8.
Hera:
Goddess of Marriage, Commitment
Maker and Wife
HERA THE GODDESS
Stately, regal, beautiful Hera, whom the Romans knew as Juno,
was Goddess of Marriage. She was the consort of Zeus (Jupiter), the
supreme god of the Olympians, who ruled over the heavens and
earth. Her name is thought to mean “Great Lady,” the feminine form
of the greek word hero. Greek poets referred her to as “cow-eyed”—to
compliment her large and beautiful eyes. Her symbols were the cow,
the Milky Way, the lily, and the peacock’s iridescent tailfeather
“eyes” that symbolized Hera’s watchfulness. The sacred cow was
an image long associated with the Great Mother Goddesses as pro-
vider of nourishment, while the Milky Way—our galaxy, from the
Greek gala, “mother’s milk”—reflects the belief, predating the
Olympian deities, that the Milky Way came from the breasts of the
Great Goddess as Queen of Heaven. This then became part of Hera’s
mythology: when milk spurted from her breasts, the Milky Way
was formed. The drops that fell to the ground became lilies, flowers
symbolizing another pre-Hellenic belief in the self-fertilizing power
of the female genitals. Hera’s symbols (and her conflicts with Zeus)
reflect the power she once held as a Great Goddess whose worship
preceded Zeus. In Greek mythology, Hera had two contrasting as-
pects: she was solemnly revered and worshipped in rituals as a
powerful goddess of marriage, and was denigrated by Homer as a
vindictive, quarrelsome, jealous shrew.