Hera (Ήρα) is the wife of Zeus in Greek mythology.

Pre-Hellenic Great Goddess, Greek Queen of Heaven, supreme Olympic Mother Goddess

Hera is the goddess of the earth and its inhabitants, especially women and their sexuality. Mistress of the births, creator, mother of all goddesses, guardian of paradise, the “apple country”.

Long before Zeus was known in Greece, the people of the Aegean revered a cow-eyed Queen of Heaven as the supreme deity they called Hera. She is originally a Cretan goddess. Heraklion, the capital of Crete, is named after her.
The Cretan Hera is in the guise of a girl the goddess of the mountains and the mistress of the wild animals. Griffins, sphinxes and winged genii are their companions, but above all the lion, their great protector. Hera was always present because she was worshiped in every house on Crete in the guise of a living snake.

THE THREE DIVINE LIFE

When looking at the figure of Hera, one should always distinguish between the ancient Cretan, pre-Hellenic and the Olympian goddess. In any case, Hera is a Great Goddess who is worshiped in her three aspects as the virgin Hebe, the motherly Hera, and the aged Hecate. In another version of the Triple Goddess, Hera is the daughter with Rheia as a mother and Gaia as a grandmother.

Like mortal women, Hera goes through three stages of life: youth, maturity, and age. As Hebe, she is also referred to as “the virgin”. Hera is the symbol of the flowering of human youth, as well as the budding earth. Secondly, Hera is the mature woman who is also called Nymphoeuomene: “One Companion Seeker,” or Teilia: “The Perfect One.” Finally, she is called Hekate or Cheira or Theira, the “old woman”, the “wise old woman”, the old woman, the “grandmother”.

After she has gone through motherhood and left it behind, the noble prophetic way now lives on its own again. These great periods of Hera’s life also stand for shorter cycles such as the crescent moon, full moon and new moon or spring, summer and fall.

THE GREAT SPORT FESTIVAL OF THE HERA

In honor of these three phases of Hera, people in ancient Greece celebrated a great festival – the “Heraia” named after them, whose origins go further back than the Olympics.

Every four years, women gathered in a field near Heras, Argos, to compete in 150 meter runs. They ran with bare breasts and blowing hair. The run led to harvested fields and reflected the universal cycles of the annual cycle. This was known in some areas of Western Europe in the last century as “stubble runs” or “shepherd indoor runs”.

These Heraia were part of a larger goddess service and were targeted by 16 women. There were three age groups and three winners in the Heraia. Each received a crown of olive branches and a portion of the cow that was the victim at this sports festival.

The three winners, a young girl, a mature and an old woman, were allowed to put a statuette in Hera’s shrine. In the years between these Heraia the big Olympic Games were later established, in which only men took part.

The Heraia festival took place on the new moon at the beginning of the month Parthenios, in a matriarchal constellation of the festival of night and new moon, in contrast to the later patriarchal games, for the day and full moon prevailed.

RECOVERY OF YOUNG TEMPERANCE THROUGH SOURCE BATH

Hera goes through – as all women – again and again all these cycles and renews herself annually in the bath in a sacred spring, in which she always regains her virginity (see also snake goddess).

On the occasion of this annual renewal, the goddess’s figurine was brought out of her shrine and brought to the water with great ceremony. Through the bath of her portrait, the winter was washed away, her youth revived and prepared for the new seasonal cycle of maturity and death. It was a symbol of the eternal rebirth of the earth and with it the rebirth of the people.

In ancient Greece, a distinction was made between the four stages of life. First the time as a child, followed by the youth, then the time of adulthood (usually associated with the founding and maintenance of a family) and finally the age.

Hera stands for all these sections in the life of a woman and is therefore also known by the nickname Pais (= girl), Nympheuomene (= bride), Teleia (= adult) and Khera (= widow) called. The Olympic goddess Hera is described as the daughter of Kronos and the Rheia. She is the sister of Demeter, Hades, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus, whose wife she was.

Both children were the war god Ares, the goddess of youth Hebe and the birth goddess Eileithyia. Her son Hephaestus was born without Zeus, he jumped from her hip.

The Relationship of Zeus and Hera

Originally, Hera had no companion. But when the patriarchal tribes invaded Greece, they brought the god of heaven, Zeus, with them. Because the belief in the Mother Goddess was too strong for her to be destroyed, a marriage of convenience was forged between the two prevailing deities. At first, however, Hera did not want this marriage at all.

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE MOTHER RIGHT

It can be surmised that the constant arguments between Hera and Zeus reflect the friction between the early patriarchal and matriarchal cults. Although her marriage came about under the circumstances, she confidently went into it, insisting on her rights and avoiding conflicts.  The quarrelsome character can also be considered quite positive. Hera, as a representative of the ancient maternal law, is the protector of the family. On Crete, where Hera originally came from, she was the protector of the home and the family. She protected the house and stove, just like Hestia later. She was thus the goddess of culinary arts, but she was also the goddess of agriculture, olive growing, wine culture, pottery, weaving, silver-Blacksmithing, the production of medicines and medicine, the sciences of weighing, measuring and counting, On the other hand, she took care of all the girls and young women of her country. For girls and young women, for example, there were the previously mentioned “Heraia” competitions, which were held every four years in their honor and had a cultic connection.

FROM THE MATRIARCHAL SUPPORTER TO THE MARRIAGE PROTECTOR

The matriarchal protector and promoter role of Hera was later strangely reinterpreted as the “Protector of Marriage,” a life form that does not fit the nature of this goddess.  For better and for worse, she is at the mercy of her husband.

HERA AND THE HEROES

Hera’s sacred animal was the cow. She is also called the cow-eyed one, which is a special compliment to her beautiful eyes. Only those who sucked milk from the breasts of Heras could become immortal.
When Zeus cunningly lays one of his illegitimate sons to her breast, the boy greedily sucks and bites with all his might. Hera wakes up screaming and pushes off the pushed baby. The milk splashes across the sky in a high arc and creates the Milky Way.

The boy was then called Heracles, “the one who acquired glory of Hera”. Often, Hera has also been considered as the air that is between Earth and Ether (then Zeus).