Hera was the Queen of the Heavens, and wife of Zeus. She was the Goddess of Marriage, and the sacred vows exchanged between a man and a woman on their wedding day. Some may think it as ironic that she, being the Goddess of marriage, would tolerate Zeus’ blatant disregard to the vows of their marriage. Love exists even between immortals, they live forever, as does their love for one another. There was no denying that she and Zeus loved each other, but this love waxed and waned, as the wandering eyes of Zeus would spot the pretty women. For Hera, there was no choice of her “divorcing” him, as that would defeat the entire purpose of her office. Instead she would ruin the life of the innocent woman, and scold Zeus for his behaviour, trying to make him promise to remain faithful to her, and her alone, which was most often in vain.
When Zeus first decided to make Hera his Queen, she resisted, not wanting to have anything to do with him. No matter what gifts Zeus would give her or what he would do for her, she was completely indifferent. One night, Zeus summoned a rainstorm, and took the form of a cuckoo bird. He flew up to Hera’s window, and perched there, soaking wet and shivering from the cold. Hera took pity on the bird and brought it in, holding it in her arms against her breast to keep it warm. It was then that Zeus assumed his true form, and Hera finally agreed to marry him.
The wedding was a grand event that every deity was invited to attend. Gifts were showered upon the new Queen of the Gods in effort to win her favor. The most cherished gift was given to Hera by Gaia. It was a small apple tree that bore fruit of pure gold, and each time an apple was picked, another would grow back immediately in it’s place. All of the gods marvelled at this gift, and began setting greedy eyes on it, thinking of stealing some of the fruit to give as gifts to loved ones. Hera saw this, and to safeguard her tree, she took it to the end of the world to the Garden of Hesperides. There she set the great dragon Ladon to guard it, as well as three apple nymphs. Ladon’s hide was so tough that no weapon forged could pierce it. The only vulnerable point was in his mouth, which made up the entire length of his body from head to tail. The apple nymphs, or Hesperides, were the daughters of Atlas, the Titan who bore the weight of the sky on his shoulders as a punishment for rebelling against the Olympians. Any visitor to the garden would be greeted by the nymphs, and would immediately fall prey to their divine charms. They smelled of the sweetest apple blossoms, and this smell would induce a state of euphoria in any that breathed it in. The nymphs would then begin to dance with the visitor, dancing closer and closer to a large cliff, eventually leading the person off the end down to the jagged rocks below.
Few were even able to find the garden, much less enter it. The only beings that knew of its existence were Hera, and the three Graea sisters. The Graea sisters were three old hags, living far to the north away from any other beings. Between the three of them they had one eye and one tooth to share. The eye would fit into the empty socket in the middle of their forehead, and the tooth was only used for eating, or a desperate attempt to smile at anybody wandering past.
Hera was a master of magic, and could achieve anything that she wanted through her will. Her talents were mostly devoted to punishing the lovers of Zeus, or scrying on him from a distance to make sure he “kept things where they belonged”. Curses and hexes were her speciality, she could devastate any being that she wanted with a simple phrase. She truly was cruel when she felt that she had to be, but every woman had her days, right?
As Hera sat idly by, and watched as more and more beautiful young gods, Zeus’ children, would enter the pantheon, she soon became jealous and convinced herself that she could conceive the most beautiful child on her own. Working her magic, she was able to become pregnant and give birth on her own all in one day. However, the baby she gave birth to was the exact opposite of what she wanted. This “thing” was a pitiful shrivelled mess of a child, and could easily be mistaken for a beautiful mortal child. Hera was outraged! She seized the baby, and threw it off of the end of Olympus. He fell for a full day, and landed on a deserted beach hard enough to shatter his legs, rendering them useless. He was later rescued by an ancient ocean goddess, and grew up to become Hepheastus (whose story will come up later).
The cow was sacred to Hera, and mortals kept many in an effort to please her. One story of one of Zeus’ amorous pursuits was with Io, a beautiful river nymph, daughter a river god. Zeus flew down to earth to meet with Io in private. He knew that Hera was probably going to spy on them, so he summoned a small cloud, and hung it in the sky over them. Hera saw this cloud from her throne on Olympus, and thought it unusual that a lone cloud would be sitting in one place. She sped down to earth, and there she found Zeus with a beautiful white cow. Zeus had seen Hera coming, and turned Io into a cow for her own protection. Once Hera had set eyes on the animal, she immediately began to beg Zeus that she could keep it. Not being able to deny her request and rouse her suspicion, Zeus allowed her to take Io back to Olympus. Hera tied the cow up to a tree in her garden, and set Argus, a man with 100 eyes set all over his body to guard her. He always had eyes open; while 50 slept, the other 50 remained open. Zeus was worried about Io, and sent his son Hermes to set her free. Hermes took the form of a travelling shepherd, and engaged Argus in conversation. He began to tell the most tedious stories that he could think of, until one by one, the eyes on Argus’ body began to close. Hermes kept droning on, until all 100 of Argus’ eyes were closed. He then drew a razor, killed Argus while he slept, and set Io free. When Hera found what had happened, she was furious. She took the eyes of her faithful Argus, and set them on the tail of the peacock, a bird sacred to her, and summoned an enormous gadfly. She sent the gadfly out to sting Io every time she would stop for a rest. The fly was relentless, and followed Io everywhere that she went. She eventually ended up in Egypt, and Zeus was able to convince Hera to call off the gadfly. Io remained in Egypt, and was worshipped as a cow goddess, later to be personified as the goddess Hathor.
