Hera - Revision history

Irlandos: /* Semele/Dionysus */

2006-12-20T15:50:44Z

Semele/Dionysus

Irlandos at 18:36, June 21, 2006

2006-06-21T18:36:46Z

Irlandos: /* References */

2006-03-23T10:29:35Z

References

Irlandos: /* Leto and Artemis/Apollo */

2006-03-23T10:28:00Z

Leto and Artemis/Apollo

Irlandos: /* Etymology and Pre-History */

2006-03-23T10:27:22Z

Etymology and Pre-History

Irlandos at 12:52, September 29, 2005

2005-09-29T12:52:21Z

Irlandos at 12:50, September 29, 2005

2005-09-29T12:50:50Z

New page

In the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian pantheon]] of classical [[Greek Mythology]], '''Hêra''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] {{polytonic|Ἥρα}} or {{polytonic|Ἥρη}}) was the wife and sister of [[Zeus]]. She also presided as [[goddess]] of marriage, the patriarchal bond of her own subordination. (Slater 1968)

Hera is portrayed as being majestic and solemn, often enthroned and crowned with the ''polos'', the high cylindrical crown worn by several of the [[Great Goddess]]es. In her hand she may bear the [[pomegranate]], emblem of fertile blood and death and a substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy (Ruck and Staples 1994). "Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier, aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos" (Burkert 1985 p.131).

In [[Roman mythology]], the consort of [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]] (Zeus) was [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]].

==Etymology and Pre-History==
Unlike some Greek gods, such as [[Zeus]] and [[Poseidon]], Hera's name is not analyzable as a Greek or [[Indo-European]] word. She therefore seems to be a survival of a pre-Greek "great goddess" figure - perhaps one of the powerful female divinities of the [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] pantheon, or of some unidentified pre-Greek ("[[Pelasgian]]") people.

Hera's importance in the early archaic period is attested by the large building projects undertaken in her honor. The temples of Hera in the two main centers of her cult, at [[Samos]] and in the [[Argolid]], were the very earliest monumental [[Greek temple]]s constructed, in the [[8th century BC]].

At Olympia, her seated cult figure was older than the warrior figure of Zeus that accompanied it. Homer expressed her relationship with Zeus delicately in The [[Iliad]], in which she declares to Zeus, "I am [[Cronus]]' eldest daughter, and am honourable not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are king of the gods."[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2199] Though Zeus is often called ''Zeus Heraios'' ("Zeus, consort of Hera"), Homer's treatment of Hera is less than respectful, and in late anecdotal versions of the myths (see below) she appeared to spend most of her time plotting revenge on the [[nymph]]s seduced by her Consort, for Hera upheld all the old right rules of Hellene society and sorority.

[[Image:Hera.jpg|thumb|right|Greek marble statue of Hera made in the 5th century B.C.]]

== [[Cult (religion)|Cult]] ==
Hera was especially worshipped, as "Argive Hera" (''Hera Argeia''), at her sanctuary that stood between the former Mycenaean city-states of [[Argos]] and [[Mycenae]], where the festivals in her honor called ''[[Heraia]]'' were celebrated. "The three cities I love best," the ox-eyed Queen of Heaven declares (''Iliad'', book iv) "are Argos, Sparta and Mycenae of the broad streets." Her other main center of cult was at [[Samos]]. There were also temples to Hera in [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]], [[Corinth, Greece|Corinth]], [[Tiryns]], [[Perachora]] and the sacred island of [[Delos]]. In [[Magna Graecia]], the temple long called the Temple of Poseidon among the group at [[Paestum]] was identified in the 1950s as a second temple there of Hera.

Greek [[altar]]s of Classical times were always under the open sky. Hera may have been the first to whom an enclosed roofed temple sanctuary was dedicated, at Samos about [[800 BC]]. (It was replaced later by the [[Heraion]], one of the largest Greek temples anywhere.) Earlier sanctuaries, whose dedication is less secure, were of the Mycenaean type called "house sanctuaries". Samos excavations have revealed votive offerings, many of them late 8th and 7th century, which reveal that Hera at Samos was not merely a local Greek goddess of the [[Aegean]]: the museum there contains figures of gods and suppliants and other votive offerings from Armenia, Babylon, Iran, Assyria, Egypt, testimony to the reputation which this sanctuary of Hera enjoyed and to the large influx of pilgrims— and a general reminder to us that Greek myths did not evolve in a cultural vacuum (Burkert 1998).

In [[Euboea]] the festival of the [[Daedalus|Great Daedala]], sacred to Hera, was celebrated on a sixty-year cycle.

In Hellenistic imagery, Hera's wagon was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]: Alexander's tutor, [[Aristotle]], refers to it as "the Persian bird." The peacock motif was revived in the Renaissance iconography that unified Hera and Juno, and which European painters have kept familiar to us (Seznec 1953). A bird that had been associated with Hera on an archaic level, where most of the Aegean goddesses were associated with "their" bird, was the cuckoo, which appears in mythic fragments concerning the first wooing of a virginal Hera by Zeus.

Her archaic association was primarily with cattle, as a Cow Goddess, who was especially venerated in "cattle-rich" [[Euboea]]. Her familiar Homeric epithet ''boôpis'', is always translated "cow-eyed", for, like the Greeks of Classical times, we reject its other natural translation "cow-faced" or at least "of cow aspect". A cow-headed Hera, like a [[Minotaur]] would make a dark demon of fear. But on Cyprus, very early archaeological sites contain bull skulls that have been adapted for use as masks (see [[Bull (mythology)]]..

The pomegranate, an ancient emblem of the Great Goddess, remained an emblem of Hera: many of the votive pomegranates and poppy capsules recovered at Samos are made of ivory, which survives burial better than the wooden ones that must have been more common. Like all goddesses, Hera may be displayed wearing a diadem and be veiled.

== Hera and children ==
Hera presides over the right arrangements of the marriage and is the archetype of the union in the marriage bed, but she is not notable as a mother. The legitimate offspring of her union with Zeus is [[Ares]], [[Hebe]] (the goddess of youth), [[Eris]] (the goddess of discord), Charis (grace personified) and [[Eileithyia]] (goddess of childbirth). Hera was jealous of Zeus' giving birth to [[Athena]] without recourse to her (actually with [[Metis (mythology)|Metis]]), so she gave birth to [[Hephaestus]] without him. (An alternate version discounts this and says Zeus and Hera were both parents of Hephaestus) Zeus and/or Hera herself were then disgusted with Hephaestus' ugliness and threw him from Olympus. As another alternative version, Hera gave birth to all of the children usually accredited to her and Zeus together, alone by beating her hand on the Earth, a solemnizing action for the Greeks, or by eating lettuce!--a reference to a cult practice is needed for this-->.

Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical throne which, when she sat on it, didn't allow her to leave it. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go but he repeatedly refused. [[Dionysus]] got him drunk and took him back to Olympus on the back of a mule. Hephaestus released Hera after being given [[Aphrodite]] as his wife.

== Hera the nemesis of Heracles ==
Hera was the enemy of Heracles, the hero who, more than even [[Perseus]] [[Cadmus]] or [[Theseus]], introduced the Olympian ways in Greece (Ruck and Staples 1994). When [[Alcmene]] was pregnant with [[Hercules|Heracles]], Hera tried to prevent the birth from occurring. She was foiled by [[Galanthis]], her servant, who told Hera that she had already delivered the baby. Hera turned her into a weasel.

While Heracles was still an infant, Hera sent two serpents, to kill him as he lay in his cot, the mythographers interpreted the event. Heracles throttled a single snake in each hand and was found by his nurse playing with their limp bodies as if they were child's toys. The anecdote is built upon a representation of the hero gripping a serpent in each hand, precisely as the familiar Minoan snake-handling goddesses had once done.

One account of the origin of the [[Milky Way]] is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she had pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day.

==== The Twelve Labors ====
Hera assigned Heracles to labor for King [[Eurystheus]] at Mycenae. She attempted to make almost each of Heracles' twelve labors more difficult.

When he fought the [[Lernaean Hydra]], she sent a crab to bite at his feet in the hopes of distracting him. To annoy Heracles after he took the cattle of [[Geryon]], Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them and scatter them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the water level of a river so much Heracles could not ford the river with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. When he finally reached the court of [[Eurystheus]], the cattle were sacrificed to Hera.

Eurystheus also wanted to sacrifice [[Cretan Bull]] to Hera, who hated Heracles. She refused the sacrifice because it reflected glory on Heracles. The bull was released and wandered to Marathon, becoming known as the [[Marathonian Bull]].

== Hera's jealousies ==
=== [[Echo (mythology)|Echo]] ===
For a time, a [[nymph]] named [[Echo (mythology)|Echo]] had the job of distracting Hera from Zeus' affairs by incessantly talking. When Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to only speak the words of others (hence our modern word "echo").

=== [[Leto]] and [[Artemis]]/[[Apollo (god)|Apollo]] ===
When Hera discovered that [[Leto]] was pregnant and that Hera's husband, Zeus, was the father, she banned Leto from giving birth on "terra-firma", or the mainland, or any island at sea. She found the floating island of [[Delos]], which was neither mainland nor a real island and gave birth there. The island was surrounded by swans. As a gesture of gratitude, Delos was secured with four pillars. The island later became sacred to [[Apollo]]. Alternatively, Hera kidnapped [[Ilithyia]], the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods forced Hera to let her go. Either way, [[Artemis]] was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo. Another version states that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of [[Ortygia]] and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo.

=== [[Callisto (mythology)|Callisto]]/[[Arcas]] ===
Hera also figures in the myth of [[Callisto (mythology)|Callisto]] and [[Arcas]].

A follower of [[Artemis]], Callisto took a vow to remain a virgin. But [[Zeus]] fell in love with her and disguised himself as [[Apollo]] in order to lure her into his embrace. Hera then turned Callisto into a bear out of revenge. Later, Callisto's son with Zeus, [[Arcas]], nearly killed her in a hunt but Zeus placed them both in the sky as the [[constellation]]s [[Ursa Major]] and [[Ursa Minor]].

An alternate version: One of [[Artemis]]' companions, Callisto lost her virginity to Zeus, who had come disguised as Artemis. Enraged, Artemis changed her into a bear. Callisto's son, Arcas, nearly killed his mother while hunting, but Zeus or Artemis stopped him and placed them both in the sky as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

Another alternate version: Artemis killed Callisto in bear form, deliberately.

Hera was not pleased with the placement of Callisto and Arcas in the sky, so she asked her nurse, [[Tethys (titan)|Tethys]], to help. Tethys, a marine goddess, cursed the constellations to forever circle the sky and never drop below the horizon, hence explaining why they are circumpolar.

=== [[Semele]]/[[Dionysus]] ===
[[Dionysus]] was a son of Zeus by a mortal woman. A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sending Titans to rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the baby with toys. Though Zeus drove the Titans away with his thunderbolts but only after the Titans ate everything but the heart, which was saved, variously, by [[Athena]], [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], or [[Demeter]]. Zeus used the heart to recreate Dionysus and implant him in the womb of [[Semele]], hence he was again "the twice-born". Sometimes it was said that he gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her.

See also [[Dionysus#Birth|Dionysus' birth]] for other variations.

=== [[Io (mythology)|Io]] ===
Hera almost caught Zeus with a mistress named [[Io (mythology)|Io]], a fate avoided by Zeus turning Io into a beautiful white heifer. However, Hera was not completely fooled and demanded Zeus give her the heifer as a present.

Once Io was given to Hera, she placed her in the charge of Argus to keep her separated from Zeus. Zeus then commanded Hermes to kill [[Argus]], which he did by lulling all one-hundred eyes to sleep. Hera sent a gadfly to sting Io as she wandered the earth.

Alternate version: Io was transformed back into a nymph by Hera in Egypt. The Egyptians saw her, and worshipped her as a goddess and her former form, the cow.

=== [[Lamia (mythology)|Lamia]] ===
[[Lamia (mythology)|Lamia]] was a queen of Libya, whom Zeus loved. Hera turned her into a monster and murdered their children. Or, alternately, she killed Lamia's children and the grief turned her into a monster. Lamia was cursed with the inability to close her eyes so that she would always obsess over the image of her dead children. Zeus gave her the gift to be able to take her eyes out to rest, and then put them back in. Lamia was envious of other mothers and ate their children.

== Other Stories Involving Hera ==

=== [[Cydippe]] ===
[[Cydippe]], a priestess of Hera, was on her way to a festival in the goddess' honor. The oxen which was to pull her cart were overdue and her sons, [[Biton]] and [[Cleobis]] pulled the cart the entire way (45 stadia, 8 kilometers). Cydippe was impressed with their devotion to her and her goddess and asked Hera to give her children the best gift a god could give a person. Hera ordained that the brothers would die in their sleep.

=== [[Tiresias]] ===
Tiresias was a priest of [[Zeus]], and as a young man he encountered two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of [[Hera]], married and had children, including [[Manto (Greek mythology)|Manto]]. According to some versions of the tale, Lady Tiresias was a [[prostitute]] of great renown. After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes, struck them with her staff, and became a man once more. As a result of his experiences, [[Zeus]] and [[Hera]] asked him to settle the question of which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women; Hera claimed it was men. When Tiresias sided with Zeus, Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy. An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by [[Athena]] after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, [[Chariclo]], begged her to undo her curse, but Athena couldn't; she gave him prophecy instead.

=== [[Chelone]] ===
At the marriage of Zeus and Hera, a nymph named [[Chelone]] was disrespectful (or refused to attend). Zeus condemned her to eternal silence.

=== The [[Iliad]] ===
During the [[Trojan War]], [[Diomedes]] fought with [[Hector]] and saw [[Ares]] fighting on the Trojans' side. Diomedes called for his soldiers to fall back slowly. Hera, Ares' mother, saw Ares' interference and asked Zeus, Ares' father, for permission to drive Ares away from the battlefield. Hera encouraged Diomedes to attack Ares and he threw his spear at the god. Athena drove the spear into Ares' body and he bellowed in pain and fled to Mt. Olympus, forcing the Trojans to fall back.

=== The [[Golden Fleece]] ===
Hera hated [[Pelias]] for having murdered [[Sidero]], his step-grandmother, in a temple to Hera. She later attempted to manipulate [[Jason]] and [[Medea]] to kill Pelias and succeeded.

=== The [[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]] ===
In [[Thrace]], as Ovid tells in ''Metamorphoses'' 6.87, Hera and Zeus turned King [[Haemus]] and Queen [[Rhodope]] into mountains, the Balkan ([[Haemus Mons]]) and [[Rhodope mountains|Rhodope mountain chain]] respectively for their hubris in comparing themselves to the gods.

Hera is seen as the goddess of the home and monogamy, and is believed to inspire love, loyalty, and happiness. Hera is also believed to inspire jealousy and is most commonly worshipped by women. All sects that include the worship of Hera encourage monogamy and the fulfillment of ''domestic duties''. Worship of Hera may include or inspire the collecting of fragrances and ornaments, extravagant home decoration, the burning of oils and incense (particularly within the home), and the spilling of drinks or the burning of bread and other foods as sacrifice. Some have jested that the most common form of worship is the spilling of drinks and the burning of food within the home.

==References==
*[[Walter Burkert|Burkert, Walter]], ''Greek Religion'' 1985.
*Burkert, Walter, ''The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age'', 1998
*[[Robert Graves|Graves, Robert]], ''The Greek Myths'' 1955
*[[Karl Kerenyi|Kerenyi, Carl]], ''The Gods of the Greeks'' 1951 (paperback 1980)
*Ruck, Carl A.P., and Danny Staples, ''The World of Classical Myth'' 1994
*[[Jean Seznec|Seznec, Jean]], ''The Survival of the Pagan Gods : Mythological Tradition in Renaissance Humanism and Art,'' 1953
*Slater, Philip E. ''The Glory of Hera : Greek Mythology and the Greek Family'' (Boston: Beacon Press) 1968 (Princeton University 1992 ISBN 0691002223 ) Concentrating on family structure in 5th-century Athens; some of the crude usage of myth and drama for psychological interpreting of "neuroses" is dated.

==External links==
*[http://hellas.teipir.gr/Thesis/Samos/english/tdk158.html The Samos Museum:] cult objects recovered from the Heraion at Samos

[[Category:Greek goddesses]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:27, March 23, 2006
Line 11:		Line 11:

	At Olympia, her seated cult figure was older than the warrior figure of Zeus that accompanied it. Homer expressed her relationship with Zeus delicately in The [[Iliad]], in which she declares to Zeus, "I am [[Cronus]]' eldest daughter, and am honourable not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are king of the gods."[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2199] Though Zeus is often called ''Zeus Heraios'' ("Zeus, consort of Hera"), Homer's treatment of Hera is less than respectful, and in late anecdotal versions of the myths (see below) she appeared to spend most of her time plotting revenge on the [[nymph]]s seduced by her Consort, for Hera upheld all the old right rules of Hellene society and sorority.		At Olympia, her seated cult figure was older than the warrior figure of Zeus that accompanied it. Homer expressed her relationship with Zeus delicately in The [[Iliad]], in which she declares to Zeus, "I am [[Cronus]]' eldest daughter, and am honourable not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are king of the gods."[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2199] Though Zeus is often called ''Zeus Heraios'' ("Zeus, consort of Hera"), Homer's treatment of Hera is less than respectful, and in late anecdotal versions of the myths (see below) she appeared to spend most of her time plotting revenge on the [[nymph]]s seduced by her Consort, for Hera upheld all the old right rules of Hellene society and sorority.
−
−	~~[[Image:Hera.jpg\|thumb\|right\|Greek marble statue of Hera made in the 5th century B.C.]]~~

	== [[Cult (religion)\|Cult]] ==		== [[Cult (religion)\|Cult]] ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-In the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian pantheon]] of classical [[Greek Mythology]], '''Hêra''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] {{polytonic|&#7981;&rho;&alpha;}} or {{polytonic|&#7981;&rho;&eta;}}) was the wife and sister of [[Zeus]]. She also presided as [[goddess]] of marriage, the patriarchal bond of her own subordination. (Slater 1968)
+In the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian pantheon]] of classical [[Greek Mythology]], '''Hêra''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] Ήρα) was the wife and sister of [[Zeus]]. She also presided as goddess of marriage, the patriarchal bond of her own subordination. (Slater 1968)
-Hera is portrayed as being majestic and solemn, often enthroned and crowned with the ''polos'', the high cylindrical crown worn by several of the [[Great Goddess]]es. In her hand she may bear the [[pomegranate]], emblem of fertile blood and death and a substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy (Ruck and Staples 1994). "Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier, aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos" (Burkert 1985 p.131).
+Hera is portrayed as being majestic and solemn, often enthroned and crowned with the ''polos'', the high cylindrical crown worn by several of the Great Goddesses. In her hand she may bear the pomegranate, emblem of fertile blood and death and a substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy (Ruck and Staples 1994). "Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier, aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos" (Burkert 1985 p.131).
-In [[Roman mythology]], the consort of [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]] (Zeus) was [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]].
+In Roman mythology, the consort of Jupiter (Zeus) was Juno.
 ==Etymology and Pre-History==

@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 === [[Semele]]/[[Dionysus]] ===
-[[Dionysus]] was a son of Zeus by a mortal woman.  A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sending Titans to rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the baby with toys. Though Zeus drove the Titans away with his thunderbolts but only after the Titans ate everything but the heart, which was saved, variously, by [[Athena]], [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], or [[Demeter]]. Zeus used the heart to recreate Dionysus and implant him in the womb of [[Semele]], hence he was again "the twice-born". Sometimes it was said that he gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her.
+[[Dionysus]] was a son of Zeus by a mortal woman.  A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sending Titans to rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the baby with toys. Though Zeus drove the Titans away with his thunderbolts but only after the Titans ate everything but the heart, which was saved, variously, by [[Athena]], [[Rhea]], or [[Demeter]]. Zeus used the heart to recreate Dionysus and implant him in the womb of [[Semele]], hence he was again "the twice-born". Sometimes it was said that he gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her.
 See also [[Dionysus#Birth|Dionysus' birth]] for other variations.
 === [[Io (mythology)|Io]] ===

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 ==Etymology and Pre-History==
-Unlike some Greek gods, such as [[Zeus]] and [[Poseidon]], Hera's name is not analyzable as a Greek or [[Indo-European]] word.  She therefore seems to be a survival of a pre-Greek "great goddess" figure - perhaps one of the powerful female divinities of the [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] pantheon, or of some unidentified pre-Greek ("[[Pelasgian]]") people.
+Unlike some Greek gods, such as [[Zeus]] and [[Poseidon]], Hera's name is not analyzable as a Greek or Indo-European word.  She therefore seems to be a survival of a pre-Greek "great goddess" figure - perhaps one of the powerful female divinities of the [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] pantheon, or of some unidentified pre-Greek ("[[Pelasgian]]") people.
 Hera's importance in the early archaic period is attested by the large building projects undertaken in her honor.  The temples of Hera in the two main centers of her cult, at [[Samos]] and in the [[Argolid]], were the very earliest monumental [[Greek temple]]s constructed, in the [[8th century BC]].
@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 At Olympia, her seated cult figure was older than the warrior figure of Zeus that accompanied it. Homer expressed her relationship with Zeus delicately in The [[Iliad]], in which she declares to Zeus, "I am [[Cronus]]' eldest daughter, and am honourable not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are king of the gods."[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2199] Though Zeus is often called ''Zeus Heraios'' ("Zeus, consort of Hera"), Homer's treatment of Hera is less than respectful, and in late anecdotal versions of the myths (see below) she appeared to spend most of her time plotting revenge on the [[nymph]]s seduced by her Consort, for Hera upheld all the old right rules of Hellene society and sorority.
-== [[Cult (religion)|Cult]] ==
+== Cult ==
-Hera was especially worshipped, as "Argive Hera" (''Hera  Argeia''), at her sanctuary that stood between the former Mycenaean city-states of [[Argos]] and [[Mycenae]], where the festivals in her honor called ''[[Heraia]]''  were celebrated.  "The three cities I love best," the ox-eyed Queen of Heaven declares (''Iliad'', book iv) "are Argos, Sparta and Mycenae of the broad streets." Her other main center of cult was at [[Samos]]. There were also temples to Hera in [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]], [[Corinth, Greece|Corinth]], [[Tiryns]], [[Perachora]]  and the sacred island of [[Delos]]. In [[Magna Graecia]], the temple long called the Temple of Poseidon among the group at [[Paestum]] was identified in the 1950s as a second temple there of Hera.
+Hera was especially worshipped, as "Argive Hera" (''Hera  Argeia''), at her sanctuary that stood between the former Mycenaean city-states of [[Argos]] and [[Mycenae]], where the festivals in her honor called ''[[Heraia]]''  were celebrated.  "The three cities I love best," the ox-eyed Queen of Heaven declares (''Iliad'', book iv) "are Argos, Sparta and Mycenae of the broad streets." Her other main center of cult was at [[Samos]]. There were also temples to Hera in [[Olympia]], [[Corinth]], [[Tiryns]], [[Perachora]]  and the sacred island of [[Delos]]. In [[Magna Graecia]], the temple long called the Temple of Poseidon among the group at [[Paestum]] was identified in the 1950s as a second temple there of Hera.
-Greek [[altar]]s of Classical times were always under the open sky. Hera may have been the first to whom an enclosed roofed temple sanctuary was dedicated, at Samos about [[800 BC]]. (It was replaced later by the [[Heraion]], one of the largest Greek temples anywhere.) Earlier sanctuaries, whose dedication is less secure, were of the Mycenaean type called "house sanctuaries". Samos excavations have revealed votive offerings, many of them late 8th and 7th century, which reveal that Hera at Samos was not merely a local Greek goddess of the [[Aegean]]: the museum there contains figures of gods and suppliants and other votive offerings from Armenia, Babylon, Iran, Assyria, Egypt, testimony to the reputation which this sanctuary of Hera enjoyed and to the large influx of pilgrims&mdash; and a general reminder to us that Greek myths did not evolve in a cultural vacuum (Burkert 1998).
+Greek altars of Classical times were always under the open sky. Hera may have been the first to whom an enclosed roofed temple sanctuary was dedicated, at Samos about [[800 BC]]. (It was replaced later by the [[Heraion]], one of the largest Greek temples anywhere.) Earlier sanctuaries, whose dedication is less secure, were of the Mycenaean type called "house sanctuaries". Samos excavations have revealed votive offerings, many of them late 8th and 7th century, which reveal that Hera at Samos was not merely a local Greek goddess of the [[Aegean]]: the museum there contains figures of gods and suppliants and other votive offerings from Armenia, Babylon, Iran, Assyria, Egypt, testimony to the reputation which this sanctuary of Hera enjoyed and to the large influx of pilgrims&mdash; and a general reminder to us that Greek myths did not evolve in a cultural vacuum (Burkert 1998).
 In [[Euboea]] the festival of the [[Daedalus|Great Daedala]], sacred to Hera, was celebrated on a sixty-year cycle.
@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 While Heracles was still an infant, Hera sent two serpents, to kill him as   he lay in his cot, the mythographers interpreted the event. Heracles throttled a single snake in each hand and was found by his nurse playing with their limp bodies as if they were child's toys. The anecdote is built upon a representation of the hero gripping a serpent in each hand, precisely as the familiar Minoan snake-handling goddesses had once done.
-One account of the origin of the [[Milky Way]] is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she had pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day.
+One account of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she had pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day.
 ==== The Twelve Labors ====
@@ Line 84: / Line 84: @@
 === [[Tiresias]] ===
-Tiresias was a priest of [[Zeus]], and as a young man he encountered two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of [[Hera]], married and had children, including [[Manto (Greek mythology)|Manto]]. According to some versions of the tale, Lady Tiresias was a [[prostitute]] of great renown.  After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes, struck them with her staff, and became a man once more. As a result of his experiences, [[Zeus]] and [[Hera]] asked him to settle the question of which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women; Hera claimed it was men. When Tiresias sided with Zeus, Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy. An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by [[Athena]] after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, [[Chariclo]], begged her to undo her curse, but Athena couldn't; she gave him prophecy instead.
+Tiresias was a priest of [[Zeus]], and as a young man he encountered two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of [[Hera]], married and had children, including [[Manto (Greek mythology)|Manto]]. According to some versions of the tale, Lady Tiresias was a prostitute of great renown.  After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes, struck them with her staff, and became a man once more. As a result of his experiences, [[Zeus]] and [[Hera]] asked him to settle the question of which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women; Hera claimed it was men. When Tiresias sided with Zeus, Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy. An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by [[Athena]] after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, [[Chariclo]], begged her to undo her curse, but Athena couldn't; she gave him prophecy instead.
 === [[Chelone]] ===

@@ Line 102: / Line 102: @@
 ==References==
-*[[Walter Burkert|Burkert, Walter]], ''Greek Religion'' 1985.
+*Burkert, Walter, ''Greek Religion'' 1985.
 *Burkert, Walter, ''The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age'', 1998
-*[[Robert Graves|Graves, Robert]], ''The Greek Myths'' 1955
+*Graves, Robert, ''The Greek Myths'' 1955
-*[[Karl Kerenyi|Kerenyi, Carl]], ''The Gods of the Greeks'' 1951 (paperback 1980)
+*Kerenyi, Carl, ''The Gods of the Greeks'' 1951 (paperback 1980)
 *Ruck,  Carl A.P., and Danny Staples, ''The World of Classical Myth'' 1994
-*[[Jean Seznec|Seznec, Jean]], ''The Survival of the Pagan Gods : Mythological Tradition in Renaissance Humanism and Art,'' 1953
+*Seznec, Jean, ''The Survival of the Pagan Gods : Mythological Tradition in Renaissance Humanism and Art,'' 1953
 *Slater, Philip E. ''The Glory of Hera : Greek Mythology and the Greek Family'' (Boston: Beacon Press) 1968 (Princeton University 1992 ISBN 0691002223 ) Concentrating on family structure in 5th-century Athens; some of the crude usage of myth and drama for psychological interpreting of "neuroses" is dated.

@@ Line 48: / Line 48: @@
 For a time, a [[nymph]] named [[Echo (mythology)|Echo]] had the job of distracting Hera from Zeus' affairs by incessantly talking.  When Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to only speak the words of others (hence our modern word "echo").
-=== [[Leto]] and [[Artemis]]/[[Apollo (god)|Apollo]] ===
+=== [[Leto]] and [[Artemis]]/[[Apollo]] ===
 When Hera discovered that [[Leto]] was pregnant and that Hera's husband, Zeus, was the father, she banned Leto from giving birth on "terra-firma", or the mainland, or any island at sea.  She found the floating island of [[Delos]], which was neither mainland nor a real island and gave birth there.  The island was surrounded by swans.  As a gesture of gratitude, Delos was secured with four pillars.  The island later became sacred to [[Apollo]].  Alternatively, Hera kidnapped [[Ilithyia]], the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor.  The other gods forced Hera to let her go.  Either way, [[Artemis]] was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo.  Another version states that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of [[Ortygia]] and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo.