GENEALOGY AND MYTHOLOGY
Hera was a child of Rhea and Cronos. She was swallowed by her
father as soon as she was born, as were four of her siblings. When
she emerged from her captivity in Cronos, she was already a young
girl. The maiden was placed in the care of two nature deities, who
were the equivalent of high-ranking, elderly foster parents.
Hera grew up to be a lovely goddess. She attracted the eye of Zeus,
who by then had conquered Cronos and the Titans and had become
the chief god. (Never mind that he was her brother—the Olympians
had their own rules or lack of them, when it came to relationships.)
To get close to the virginal maiden, Zeus changed himself into a
shivering, pathetic little bird, on which Hera took pity. To warm the
chilled creature, Hera held it to her breast. Then Zeus shed his dis-
guise, resumed his manly appearance, and tried to force himself on
her. His efforts were not successful. She resisted his amorous efforts
until he promised to marry her. The honeymoon that followed was
said to have lasted three hundred years.
When the honeymoon was over, it was really over. Zeus reverted
to his premarital promiscuous ways (he had had six different con-
sorts and many offspring before he married Hera). Time and time
again, Zeus was unfaithful, evoking vindictive jealousy in his be-
trayed wife. Hera’s rage was not aimed at her unfaithful husband;
rather, it was directed at “the other woman” (who more often than
not had been seduced, raped, or deceived by Zeus), at children
conceived by Zeus, or at innocent bystanders.
There are numerous stories of Hera’s wrath. When Zeus carried
Aegina off to an island to ravish her, Hera let loose a monstrous
dragon—which destroyed most of the populace. And when she be-
came enraged at Dionysus’s birth, she drove his foster parents mad
in an unsuccessful effort to destroy him.
Callisto was another unfortunate who got caught in the Zeus-Hera
crossfire. Zeus deceived Callisto by taking on the appearance of
Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, and then seducing her. Hera reacted
to this affair by changing Callisto into a bear and would have had
Callisto’s son unknowingly kill her.
Goddesses in Everywoman