Part 6: the gods, Chapter 7 – Hera
Published July 14, 2009 by Frederic Vidal
Temple dedicated to Hera
Mythology
More and more people are now convinced, more and more supporting evidence, that the mythologies are not pretty stories, but real stories
Archaeology is often also support this thesis
Countless archaeological sites discovered through the myths, or vice versa, myths confirmed by archaeological discoveries
Greek mythology is no exception
Hera
Daughter of Cronus and Rhea, the Titans, like his other siblings, she was swallowed by Cronus, but Zeus regurgitated by his brother, aided by Métis
During the Titans, Rhea, his mother gave her to Ocean and Thetis, which raised him to the ends of the earth
It is located in Crete, Mount Thornax (known from the Mount of Cuckoos), when his brother, Zeus seduces her into turning into a cuckoo wet
Hit, Hera collected the bird in his bosom to warm
But he rapes her and the goddess to hide her shame, prefers to marry his brother
For her wedding, Gaia gave him the golden apples of the Hesperides
Their wedding night lasted three centuries and Hera regularly renews her virginity by bathing in the source Canathos
Jealous and spiteful, she is known in the legends for the many disputes that opposed to her divine husband, whom she constantly deplored the constant infidelities
Also, in revenge, she relentlessly persecuted children of Zeus were mortal: Europe, Io, Dionysus, Heracles, to name the most famous, were the victims of his fury
One day, exasperated the escapades of Zeus, Hera decided to seek the help of Poseidon and Athena his son to punish the fickle god
They plan to tie Zeus in his sleep with leather straps to prevent the deadly allure of the Earth
But the Nereid Thetis sends Hecatonchires Briareus to dissuade
Zeus punished Hera by hanging in the sky by a gold chain, an anvil to each ankle
He did releases as against the promise of its bid
She is the mother, by Zeus, Ares, Hebe and Eileithyia, but also of Hephaestus, it designs only to defy her husband and show him that she did not need him to give birth
Beautiful and graceful, it is no less irritable and capricious
Jealous, she often persecuted Zeus’s mistresses and their offspring
Among his victims Heracles, whom she sent two serpents, and the nymph Io, transformed into a cow by Zeus to protect her but still maddened by the bite of a gadfly sent by Hera
It also takes revenge by thwarting the plans of her husband, causing constant quarrels
He would sometimes be subject to the attentions of men, like the Giant Ixion Porphyrion and Zeus, was even more jealous of her, glared the first and second Hera delights in the form of a cloud
In a minority tradition, she is attacked by the giant Eurymedon and designs Prometheus
Hera often mingled in the affairs of mortals
We see and support the Greeks against the Trojans in revenge for Paris, which had not awarded, not by giving the golden apple, the title of the most beautiful of goddesses, but had preferred Aphrodite
It also protects the ship Argo in the expedition of the Argonauts, especially during the dangerous passage between Scylla and Charybdis
It supports Odysseus throughout the Odyssey
Dissatisfied with the decision of Tiresias, she hits him with blindness
Hera Goddess of Olympus
Daughter of Cronus and Rhea, Hera was the queen of heaven and Olympus
Wife and sister of Zeus, she shared with him the dominion of the sky
She is one of the twelve Olympians
She was identified with Juno by the Romans
Hera was born on the island of Samos, or, as some at Argos
Like all children of Cronos, except Zeus, Hera was swallowed by his father and then regurgitated
In a version recorded by Hyginus, Hera was not swallowed by Cronus, but rather it is that which would have saved and raised Zeus in secret
While she was raised by Titans Ocean and Thethy, or it would have been higher by Temenos, son of Pelasgos in Arcadia, or by hours, in Euboea, or by the girls of the river Asterion in Argos
Seasons were her nurses and she was raised in Arcadia by Temenos
The peacock was consecrated in memory of Argos, she took the hundred eyes, when he was killed, and place them on the feathers of the bird
She was the ultimate protector of women and the goddess of marriage legitimate protector of fertility of the couple and Eileithyia with his daughter, women in childbirth
She had the power to confer the gift of prophecy to a man as well as an animal of their choice
It also protective state of Argos and the Argolid she had played in Poseidon
She had temples in almost all countries and especially to Greek Samos and Argos which was held every five years a great feast in his honor Hera
It also has a temple in Olympia, Corinth, Samos or at Cape Lakinion, near Crotone and Mycenae and Sparta
The city of Stymphalus dedicated three temples to Hera in various epicleses: Parthenia (blank), Teleya (wife of Zeus) and Khera (separated from Zeus)
There was also the feast Daedal happening every 7 years or a big party every 60 years
Gamelia celebrated in the month of Gamelion (late January – early February) was the best time to marry
Queen of Heaven as the wife of Zeus, it is also associated with celestial phenomena and in the light
Only married goddess among all the female deities of Olympus, Hera enjoys privileges and is treated with a constant respect
Standing or enthroned, she wore very traditional royal majesty attributes: the scepter and the crown
His head covered with veils is the symbol of marriage
Sometimes she was in one of his hands a pomegranate, emblem of fertility
In the 5th century, Phidias, Alcamenes, Kolot and Polykleitos created a new representation of the goddess to give him an attitude full of nobility
The colossal statue of gold and ivory work of Polykleitos, who was in the temple at the foot of Odo, was Hera seated, crowned, holding in a hand grenade and the other a scepter headed Cuckoo
The legends of Hera
Having banished Cronos, Zeus had many love affairs with goddesses and nymphs, but he decided that only Hera suited to become his wife
He sought at Knossos in Crete and Argolis, where he courted unsuccessfully
One day, Zeus saw Hera who was walking in the woods of Mount Thornax (also called the mountain cuckoo) in the southern Argolid, he dropped a shower and changed into a cuckoo
When Hera saw the poor bird wet and frozen to put it under his coat to warm to her breast
Zeus then resumed her true form
She felt so ashamed that she married him
Zeus saw Hera near Mount Cithaeron in Euboea, he took her and lay with her in a cave Macris, the nurse came to fetch her, but the mountain at the instigation of Zeus strongly advised him to withdraw, claiming that Zeus himself was hiding in the cave with Leto
All the gods brought gifts for the wedding
Mother Earth, Gaia, gave Hera a tree covered with golden apples, which later was guarded by the Hesperides in the orchard of Hera on Mount Atlas
They passed Samos their wedding night that lasted three hundred years
Hera recovered her virginity annually by bathing in spring water source Canathos near Argos
Their love of the gods were born Eileithyia, Hebe and Ares
In nursing it, a jet of her milk traced in the sky the Milky Way
According to Hera, Hephaestus was conceived without the intervention of her husband, Zeus prodigy would not believe until, having imprisoned his wife in a chair with mechanical arms and retreated enclosing the person who sat it was forced to swear by the Styx, inviolable oath, that it was the absolute truth
Hera, the protectress of marriage was a model of fidelity
He arrived, however, be subject to the attendance of men, like Ixion, or the Giant Ephialtes Porphyrion which were quickly punished by Zeus or children
However there is a legend that it would be the mother of Dionysus by Pasithéa
One day, as he is told to Plataea, Hera left Zeus, wearied by the constant infidelity of her husband
So on the advice of the king of Plataea, Alalcoménée or Cithaeron, Zeus fashioned an elegant wooden statue, he covered it with a veil and placed it next to him in his chariot
Then he spread the rumor that he was going to marry Plataea, the king’s daughter
Hera soon learned she was so furious that she immediately ran up and threw the statue
But seeing the deception she was reconciled with her husband in a loud laugh
The Hesperides
The Hesperides were nymphs of the setting sun, daughters of Atlas and Hesperis or Atlas and Nyx (Night), or Ceto and Phorcys depending on version
There are three which are called: Eagle (the brilliant) Erytheïa
(The reddish), Hesperia (Evening)
The garden of the Hesperides
They reside in an orchard fabulous garden of the Hesperides, located at the western edge of the world
Hera gave them the task to watch over the golden apples that they had been assigned, and it was Assistant using the dragon Ladon
The golden apples of the Hesperides were given by Gaia to Hera as a wedding present
The golden apples are supposed to bring immortality …
This garden is guarded day and night by Ladon, a hundred-headed dragon
Herakles kills Ladon to pluck the golden apples of the Hesperides, the subject of the eleventh of the twelve labors imposed by Eurystheus
One of his golden apples, the same will be the cause of the Trojan War
The eleventh of the twelve labors of Hercules
Heracles had completed his ten works in the space of eight years and one month
But Eurystheus, who had counted neither the second nor the fifth, he inflicted on two other
The Eleventh Works was to bring the golden fruit of an apple tree, a gift from the goddess Gaia to Hera
She had planted in his garden that God was on the slopes of Mount Atlas, where the horses of the chariot of the sun, out of breath, complete their hike and where herds of Atlas (thousand sheep and a thousand cows) were walking peacefully in the pastures
When Hera discovered that day the daughters of Atlas, the Hesperides, to whom she had custody of the tree, stole apples, she placed Ladon, the dragon vigilant around the apple to prohibit the approach
Although apples were the property of Hera, Atlas was proud, like a gardener’s best fruit, and Themis warned: “one day soon, Titan, your tree will be stripped of his gold by a son of Zeus”
Atlas, which had not been ordered to carry the Earth on his shoulders, built solid walls around the garden and drove all foreigners from its territory Heracles, not knowing in what place was the garden of the Hesperides, crossed the Illyria to the river Po, home of the sea god, Nereus, the Oracle
When Hercules finally reached the Po River nymphs, daughters of Zeus and Themis, who led him to Nereus was asleep
Heracles seized the venerable god of the sea, clinging to him despite his many metamorphoses, forced him to reveal the way to take the golden apples
Nereus advised Hercules to not pick the apples himself, but to use Atlas to do for him and relieve him during this time of the great burden the land, which he wore on his shoulders now
So, arriving at the garden of the Hesperides, he asked Atlas to report this small service
Atlas would really do anything in exchange for an hour’s respite, but he feared Heracles killed Ladon then an arrow shot over the garden wall
Heracles then had declined to receive the weight of the globe on his shoulders and had left Atlas
Now he returned with three apples picked by her daughters
It was that freedom was nice and decided to bring himself apples to Eurystheus, Heracles is provided the land for a few months
Hercules pretended to agree, but as he had been warned by Nereus to accept any such proposal, he asked Atlas to take over the world for a moment to put a pad on his head
Atlas, easily deceived, put the apples on the ground and took his burden
Heracles then picked up and moved away by making it a little ironic salvation
A few months later, Heracles brought the apples to Eurystheus who gave him
He then offered to Athena which restored to the nymphs, as it was illegal as the property of their Hera was removed
Heracles, being thirsty, having accomplished the work struck the ground with his foot and brought forth a stream, then, was to save the life of the Argonauts when they were taken by thirst in the Libyan desert
Meanwhile Hera, Ladon crying, put him among the stars where it appears the constellation of the Dragon
