Hera
Hera was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her title was the goddess of marriage. Her equal, in Roman mythology, was Juno. The cow and the peacock was very sacred to Hera. Cronus and Rhea were her parents and she was swallowed shortly after birth because Cronus heard a prophesy that one of his children would take over his throne. Zeus was not swallowed because Rhea, and Gaea devised a plan and they moved Zeus to a cave on Crete. Rhea wrapped a stone in baby clothes gave that to Cronus. Then Rhea gave Cronus an herb which she told him it would make him invincible. In stead of being invincible, he regurgitated the five other Olympians he had swallowed. They were Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, as well as the stone he had swallowed. When he grew older, Zeus banished Cronus to Tartarus, which was the deepest chasm in the Underworld. This was done because the Titans were immortal and could not be killed.
Hera is often portrayed as a majestic and crowned goddess. The crown was a high cylindrical one which was worn by several of the Great Goddesses. Sometimes she is portrayed with a pomegranate in her hand, which is a symbol of fertile blood and death, and also as a substitute of the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy. Hera was known for her jealousy and vengeful personality especially against her husband’s lovers and their offspring. She was also vengeful against other mortals who crossed her. She hated Pelias and Paris because they chose Aphordite as the most beautiful goddess instead of her.
Hera was worshipped as Argive Hera (or Hera Argeia), at a snactuary which stood between the Mycenaean city-states, and Mycennae. There were festivals in her honor called Heraia. Hera loved the cities, Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae, and Samos, the best. There were temples to Hera in Olympia, Corinth, Tiryns, Perachora, and the island of Delos. Hera may have been the first to have an enclosed temple built in her honor. Later it was replaced by the Heraia, which was one of the largest Greek temples ever built. This was Samos and it was built around 800 BC. Before that the Greek Alters were all under the open sky. The festival of the Great Daedala, in Euboea, was sacred to Hera and was celebrated every 60 years. The Greeks called Hera, the Mistress of the Animals. It was written that Hera once detained Eileithyia, to prevent Leto from going into labor with Artemis and Apollo, because Zeus was the father of them.
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