Zeus and Hera
Gods assembled: In the line behind and from left to right: first Hades, holding his
two-forked sceptre, the mother of the gods Rhea
1, and between her and Hera
is Hera's peacock. Zeus sits in the
middle with the eagle at his feet, holding the
thunderbolt in his hand. To his right sits Cronos
holding
the ouroboros, and standing are Athena
and Apollo. Under the latter Artemis,
with a half-moon adorning his head, is
seen holding her bow. In the first line and
from left to right: Dionysus 2 is seen reclining. Ares
in
armour sits close to Aphrodite who looks at Eros as he
comes towards her. In the far right sits Poseidon holding his
trident.
Armed
with his lightning bolts, Zeus was the strongest and often the bravest
of the gods. However, his leading role came simply from drawing
straws with his brothers, Hades and Poseidon. Zeus drew the
longest straw and thus became the ruler of the heavens and earth.
We will speak of his brothers a bit later. You will notice that
many of the gods are interconnected within one another’s stories and
play important roles in the activities of the other.
On his second marriage, Zeus married Hera. Hera was the supreme
goddess, goddess of marriage and childbirth and took special care of
married women.
Hera did not desire to be married to Zeus, who was also her brother, as
she did not see him fit for marriage. After all, he did swallow
his first wife, Titaness Metis. Because of this and Zeus's known
attractiveness to women other than his wife, Hera refused to marry Zeus
for three hundred years.
One spring, Zeus caused a terrible thunderstorm and turned himself into
a disheveled cuckoo. He flew in through Hera’s window, all wet
and ruffled, causing Hera to feel sorry for the small bird. She
held the bird against her chest and hugged it tenderly. Zeus took
this opportunity to immediately turn back into himself and wooed her
with such passion that she finally decided, after three hundred years,
to marry him.
As a wedding gift, Gaia, the earth-mother, gave Zeus and Hera golden
apples. Hera took the wedding gifts and planted them in her
garden, close to Mount Atlas. She sent the immortal monster with
a 100 heads, Ladon, to guard the tree along with the Hesperides.
We will come back to golden apples, just wait and see what they can
stir up in another famous wedding!
The wedding of Zeus and Hera was a grand event and everyone was
expected to join them in their ceremony of matrimony in a showing of
their respect for the couple. I sure bet Chelone lived to regret
not attending the wedding! Chelone was a nymph who decided
against attending the wedding of Zeus and Hera and was in turn
punished. Chelone was turned into a turtle for ridiculing and or
refusing to attend the wedding. For her insulting words, the gods
condemned to her to eternal silence. For choosing to stay home, instead
of attending the ceremony, she was forced to carry her home with her
for eternity. Talk about an event you wished you hadn't
missed!
After their marriage, Zeus continued with his wooing, but it was not
Hera he was wooing. Instead Zeus was marrying young attractive
women, mostly mortals. Zeus, being the gentleman that he was
known for being, told Hera that he was doing these chores for the sake
of humankind. The sons, that these mortals were blessed to have
by
him, would be great heroes but the mortals did not mean anything to him
because they would grow old and die. In his attempt to woo Hera
as before, he maintained that she would be his young, beautiful queen
forever and that their marriage was the real thing.
Now surely, you don't believe that Hera would fall for that line!
She felt very insulted and was unhappy with the marriage, but was
unable to pay Zeus back for these other marriages because his powerful
lightning bolts could dispose of her at any time. However, she
could surely take her anger out on his wives! Just wait and see
what she does!
Image Bibliography:
N.A. Monsiau 1754-1837: The Olympians. Photo @ Maicar Forlag - GML
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/OLYMPIANS.html
Bibliography:
From these web sites, I gathered information on
the characters and events above to be able to turn them into a
child-like story.
"Apples of the Hesperides."
Encyclopedia Mythica.
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/apples_of_the_hesperides.html
Bulfinch, Thomas. 1855- Bulfinch's Mythology:
The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes
http://www.greekmythology.com/Books/Bulfinch/B_Chapter_1/b_chapter_1.html
Bulfinch, Thomas. 1855- Bulfinch's Mythology:
The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes
http://www.bulfinch.org
Parada, Carlos. Genealogical
Guide to Greek Mythology
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Hera.html
Email Me, Erika DeLuca
About OU's Web
Disclaimer
