HERA was the wife of Zeus and, in literature, the most prominent Greek goddess, although her cultic importance was limited. Hera was an ancient goddess, whose name is already attested in Mycenaean times. Etymologically, a relation with the word heros seems probable. As the latter most likely means something like "Lord," Hera's name may be interpreted as "Lady," even if certainty is not attainable.
Zeus's first wife was called Dione, who survived only at the margins of the Greek world, yet Hera had already supplanted her in Mycenaean times—a Linear-B tablet of Pylos mentions the combination "Zeus, Hera, Drimios, the son of Zeus." The role of Hera in Homer's Iliad, the oldest and most detailed source in the Archaic Age, is threefold. First, she is the wedded wife of Zeus (she was also his eldest sister). Hera sits "on the golden throne" and holds the scepter, and there is no doubt about her importance. Second, the picture of the divinely consummated marriage with Zeus made Hera into a goddess of weddings and marriage throughout Greece. Third, she appears as the jealous wife par excellence, whose unruly behavior is a source of continuous concern for the supreme god. He beats her, threatens her with violence, and even penalizes her by hanging her in the sky with anvils on her feet (Iliad 1.566–7, 588; 8.403–5; 16.18–31).
Hera's position as the wife of Zeus most likely goes back to her prominent position in Argos. Even though her name eventually became limited to the city on the Peloponnese, it must have been her position as city goddess of one of the most powerful Mycenaean cities that made it possible for her to supplant Zeus's first wife.
The Education of Girls and Marriage
The education of girls was the sphere of action of several Greek divinities, including Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Hera. In the case of the latter, it is striking that virginity is often emphasized. Hera herself was worshipped as Parthenos (Virgin) in Hermione and Arcadian Stymphalos. The island of Samos was once called Parthenie (the Maidenly), and the river Imbrasos by the sanctuary was also called Parthenios. Yet this prematrimonial association of Hera is only dimly visible.
On the other hand, Hera's position as the goddess of marriage is clear. As Hera Teleia, she "keeps the keys of wedlock," as Aristophanes expressed it in his Thesmophoriazusae (973). The epithet was already explained in antiquity by a commentator on line 974 of the play: "Hera Teleia and Zeus Teleios were honored in wedding ceremonies, since they were in charge of weddings." As Teleia, Hera was the "fulfilled" woman par excellence because the Greeks saw the wedding as a girl's life's fulfillment. The relation of the epithet to the wedding also clearly appears from her temple at Plataea. Here, Hera had two statues and two epithets, Nympheuomenê (she who is led as bride during the wedding day), and Teleia (the fulfilled). The wedding of Zeus and Hera was considered to be so important that several Greek communities—such as various cities on Euboea or Cretan Knossos—claimed it took place in their area. The inhabitants of these cities would imitate the wedding near a river at the annual sacrificial festival. The Athenians, as well, remembered the marriage of Zeus and Hera in the month Gamelion, in late winter. Husbands even celebrated the central mystery of this festival, the Hieros Gamos, or Theogamia, by (rather unusually) staying home and spending an evening with their wives.
Although Plutarch (fragment 157, Sandbach) mentions that in sacrifices to Hera Gamelia the gall was not offered "so that married life might be without bitterness," the goddess's unruly and jealous behavior is often alluded to in the Iliad. Hera was also anything but a good mother: in a fit of rage she hurled her son Hephaistos, the divine smith, from Olympus into the sea. The close connection between Hera and Hephaistos is striking and may have something to do with the position of the goddess outside the centers of civilization, just as the smith is at the margin of the civilized and political community.
The negative picture of Hera in Greek mythology can hardly be separated from her role in Greek cult, where both her rituals and the location of her sanctuaries point to a position away from the central social order. In some rituals, this jealousy was actually closely connected to the ritual. In Boeotian Plataea, every ten years a great festival took place—the Daidala—of which the meaning is not at all clear. The myth told how Hera had withdrawn to neighboring Euboea out of jealousy, but returned when Zeus dressed up a wooden doll as his bride and pretended to marry her. The ritual ended with the ceremonial burning of the doll, the sacrificial meat, and the wooden altar (a variant of the widespread fire sacrifices that always carry a slightly unpleasant meaning).
Hera's Cult on Argos
Hera's cult was especially prominent in Argos and on Samos. In Argos, Hera's sanctuary—the Heraion—can be traced from about 800 bce. It was situated about eighteen kilometers from Argos and five kilometers from Mycenae, and does not seem to have gained importance before the last third of the eighth century bce. It it is only from around 700 bce that traces of a stone altar are discovered. The temple proper seems to have been built only a few decades later, and it perished in a fire in 423 bce. Hera's Argive cult was well-known for its priestesses, who seem to have served her for the entirety of their lives—a rather unusual feat in ancient Greece. The presence of innumerable fibulae shows the importance of the cult for the life of the women, who dedicated their clothes at this sanctuary. The main festival, which was called Heraia and Hecatombaia, was celebrated in the month Panamos, the first month of the Argive year. The festival thus falls within the category of New Year festivals.
During the festival there was a procession from the city to the sanctuary. The procession included Hera's priestess—who traveled the distance in an old-fashioned oxcart—as well as, most likely, the maidens who had woven the new peplos for Hera, whose presentation formed part of the festival. However, as an ancient collection of Greek proverbs says, "those in Argos who had kept their boyhood pure and blameless took up a sacred shield and led the procession: this was their honor according to ancient tradition" (Plutarch, 1.44). Evidently, the festival marked the last stage of the initiation, during which the new male citizens showed themselves to the community.
The initiatory function of Hera also appears from the many votives that represent a kourotrophic goddess. On the island of Lesbos, beauty contests took place in front of Hera's temple, and similar contests in other Greek communities demonstrate that these took place just before the formal adulthood of Greek girls. Such initiations are virtually always the prerogative of the upper class; the many dedications of figurines of Amazons on horses also seem to point to the horse-riding aristocracy. Dedications from central Italy in Hera's sanctuary show the great radius of Hera's Argive cult.
Hera's Cult on Samos
The second center of Hera's cult was Samos. Here the Heraion was situated about eight kilometers west of the city of Samos. The first temple was built in the eighth century bce, and the final, impressive temple by Polycrates, the powerful ruler of independent Samos before the island was conquered by the Persians, was built at the end of the sixth century bce. The oldest stage of Hera's cult must have been dominated by women; the typical male features—such as the dedications of miniature boats—appear at a later time. Given the prominence of the shield in Argos, it should be noted that many miniature shields were found in the sanctuary—sure signs of male initiation. As in Argos, Hera was apparently the goddess who supervised the coming of age of the new generation of citizens, both male and female.
The most important festival of Hera was the Tonaia. The myth related the capture of her statue by Etruscan pirates and its subsequent recovery. The story reflects the leaving of the temple by the statue. During the festival the statue was most likely exhibited near the holy agnus castus —a negative tree in ancient Greece—where it would have been washed and redressed. Coins from the Roman period show that Hera's statue was tethered; such tethered statues indicated that the relevant divinity was connected with the dissolution of the social order. It is unfortunate, however, that the exact position of the festival in the Samian year is not known, and so its precise function remains obscure.
Hera's Cult in Southern Italy
The goddess Hera was also popular in Southern Italy, where excavations in Foce del Sele, at the estuary of the river Sele, have revealed an important sixth-century sanctuary of Hera. Many objects from the life of women have been found there, such as weights for weaving and perfume bottles. This female character is also evident in Croton, where, because of Pythagoras, the women of Croton no longer dared wear expensive clothes; instead, they dedicated them in the most prominent sanctuary of the town, the temple of Hera Lacinia.
Excavations have shown that this sanctuary in Foca del Sele received dedications from throughout the Greek world and therefore must have been held in high standing. There is litle information, however, about Hera's sixth-century temple in Paestum/Posidonia, although the miniature arms found once again seem to point into the direction of initiation. In her sanctuary in Santa Venera, at the border of the urban area of Paestum, Hera was also worshipped (along with Iovia, a kind of Venus of the Italic Lucani). Though scarce, the data available points to Hera as the goddess who presided over both male and female maturation, as well as the wedding. In ways specific to local customs, this must have been Hera's function throughout Greece.
See Also
Artemis; Dionysos; Divination, article on Greek and Roman Divination; Family; Goddess Worship, overview article; Hesiod; Homer; Juno; Marriage; Zeus.
Bibliography
The older collections of material in Lewis Richard Farnell's The Cults of the Greek States, vol. I (Oxford, 1896) pp. 179–257, as well as in O. Gruppe's Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, 2 vols. (Munich, 1906) II.1121–1137, keep their value. Karl Kerényi, Zeus und Hera: Urbild des Vaters, des Gatten und der Frau (Leiden, Netherlands, 1972); Walter Pötscher, Hera: Eine Strukturanalyse im Vergleich mit Athena (Dramstadt, Germany, 1987); Joan V. O'Brien, The Transformation of Hera: A Study in Ritual, Hero, and the Goddess in the Iliad (Lanham, Md., 1993); and Reinhard Häussler's Hera und Juno: Wandlungen und Beharrung einer Göttin (Stuttgart, Germany, 1995), are not that helpful. The best modern synthesis is Walter Burkert's Greek Religion (Oxford, 1985), 131–35; 400–401, which has to be supplemented on the connection between Hera and initiation by Claude Calame, Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece: Their Morphology, Religious Role, and Social Functions (Lanham, England, 1997), 113–23. Héra: Images, Espaces, Cultes, edited by J. de La Genière (Naples, 1997), is an especially useful update of the archaeological evidence.
Jan N. Bremmer (2005)
