She is mentioned to have been fostered by Okeanos and his wife Tethys, and is said to be the most beautiful of the goddesses. Pausanias says she was fostered by the Horai or the daughters of the river god Asterion, or a man named Temenus who ruled Arcadia. Alternatively, she was swallowed with the rest of her siblings or possibly fostered after Cronus regurgitated her, minded during the Titanomachy.
She was seduced by Zeus in the form of a cuckoo and with him was the mother of Ares, Hebe, Eileithyia and possibly Eris. In some stories he found her in the Garden of the Hesperides and took her away or disguised himself as a cuckoo and then ravished her prompting her to marry him out of shame.
She received the Garden of the Hesperides with its golden apples as a wedding gift from Gaia. Her wedding took place in the Garden of the Hesperides, on Mt. Ida or on the island Euboea. Their honeymoon was said to have lasted for 300 years.
Sometimes she was depicted as a virgin goddess despite her marriage and children, said to renew her virginity once a year in the spring of Kanathos.
Jealous of Zeus having Athena seemingly by himself, she birthed Hephaestus without a father. According to one tale he was born lame and ugly and Hera cast him out in disgust, he got his revenge by creating a golden throne for her on which she was permanently stuck until Dionysus got him drunk and persuaded him to free her. According to another version, Hephaestus was a loyal son to Hera, attempting to free her when Zeus chained her between the earth and sky, Zeus threw him down to earth in disgust causing his lameness.
She tried to overthrow Zeus with Poseidon and Athena but was thwarted by Thetis who got Briareos to help him.
She fought against the Gigantes and was saved from being raped by Porphyrion by Zeus and Heracles.
Hera from Hercules the Legendary Journeys
Zeus swore that a child born to the line of Perseus would become king, knowing that his illegitimate son Heracles was of that line and due to be born. Hera forced Ilithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to sit crosslegged, preventing Heracles birth and then hastened the birth of Eurystheus, another descendant of Perseus. Thus Zeus was forced to make Eurystheus the king. Hera was then tricked by Galanthis, a servant of Heracles' mother Alcmene into thinking that Heracles was already born, believing this she freed Ilithyia thus allowing Heracles' birth. In anger she turned Galanthis into a weasel.
She sent two snakes to kill Heracles when he was still an infant but he strangled them. In another story she was tricked by Zeus into suckling Heracles but when she discovered the treachery, she pulled him from her breast and the stray milk formed the Milky Way.
She drove Heracles to madness causing him to murder his wife Megara and their children. She then directed the Oracle to tell Heracles to go to his rival King Eurystheus and be set labours to act as penance for his murders. She tried to thwart him from completing his labours, sending a crab to hinder him when he fought the Hydra, and a gadfly to annoy the cattle of Geryon. She also refused to have the Cretan Bull that he captured sacrifice to her and so it was let loose and became the Marathonian Bull.
According to Homer, Heracles shot her in the breast with an arrow, giving her an incurable wound that constantly vexed her. This may have been when he tried to conquer Pylos to punish King Neleus for not cleansing him of the murder of Iphitos. Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Ares all sided with Neleus whilst only Athena (or Athena and Zeus) sided with Heracles. Heracles wounded Ares, Hades, Hera and Apollo after he tried to heal Ares with arrows dipped in Hydra's blood, and they all had to be healed by Asclepius.
However, when Heracles was made immortal she reconciled with him and permitted him to take her daughter Hebe as a bride.
Hera is best known for her stories of revenge against Zeus' lovers. The Oread (mountain nymph) Echo distracted Hera from Zeus' affairs, and when Hera discovered the treachery she condemned Echo by taking her voice, all she could do was echo the another's words.
She would not allow Leto to give birth on the mainland or an island as Zeus was the father of her twins, and she had the dragon Python/Pytho persue her while she was pregnant. Eventually she was able to give birth on the floating island Delos. Hera also compelled the giant Tityos to try and rape Leto but he was stopped and slain by Apollo and Artemis.
When Zeus disguised his lover the nymph Io as a heifer, Hera was not fooled and demanded the heifer as a gift. She had her guarded by the many eyed Argus. Zeus had Hermes slay Argus and free Io. Hera then had Io plagued by a gadfly, forcing her to wander as far as Egypt.
Queen Lamia of Libya was a granddaughter and/or daughter of Poseidon and a lover of Zeus, she gave Zeus children which Hera murdered or drove Lamia to murder. Hera forbid her the ability to close her eyes so that she would forever see her dead children but Zeus gave her the ability to take them out.
She brought about Semele's death when she discovered she was pregnant by Zeus, by visiting her in the guise of her nurse and telling her that her lover probably lied about being a god and that Semele should demand proof by having him visit in his true form. Semele demanded Zeus visit her as he did Hera and he came with thunder and lightning, which killed Semele. Zeus rescued her child however by sewing him into his thigh.
She punished Gerana, queen of the Pygmies, for claiming she was more beautiful than Hera by turning her into a crane. Since then the cranes have fought with the Pygmies when the cranes migrate to their home in winter. The Pygmies were a small people who lived on the souther shores of Okeanos, they were depicted as armed and riding goats.
She killed Orion's wife Side (or had Zeus kill her) for also claiming she was more beautiful than Hera.
She drove the daughters of Proitos/Proetus, king of Argos and Tiryns, mad because they insulted her. He was brother to Acrisius and uncle to Danae, mother of Perseus. He sent the hero Bellerophon to Iobates after his wife claimed Bellerophon had tried to rape her when in fact the hero had resisted her advances. His daughters were Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, or Lysippe, Hipponoe and Cyrianassa, or Elege and Celaene. When they reached maturity they went mad, lost their beauty and their hair, either because they called themselves fairer than Hera or stole gold from her statue or alternatively because they had refused to worship Dionysus. The soothsayer and healer Melampus/Melampous offered to cure them for a third of the kingdom but Proetus refused, they grew worse and Proetus went for Melampus who demanded a third of kingdom for himself but also a third for his brother Bias. Proetus was forced to consent and the daughters were healed, except for Iphione who died in the pursuit. Iphianassa then married Melampus and Lysippe probably married Bias.
Alternatively, it was Proetus son that was ill, Melampus discovered it was because a knife had frightened him and Proetus had tossed into a tree, angering a hamadryad who cursed the prince. By removing the dagger, boiling it and having the prince drink the water, Melampus could cure the prince. When he did so he was rewarded with a third of the kingdom for himself and a third for his brother.
When Queen Rhodope and her husband King Haemus of Thrace called themselves Zeus and Hera, Zeus and Hera turned them into the Rhodope and Balkan mountains.
After Eris threw a golden apple addressed 'for the fairest' at the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite competed for it. Zeus asked Prince Paris to judge betweent the three. They appeared before Paris promising him things, Athena promised him wisdom and glory in battle, Hera promised him control over Asia and Europe, and Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world- Helen. Paris picked Aphrodite, this led to the Trojan War, during which Hera and Athena fought on the side of the Greeks. Despite Paris' judgement Hera is usually described as the most beautiful of the goddesses, fairer even than Aphrodite.
Hera twice asked Hypnos to put Zeus to sleep, once when Heracles was at sea so that Hera could cause a storm, which killed Heracles' friends, and again during the Trojan War by promising him Pasithea, one of the Charities/Graces for a wife, while Zeus slept Poseidon helped the Greeks take advantage.
Pelias angered Hera by killing Sidero, the wicked stepmother of his mother Tyro, he killed her in Hera's temple, which led to her hatred of him and her patronage of his nephew Jason. Jason helped her cross a river when she was disguised as an old woman and she blessed him for it. She persuaded Aphrodite to get Eros to make the witch and princess Medea fall in love with Jason so that Jason might have her aid.
She granted the sons of her priestess Cydippe death in their sleep not as punishment but as a reward. Cydippe was due to attend a festival to the goddess but the oxen to pull her cart did not show so her sons pulled it there instead. Cydippe asked Hera to grant her sons the best gift a god could and Hera had them die in their sleep. The belief ties in with the idea that you should not judge a man happy until he is dead.
King Ixion of the Lapiths, possibly a son of Ares, was married to Dia but did not give her father a bride price for her, her father, Deioneus/Eioneus, stole Ixion's horses in response. Ixion then invited Deioneus to a feast and pushed him into burning coals. He went mad and was outlawed but Zeus pitied him and invited him to dine with the gods. Ixion saw Hera and immediately coveted her, Zeus learned of his desires and was outraged, he created a cloud in the shape of Hera, Nephele and Ixion, thinking it was the goddess, lay with it, siring the first of the Centaurs- Centauros. Ixion was banned from Olympus, struck with a lightning bolt and then bound to a fiery wheel, which forever spins.
She is described as ox eyed and usually portrayed as a stern but beautiful queen with a polos crown and a pomegranate in one hand. Her animals are the cow, the cuckoo and peacock (whose 'eyes' in its tail are said to have come from her servant Argus who Hermes slain) and her flowers are the lily and poppy. The peacock was a later addition, as the bird was unknown to the Greeks until the time of Alexander the Great. Other symbols of Hera were the diadem, the sceptre and the crab.
Her Roman equivalent was Juno. Juno was the protector and counselor of state, she was a goddess of the women and held in high regard as a queen, and was sometimes seen as a moon goddess. She was viewed as warlike and usually shown on a peacock wearing a goatskin cloak.
She was part of the Capitoline Triad with Jupiter and Minerva. Sometimes the goddess Fortuna was said to have milked Juno with her future spouse Jupiter. She was also linked to the god Janus.
When Jupiter gave birth to Minerva a jealous Juno went to Flora who with a herb helped her to conceive the god Mars.
Men had a guardian spirit called a genius, so women had one called a juno and in that respect Juno was very much a guardian goddess of women.
She did not seem troubled by infidelity and was more compassionate to women than Hera. However, she had a cruel streak, and plagued Aeneas, trying to stop him from founding a city in Italy as it had been foretold that her favourite city would be destroyed by Trojan descendants. She sent a storm against him and encouraged or brought about his romance with Dido, which Mercury brought about the end of after he was sent by Jupiter and Aphrodite to remind Aeneas of his destiny. Dido killed herself and saddened by this, Juno sent Iris to lessen her pain and make her journey to the Underworld easier. She urged Turnus to declare war on Aeneas when Aeneas took his bride to be, Lavinia.
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