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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HEG-HIG |
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HERA , in Greek mythology, the sister and wife of Zeus and queen of the Olympian gods; she was identified by the Romans with Juno. The derivation of the name is obscure, but there is no reason to doubt that she was a genuine Greek deity. There are no signs of Oriental influence in her cults, except at Corinth, where she seems to have been identified with Astarte. It is probable that she was originally a personification of some department of nature; but the traces of her primitive significance are vague, and have been interpreted to suit various theories. Some of the ancients connected her with the earth; Plato, followed by the Stoics, derived her name from ai7P, the air. Both theories have been revived in modern times, the former notably by F. G. Welcker, the latter by L. Preller. A third view, that Hera is the moon, is held by W. H. Roscher and others. Of these explanations, that advanced by Preller has little to commend it, even if, with O. Gruppe, we understand the air-goddess as a storm deity; some of the arguments in support of the two other theories will be examined in this article. Whatever may have been the origin of Hera, to the historic Greeks (except a few poets or philosophers) she was a purely anthropomorphic goddess, and had no close relation to any province of nature. In literature, from the times of Homer and Hesiod, she played an important part, appearing most frequently as the jealous and resentful wife of Zeus. In this character she pursues with vindictive hatred the heroines, such as Alcmene, Leto and Semele, who were beloved by Zeus. She visits his sins upon the children born of his intrigues, and is thus the constant enemy of Heracles and Dionysus. This character of the offended wife was borrowed by later poets from the Greek epic; but it belongs to literature rather than to cult, in which the dignity and power of the goddess is naturally more emphasized. The worship of Hera is found, in different degrees of prominence, throughout the Greek world. It was especially important in the ancient Achaean centres, Argos, Mycenae and Sparta, which she claims in the Iliad (iv. 51) as her three dearest cities. Whether Hera was also worshipped by the early Dorians
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worship , while the neighbouring island of Euboea probably derived its name from a title of Hera, who was " rich in cows " (EusoAa). Among the islands of the Aegean,, Samos was celebrated for the cult of Hera; according to-tbe. local tradition, she was born in the island. As Hera Lacinia (from her Lacinian temple near Croton) she was extensively worshipped in Magna Graecia.The connexion of Zeus and Hera was probably not primitive, since Dione seems to have preceded Hera as the wife of Zeus at Dodona. The origin of the, connexion may possibly be due to the fusion of two " Pelasgic " tribes, worshipping Zeus and Hera respectively; but speculation on the earliest cult of the goddess, before she became the wife of Zeus, must be largely conjectural. The close relation of the two deities appears in a frequent community of altars and sacrifices, and also in the iepos yaos, a dramatic representation of their sacred marriage. The festival, which was certainly ancient, was held not only in Argos, Samos, Euboea and other centres of Hera-worship, but also in Athens, where the goddess was obscured by the predominance of Athena. The details of the iepos yaos may have varied locally, but the main idea of the ritual was the same. In the Daedala, as the festival was called at Plataea, an effigy was made from an oak-tree, dressed in bridal attire, and carried in a cart with a woman who acted as bridesmaid. The image was called Daedale, and the ritual was explained by a myth: Hera had left Zeus in her anger; in order to win her back, Zeus announced that he was about to marry, and dressed up a puppet to imitate a bride; Hera met the procession, tore the veil from the false bride, and, on discovering the ruse, became reconciled to her husband. The image was put, away after each occasion; every sixty years a large number of such images, which had served in previous celebrations, were carried in procession to the top of Mount
In her general cult Hera was worshipped in two main capacities: (1) as the consort of Zeus and queen of heaven; (2) as the goddess who presided over marriage, and, in a wider sense, over the various phases of a woman's life. Dionysius of Halicarnassus
spring , summer, and winter; but they may well express the different conditions in the lives of her human worshippers. The Argives believed that Hera recovered her virginity every year by bathing in a certain spring (Paus. viii. 22, 2), a belief which probably reflects the custom of ceremonial purification after marriage (see Frazer; Adonis, p. 176). Although Hera was not the bestower of feminine charm to the same extent as Aphrodite, she was the patron of a contest for beauty in a Lesbian festival (KaXXurmeia). This intimaterelation with women has been held a proof that Hera was originally a moon-goddess, as the moon is often thought to influence childbirth and other aspects of feminine life. But Hera's patronage of women, though undoubtedly ancient, is not necessarily primitive. Further, the Greeks themselves, who werealways ready to identify Artemis with the moon, do not seem to have recognized any lunar connexion in Hera.Among her particular worshippers, at Argos and Samos, Hera was much more than the queen of heaven and the marriage-goddess. As the patron of these cities (iroXtouXos) she held a place corresponding to that of Athena in Athens. The Argives are called " the people of Hera " by Pindar; the Heraeum, situated under a mountain significantly called Mt. Euboea, was the most important temple in Argolis. Here the agricultural character of her ritual is well marked; the first oxen used in ploughing were, according to an Argive myth, dedicated to her as -ev o5ta; and the sprouting ears of corn were called " the flowers
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The cow was the animal specially sacred to Hera both in ritual and in mythology. The story of Io, metamorphosed into a cow, is familiar; she was priestess of Hera, and was originally, no doubt, a form of the goddess herself. The Homeric epithet Pxwlris may have meant " cow-faced " to the earliest worshippers of Hera, though by Homer and the later Greeks it was understood as " large-eyed," like the cow. A car drawn
The earliest recorded images of Hera preceded the rise of Greek sculpture; a log at Thespiae, a plank
chryselephantine work of Polyclitus, made for the Heraeum at Argos soon after 423 B.C. It is fully described by Pausanias, who says that Hera was seated on a throne, wearing a crown (vrEr/)avos), and carrying a sceptre in one hand and a pomegranate in the other. Various ancient writers testify to the beauty and dignity of the statue, which was considered equal to the Zeus of Pheidias. Polyclitus seems to have fixed the type of Hera as a youthful matron, but unfortunately the exact character of her head cannot be determined. A majestic and rather severe beauty marks the conception of Hera in later art, of which the Farnese bust at Naples and the Ludovisi Hera are the most conspicuous examples.Dict. des ant. grecques et rom. s.v. " Juno " (Paris, 1877) ; L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, i. 179 f. (Oxford, 1896) ; A. B. Cook in Class. Rev. xx. 365 f. 416 f.; O. Gruppe, Griech. Mythologic u. Religionsgesch. p. 1121 f. (Munich, 1903). In the article GREEK ART, fig. 24, will be found a roughly executed head of Hera, from the pediment of the treasury of the Megarians. (E. E. S.) End of Article: HERA If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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