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Mythographia

    Hera

    Hera is the wife and sister of Zeus and the queen of Mount Olympus. She presides over marriage and childbirth and is known for her jealous vengeance against Zeus's many lovers and illegitimate children, a persecution that drives some of Greek myth's longest hero cycles.

    Hera in bronze medallion style, crowned and regal, with a peacock feather as the solid-bronze accent symbol.
    Illustration, not a source

    Hera, queen of the Olympian gods

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    What does the name "Hera" mean? →

    Core Myth

    Hera was the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and sister to Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hestia. Like her siblings, she was swallowed by Cronus at birth and later freed when Zeus overthrew their father. Hesiod records her marriage to Zeus and their children together - Ares, Hebe, and Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth - placing her at the center of Olympian family life as queen and as the goddess who oversees legitimate marriage. Hera was renowned for her jealousy and wrath toward Zeus's numerous lovers and their offspring, and this persecution supplies some of Greek myth's longest hero cycles: she drove Heracles to madness so that he killed his own family, forcing the labors that follow; she pursued Leto across every land before Apollo and Artemis could be born; and she drove Dionysus's nurses mad to punish Semele's child. Her anger was not always simply jealousy over infidelity - when Zeus produced Athena from his own head without her, Hesiod says Hera responded in kind, bearing Hephaestus by herself, without union with Zeus at all.

    Why is Hera so often hostile toward Zeus's children by other women?

    Hera is the goddess of legitimate marriage, and Zeus's affairs are a standing violation of the institution she embodies, so the sources treat her anger as consistent with her role rather than as simple spite. Her targets are not random: she pursues Heracles, the Trojan-War-era heroes born of Zeus's unions, and Dionysus's household because each birth is a visible, lasting reminder of a marriage broken.

    Homer, Iliad 14.153-353

    What children did Hera have with Zeus?

    Hesiod names Ares, Hebe, and Eileithyia as children Hera bore to Zeus within their marriage. Eileithyia in particular matters beyond her own myths, since she is the goddess of childbirth invoked, and sometimes deliberately delayed, at the birth of other figures in the tradition, including at Heracles's own birth.

    Hesiod, Theogony 921-923

    How was Hephaestus born, and why does the story matter?

    Hesiod says Hera bore Hephaestus by herself, without union with Zeus, specifically because she was angry that Zeus had produced Athena alone from his own head. The story is told as an answer in kind: each parent demonstrates that a child of theirs does not require the other. It also sits behind Hephaestus's uneasy relationship with both parents in later myth, since he is thrown from Olympus at least once for taking his mother's side in a quarrel with Zeus.

    Hesiod, Theogony 927-929

    How did Hera try to stop Heracles from being born as the ruling king promised by Zeus?

    Zeus swore an oath that a descendant of Perseus born that day would rule all his kin, meaning the unborn Heracles. Hera tricked him into the wording, then hastened the premature birth of another descendant, Eurystheus, while holding back Alcmene's labor, so that Eurystheus was born first and took the kingship instead. This is also the origin of Heracles later serving Eurystheus rather than the reverse.

    Homer, Iliad 19.95-133

    Did Hera and Zeus's marriage ever break down entirely?

    The Iliad shows a genuinely adversarial marriage rather than a settled one: in Book 14, Hera borrows Aphrodite's girdle of persuasion specifically to seduce and distract Zeus so she can secretly help the Greeks at Troy against his stated wishes, and the scheme works exactly as she plans it. Their disputes are recurring enough across the epic that Zeus at one point threatens her with violence for interfering, which the poem treats as an ordinary, if tense, feature of their relationship rather than as an isolated crisis.

    Homer, Iliad 14.153-223

    Later Traditions

    In Roman religion, Hera was identified with Juno, who held an even more prominent civic role as protector of the Roman state and guardian of women through every stage of life. Later traditions increasingly emphasized Hera as a symbol of marital fidelity and queenly dignity, softening the vindictiveness that dominates her role in the earlier myths.

    Lineage

    See the full family tree

    11 recorded relations, each with the ancient line behind it.

    Parents

    Children

    Also Connected

    7 recorded connections, each with the ancient line behind it.

    Allies

    Enemies

    • Alcmene Homer, Iliad 19.95-133

      Hera tricked Zeus into an oath that cost Heracles the birthright meant for him, delayed Alcmene's labor to favor a rival's birth instead, and sent serpents into the nursery to kill the infant.

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    Mythology

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    Sources

    Primary sources
    • Homer, Iliad 14.153-223
    • Homer, Iliad 19.95-133
    • Hesiod, Theogony 921-929
    Further reading
    • Joan V. O'Brien, The Transformation of Hera (1993)
    • Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)