity was the power-hungry beauty Hera. The Romans knew her as Juno, the goddess of marriage and legitimate children. The goddess Hera is an ambiguous and rather complex character in mythology. She was highly revered as a powerful and all-powerful goddess of marriage, and at the same time, Homer in his Iliad presented her as a cruel, vindictive and very quarrelsome wife.
Goddess Hera is the sixth legal wife of the great Thunderer Zeus, the ruler of Olympus and the father of revered gods and great heroes. The daughter of Kronos and Rhea, she was consumed by her father after birth, as were the rest of her four siblings. By the time Zeus defeated the Titans and occupied Olympus, Hera had grown into a beautiful young woman. But she was distinguished by modesty, led a correct way of life and did not look at men. With her beauty, purity and inaccessibility, she attracted the attention of the Thunderer. Zeus was distinguished by his indomitable passion and was known as a great seducer and rapist. His first victim was his own mother, Rhea, who forbade him to marry. Falling into a rage, he overtook her in the form of a snake and took possession of her power. Therefore, do not be surprised that he liked his own sister. But the goddess Hera was in no hurry to give in to him, in every possible way avoiding his close attention. Then Zeus resorted to another trick, knowing that the maiden he desired was good at heart, he turned into a small, weak bird. Hera bent down and picked it up. To warm the frozen bird, she placed it on her chest. It was then that Zeus took on his true appearance, rushed at the poor confused goddess. But all his attempts to seize it by force were unsuccessful. She resisted until he swore to take her as his legal wife.
According to the myths, their honeymoon lasted for three hundred years. But as soon as it ended, Zeus again returned to his vicious, hectic lifestyle. Hera, the goddess of pure and strong marriage bonds, could not tolerate her husband's numerous infidelities and brought down all her anger on her mistresses and their illegitimate children. Of course, as a woman, she shifts all her resentment not to her husband, but to others. She responds to the pain of a broken marriage with rage and action, rather than the depression typical of Persephone, Demeter, or Aphrodite. It is this excessive vindictiveness that makes her feel powerful, not rejected.
The goddess Hera had several children, but she did not give birth to any of them from her husband. After the birth of Athena, whose only parent was Zeus, she gave birth in revenge to Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmithing. But, compared to the beautiful and perfect Athena,
Hephaestus was a weak baby withmutilated foot. In a fit of anger, Hera threw him from Olympus to the foot of the mountain. This is far from the only story associated with the vindictive malice of the supreme goddess. She wanted to kill Dionysus, sent madness to his teacher. She put two snakes in the crib to the newborn Hercules. The unfortunate nymph Callisto, seduced by Zeus, Hera turned into a big bear and tried to force her son to kill her by suggestion.
This is how the ancient Greeks imagined the goddess Hera, photos of the surviving statues can be seen in many galleries. On them, the great patroness of marriage and childbearing looks like a beautiful, stately and proud woman who endured all the insulting adventures of her loving spouse with such grandeur.
