Hera (Greek: ρα、 English: Hera), the third generation queen in ancient Greek mythology, is also the goddess of marriage and fertility, and one of the twelve main gods of Olympus. The daughter of the second generation god queen Cronus and Rhea, the co ruler who shared power with Zeus, Zeus' sister and seventh wife. She and Zeus jointly bred Hephaestus, Ares, Herb and Eltia. In Roman mythology, the corresponding is Juno the Queen.
Her name means "lady", "hostess" and "noble woman" in ancient Greek. Hesiod, an ancient Greek poet, called Hera "the gold shod Hera with golden shoes" in his book The Divine Manual; In Homer's epics, she is called "white armed god Hera", "golden seated god Hera" and "ox eyed Queen of Heaven". It describes that the queen sitting on the golden throne is extremely beautiful, with a pair of bright eyes and big eyes that can see everything. Her arms are as white as lilies, and her beautiful curly hair pours out from the bottom of the crown, Showing a dignified and serene look.

Origin
Hera
Hera was swallowed by her father Cronus as soon as she was born. Later, Cronus was tricked by Mephis and Zeus and vomited it out again. In the war with the Titans, Rhea sent Hera to Oceanus and Tethys for upbringing; In addition, Hera was raised by Temenos of Arcadia or the seasonal goddess of Oboa. He also said that Hera was not swallowed by his father Cronus after he was born. He took care of his brother Zeus on behalf of his mother Rhea to protect him from his father, but this statement is rare.
Hera is the female embodiment of the force of nature. When Zeus proposed to Hera, he promised to share his power and honor with Hera, so Hera can enjoy the power of a husband. Whenever Hera goes out, there are thunder and lightning, and he can also gather and disperse clouds and call the wind and rain. Her fixed symbols are the scepter and crown. She often appears in battle clothes, wearing a crown with flowers and leaves as a symbol of royal power and a veil as a symbol of married women. The maidservants accompanying her are Iris, the goddess of rainbow, Horai, the three goddesses of timing, and Karis, the goddess of beauty and sociality, and Pachetia.
The gods respected her very much, and Zeus also respected her, and often discussed things with her. But they often have fierce quarrels, and Hera often rebuts Zeus and argues with him at the meeting of the gods. In the end, Hera often kept silent because of love.

Zeus proposes
There are many legends about Zeus making love to Hera. The most famous one is that after Zeus became the ruler of the gods, Hera lived in seclusion in the Cuckoo Mountain. Although Zeus was amorous, he was obsessed with his sister Hera. Once, it was raining cats and dogs. At this time, Zeus became a poor bird and got into Hera's arms, which made Hera show infinite love. When the rain stopped and the sun rose, Zeus showed his true shape and promised to marry her. Later, they finally got together. Hera gave birth to Ares, the god of war, Eltia, the goddess of childbirth, Herb, the goddess of youth, and Hephaestus, the god of fire. After living together with Hera, Zeus kept the secret for three hundred years, and finally officially announced and recognized Hera as Zeus's right wife and queen, and held a grand and luxurious holy wedding ceremony. All the gods of heaven and earth were present to celebrate. Gaia, the mother of the earth, gave Hera a golden apple tree as a gift. Hera planted the golden apple tree in the Hesperides Holy Garden in the far west, He also sent a hundred dragons, Ladon and the Hesperides sisters, to take care of the Golden Apple tree. Among the numerous wives and lovers of Zeus, only Hera could enjoy such honor.

Husband's infidelity
Hera
After the marriage between Zeus and Hera, Zeus often left Mount Olympus with his wife Hera on his back and went down to meet with the water fairies privately. Hera became furious when she found out that she was abandoned by her husband, and decided to leave Mount Olympus and never return. After hearing the news, Zeus thought about how to save his feelings with Hera, so Zeus thought of a way. He sent a message that he would marry a fairy with bright eyes again as the queen. But in fact, the bride Zeus said was a puppet man. After Zeus dressed the puppet in bright clothes, he let it sit in a colorful cart pulled by several bulls and walk through the streets, When Hera learned that her husband was going to take a bride to replace her, she was very angry at her husband's shameless act of disloyalty. She went to the colorful cart of Niula to fight Zeus about her bride, and tore the gorgeous clothes of her opponent into rags. When she tore off the bride's veil, Hera was shocked to find that the bride was just a puppet. Later, Hera laughed and forgave Zeus, With Zeus, they returned to Olympus with laughter.
Hera attached great importance to her marriage and was a defender of monogamy. She would never allow her husband to cheat on her. However, Hera is very loyal. She has never cheated. On one occasion, Ixion fell in love with Hera unavoidably and privately said some dirty sweet words to her. Hera not only remained unmoved, but also told Zeus all about it. Later, Zeus changed the dark cloud into the illusion of Hera to test whether Hera's statement was true. As expected, when Ixion saw the false Hera, he tried to be rude to her. Angry Zeus immediately sent Ixion to the underworld to accept cruel punishment.

Persecute a rival in love
Hera was originally a gentle and obedient girl. Later, Hera became suspicious and jealous, which originated from Zeus, the dissolute husband, who often carried his wife behind his back and abused love and philandering with mortal or demigod women. So Hera was very dissatisfied with Zeus's derailment. In order to let her husband see only her, Hera also intended Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to borrow her golden waist to attract Zeus. Hera hated everyone who was close to her husband, and used her power and position to punish those women and their illegitimate children cruelly. For example, Zeus turned his lover Io into a cow in order to hide from Hera. Later, she saw through and persecuted her. Hera ordered the hundred eyed giant Argos to guard her, and not only could she not escape, but Zeus was not allowed to find her. Later, in order to save Io, Zeus sent Hermes to kill Argos and released Io. In order to praise Argos' loyalty, Hera did not waste a bit by embellishing Argos' eyes on the feathers of her sacred bird, the peacock. Later, Hera sent a gadfly to bite Io, forcing her to flee Greece.
Hera had become an old woman and urged Semele, the Princess of Tebai, to ask Zeus to see his real life to verify his love for her. But because the mortals looked at Zeus and died, as soon as Zeus appeared, Semele was immediately burned to death by lightning. Then Zeus took the posthumous son Dionysus from Semele's belly and sewed the child on his thigh until the child grew strong and was born from Zeus's thigh. Later, under the instigation of Hera, Hermes, the divine envoy, proposed to Zeus that Eno, Semele's sister, would be responsible for raising the child; In order to protect the safety of the children, kind-hearted Ino kept away from Hera and raised the children, but nothing escaped Hera's grasp. Hera used magic to drive Ino crazy, and let her kill the children she had carefully raised, and then she jumped off the cliff to kill herself.
Hera
Hera did not allow Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, to give birth on the earth, and ordered the earth gods to forbid helping Leto. She also sent her maid Iris, the rainbow goddess, and Ares, the god of war, to patrol the earth to monitor everything. Leto is the sixth wife of Zeus. As Zeus officially announced Hera as his first wife, Leto was about to give birth to a son for Zeus. Leto's rapid decline in status meant that it would be Hera's cruel revenge for her (Hera and Leto had a festival in the previous war to overthrow Cronus). Hera's persecution made Leto hide on the earth painfully and have no place to live. In addition, Hera sent the python skin born by Gaia, the mother of the earth, to pursue Leto. The arrival of Pitong undoubtedly made Leto even worse. At the request of Zeus, Poseidon raised an island on the sea and beat off Pitong with the waves. Because Hera had vowed never to let Leto produce on the sunny land, Poseidon's waves turned into water mist to cover the island, blocking the sun, and let Leto produce on the island. The pain of childbirth lasted for nine days and nine nights. Hera ordered the birth goddess Eltya to prohibit her from assisting Leto in childbirth. All the goddesses wanted to help Leto, but they could do nothing. Finally, they sent Iris to beg Hera and gave her a gold amber necklace, which made Hera calm down and asked Eltya to help Leto in childbirth. Therefore, Apollo and Artemis were born on the newborn island Deros (some myths say that the island was transformed by Leto's sister Asteria). Therefore, Hera is often said to be a "jealous" Hera, and Zeus can do nothing about it.
Her jealousy and quarrels often bring great disasters to the gods and human beings. For example, Zeus gave birth to his illegitimate son Heracles in order to win the war against Guigantes. For this reason, Hera became jealous and repeatedly killed Heracles. When Alcmene, Zeus's lover, gave birth to Heracles, Hera became furious at the news and ordered the birth goddess Eltia to prevent the birth of the child, but failed. Because Alcmene was afraid of being persecuted by Hera, he put the child in the basket and threw it in the field with straw. If Hera found the child, he would not live. So on an accidental occasion, Hera and Athena, the goddess of wisdom, passed by here and found the child. Athena saw that the child was poor and lovely, and persuaded Hera to feed the child. The child bit Hera's nipple and sucked the milk greedily. As the child's sucking caused Hera pain, she threw the child to the ground in a rage, But the miracle is that the child didn't get hurt because he fell to the ground. Athena compassionately picked up the child from the ground and took him back to the Greek royal city, where she gave him to the queen Alcmeneide to raise. But what surprised Alcmeneide was that the child was the one she had abandoned, for which she was ecstatic. As the child absorbed Hera's milk and left the womb, Hera finally realized the origin of the child. She regretted that she had not found and killed him at first, so she sent two poisonous snakes into the palace to kill the child. Unexpectedly, the child showed the power of God and squeezed the two snakes to death in the cradle. It was not until Heracles grew up that he could not escape the bad luck. Finally, he was driven mad by Hera, causing Heracles to kill his wife and children unconsciously. Heracles ascended to the heaven after his death. Hera voluntarily reconciled with him and betrothed her daughter, the goddess of youth, to him.
Lamia, the queen of Libya, had outstanding beauty and later became Zeus's mistress. In a fit of pique, Hera killed all the children born to Lamia, cursed Lamia sadly, turned her into a monster half human and half snake, and deprived her of sleep.
Callisto was also a fairy who gave birth to a child after Zeus forced her to insult him. Later, Hera, who was furious, found out and imposed all the sins on the innocent girl. So Hera turned Callisto into a big black bear and ordered Artemis to hunt her. Later Zeus brought Callisto to the sky, making her the Ursa Major. Hera was furious when she saw that her rival in love was so honored, so she immediately went to the elders, who were the sea goddess Thetis and the ocean river god Okeanos, who had raised Hera. Hera wailed out her grievances and asked them to show Callisto some strength, that is to say, Callisto was not allowed to enter the sea. Old Poseidon naturally agreed to Hera's request, so that the Ursa Major could only go around in the sky and never fall into the sea like other stars.

Plot a rebellion

Hera, who was extremely angry because of her husband's infidelity, conspired with Poseidon, Athena and Apollo to overthrow Zeus's rule. They rushed to Zeus while he was sleeping, and bound him with a rope made of raw cow hide, so that he could not move. Zeus threatened to put them to death immediately, but they had already put Zeus's thunder and lightning out of his reach, so they laughed mockingly at Zeus's threat. When they were celebrating and encouraging for victory, they thought of who would inherit the throne of Zeus again, which led them to be suspicious and jealous of each other and argue about the candidates for the throne. They were neck and neck, quarreling and fighting. Later, their plot ended in failure due to the intervention of the sea goddess Thetis. Because Hera led the rebellion, Zeus put a gold bracelet around her wrist and hung her in the air. The other gods looked in the eyes and were very angry, but no one dared to save Hera, even though she had already cried bitterly. Later, Zeus released Hera in order to quell the anger of the gods. At the same time, he announced that Hera would become his legitimate wife, and made the gods swear never to rebel against him again.

Other reprisals

Hera is a goddess who is good at magic. There is a country called Aegina, which happens to have the same name as Aegina, Zeus's lover river goddess. This caused Hera's anger, so she used her magic to cast a terrible curse on the country, bringing all kinds of natural disasters and suffocating plagues. The whole country is filled with the smell of death, like a hell between people. Only in this way can her anger be smoothed.

According to Metamorphosis, Antigone is a beautiful and moving mortal woman, who has beautiful golden curly hair and is praised by others. So she wanted to compare herself with Hera, the queen of heaven. She could not escape Hera's punishment for such an act of bullying the king. Hera used her magic to turn Antigone's hair into poisonous snakes circling overhead, biting her scalp, making people shudder. Hera's cruel punishment could not bear Zeus, so Antigone was turned into a crane by Zeus. Orion's first wife, Side, also boasted that her beauty was comparable to Hera's, and Hera ended up in Tartaros, the abyss of hell.

When Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Hera tried her best to stop and delay the birth of Heracles, and ordered her daughter, the goddess of childbirth, Eltya, not to help Alcmene give birth. So Hera came to the mortal world to perform magic, and raised his hands high. As long as his hands did not move, Heracles could not be born. Suddenly, Alcmene's maid Galantis broke into the door and reported to Hera that Alcmene had given birth. Hera was very surprised. She slapped her hand angrily, and Heracles was born successfully. Hera knew that she had been cheated. To punish Galantis, Hera turned her into a lizard (or a weasel).
One day, Hera found that her husband Zeus had disappeared, and she could not find him anywhere. Hera thought that Zeus must have gone to meet with some Fairy Ningfu privately. So Hera went to the lower world to find Zeus. A fairy named Eko restrained Hera with her long words when Hera was catching adultery on the spot, so that Zeus and the fairies took the opportunity to escape. Hera found that she was deceived, so she punished Eko for losing her ability to speak. When she met someone she liked, she could speak, but only answered, so that she could never express what she wanted to say.
Once there was a dispute between Hera and Zeus. Zeus insisted that women get more pleasure in sex than men. Hera thought the opposite and said that this was the reason why Zeus liked to cheat. Finally, they went to ask Theresias, because he had been a man and a woman, and had been married in the seven years since he became a woman, so we can talk about his views from his own experience. Theresias said that if the pleasure was divided into ten parts, women would have nine, and men could only get one of them. Hera flew into a rage and turned him into a blind man.
In the hero myth, King Pelias of Iocles is Hera's sworn enemy. Hera hated Pelias because he never sacrificed to Hera or paid her due respect. Although Sidro, the cruel stepmother of Tirol, fled to Hera's temple to beg for her protection, Pelias rushed into the temple and killed Sidro against morality. Therefore, Hera wanted to take cruel revenge on these insulting behaviors, but her revenge plan directly affected the fate of Jason and Medea.
Hera would send a demon to kill her revenge target in most revenge actions. Orion, son of Poseidon, the sea king, claimed that he was the first hero of Olympus, and no one was more capable than him. So Hera remembered Herb, the daughter who only poured wine for the gods, and Hephaestus, the son of a blacksmith. She was very angry and decided to teach Orion a lesson. Hera sent a scorpion to assassinate Orion without consulting her husband Zeus. In the end, the scorpion did not disappoint Hera. As a reward, Hera promoted the scorpion to the heaven and became Scorpio. One of Hercules' twelve tasks was to kill Hydra, the evil hydra. Because Hera raised it, Hera summoned a huge crab to help Hydra kill Hercules. But the crab failed and Hydra was beheaded by Hercules. Irritated, Hera felt sorry for the crab's desperate sacrifice. In order to admire the crab's loyalty, Hera placed it in the sky and became Cancer today.

The earliest place to worship Hera was Peloponnese. There are temples dedicated to Hera in Mycenae, Argos, Sparta, Korentos, Samoa, Platea, Olympia and many other cities. In Argos, a sacrifice to Hera is held every five years. Knossos in Crete often holds the celebration of Hera and Zeus' "holy marriage". In Roman mythology, Hera corresponds to Juno, and is also in charge of agricultural harvest, prosperity and victory of the war with her husband.
Hera's Holy Land was not very popular at first. Its birthplace was Argos, so people specially called her Argos Goddess. Homer regards Mycenae, Argos and Sparta as Hera's favorite cities. With the gradual formation of the moral significance of marriage that she represents, her holy land also began to become popular. There are ancient holy places in Bootia, Evia and Samoa. The most important Holy Land of Hera was established between Argos and Mycenae in 423 BC. The Holy Land before that was destroyed by a fire. In this holy place, there is the most exquisite and precious standing statue of Hera, which was carved by the sculptor Pollichlet of Cission with gold and ivory.
Hera
Hera
In Homer's epic, Hera is called "the queen of heaven with cow eyes", and she is usually sacrificed with cows. In Argos, Hera was initially worshipped in the form of a cow. Hera once existed in the form of a cow or a human cow, and was a totem god developed from the animal god. In the myth and legend, she entered the hero myth system and occupied a firm position. She is the hero and the protector of the city. The myth that she helped Argo's heroes is the most famous.
Hera symbolizes the three seasons of plant growth in ancient Greece, namely spring, summer and autumn; The cuckoo bird symbolizing spring lives on Hera's scepter, and the pomegranate symbolizing autumn maturity is held in the other hand, representing the beginning and end of the year. Therefore, Holai, who is in charge of spring, summer and autumn respectively, is Hera's maid. Hera, as the Queen of the Kingdom of Heaven (Queen of Heaven), also typically presents the image of a trinity (a three phase goddess). These three images are composed of Herb, the youth goddess who pours wine, Hera, the mother and wife, and Hecate of the underworld. They represent the repeated cycles of the new moon, the full moon, and the old moon, respectively. With the change of the moon's phase, they successively show the posture of a girl (spring), a mother (summer), and an old woman (autumn), Three stages of a woman's life. The Arkadia region of the ancient Greek city-state also worshipped Hera as a girl, a mother and a widow, and each temple was divided into three temples to worship these three forms. As an unmarried girl, Hera is called Pais（ Παις, Pais）； As a mother and wife, Hera was called Thelia（ Τελεια, Teleia）； As a widow who left Zeus, Hera was called Kera（ Χήρη, Chera）； Herb is usually regarded as Hera's virgin face, Hera herself represents her mother, and Hecate is regarded as Hera's widow face, reflecting the repeated marriage and divorce between Zeus and Hera. Hera will carry out a baptism ceremony at the beginning of each spring to renew her virginity, so as to maintain the eternal marital relationship between her and Zeus. She will bathe in the spring of Kanathos in Navprieon, and completely wash and purify her anxiety, fatigue and aging, so that she can return to the pure image of youth and beauty when she was a virgin, which is no less than Aphrodite's celestial beauty; At this time, Zeus only loved Hera, so he did not think about philandering any more. The Holy Spring of Canassos is a real place, where the local people will hold this ceremony to restore Hera's chastity every spring, and soak the statue of Hera in the spring water. Aphrodite and Hera also have their own holy spring to restore their virginity, while Aphrodite bathes in the sea water of Paphos.