Goddess of the Week: Hera

A few weeks ago we talked about the fantastical greek goddesses. Beautiful, powerful, and complicated beings, who represent different aspects of our giant world and ourselves. As we mentioned before, we have some great surprises on the way involving these characters, so we thought we’d get you better acquainted with our favourites. First up, is the queen of heaven herself, Hera.

Hera was the aforementioned “queen of heaven”, or in other words, the queen of all the olympic gods. Married to Zeus, the god of lightning, they ruled over the earth and heavens after inheriting it from their parents, the Titans. Hera represented many different things as a goddess. Mainly the goddess of marriage and birth, Hera also associated with the symbols of peacocks, royalty, and lilies. She took a great interest in the famous Greek heroes, guiding them throughout their quests, especially Jason and his quest for the legendary golden fleece. 

Despite being a royal queen who helped the many heroes of the world, Hera had her flaws. Due to being the goddess of marriage, Hera treated her relationship with her husband Zeus as sacred, while he unfortunately did not. Zeus engaged in hundreds of affairs with mortal women, enraging the queen. Since a god cannot hurt another god, Hera took her rage out on the other women, cursing them and their children to lives of torment. Due to her wrathful nature, Hera is not a popular goddess to many.

Studying the myths of Hera can pose an important question to you. We all get jealous and angry when experiencing betrayal, but it’s important to focus on where our rage will be directed. At the end of the day, is taking it out on others truly helpful for yourself to grow? Some of the greatest art and achievements in the world have been created by individuals channeling their pain into something positive, so why don’t you?

That’s it for our focus on Hera! Stay tuned for more updates on With Love Darling’s plans for the greek goddesses…..