While Zeus had dozens, if not hundreds, of children, Hera was always faithful. Abode: Mount Olympus. She also had a gadfly follow Io around and continually sting her. One day, the people of Thebes went out to celebrate the feast of Latona a religious festival in honor of Leto, the mother of the gods Apollo and Artemis and as described in Bulfinchs Mythology: It was on occasion of the annual celebration in honor of Latona and her offspring, Apollo and Diana [i.e Artemis] when the people of Thebes were assembled, their brows crowned with laurel, bearing frankincense to the altars and paying their vows, that Niobe appeared among the crowd. However, Briareus, who had been freed by Zeus from the prison Tartarus, overheard their conversation and realized that Zeus was tied. Heracles had followed his fathers tendencies in life and had many affairs, but he was said to have settled down in a happy marriage with Hebe. Making it worse for those who gave in to Zeus, or were raped by him, was having to deal . So Alcmene exposed her half god child, who was taken up by Athena to see Hera. A peeved Zeus responded by taking fire away from mankind, and wiping its secret from human minds, so they would have to eat meat row, and shiver from the cold in the dark of night. She was a queen of Thebes, and was blessed with great fortune. This was a demonstration of the unforgiving nature of the Olympians. While some claimed that the couple were initially happy, other sources implied that Hera was prone to jealousy early in their relationship. Even during his decade of servitude, Hera interfered to make the labors of Heracles more difficult and dangerous. That championing of mankind got him in trouble with the gods, who devised a horrific punishment for him in consequence. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. In return she created Hephaestus without him, but was foiled when the child was born lame and deformed. Ironically, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, was trapped in a loveless marriage; Athena, wisest of beings, always deferred to Zeus; and Hera, Goddess of Marriage, was married to the worst serial adulterer ever known. Nessus then gave it to her and told her that if Hercul. There, Leto finally gave birth to the gods Artemis and Apollo. He murdered his father-in-law and could find no one to purify him until Zeus did so and admitted him as a guest to Olympus. In this view of marriage, Hera really did embody the role of a Greek wife. Leto then went on to become a goddess of motherhood, with a divine portfolio that also included protection of the young. There, the chief god devised a punishment that became a proverbial term for temptation. You might expect the king of the gods and his queen to be the epitome of a happy, or at least amicable, couple. They had good reason for trepidation because taunting Leto turned out to be a bad idea. That snitching made Zeus angrier still. When Zeus heard Ixion's boasting, he had all the proof he needed and decided that Ixion would need to be punished. The marriage of Zeus and Hera was tumultuous even though they were supposed to represent the ideal king and queen. To vent his anger at mankind, Zeus sent Pandora down to earth with a box whose lid, when it was eventually removed, unleashed upon the world all the evils that plague humanity, such as diseases, plagues, war, death, and the constant need for backbreaking labor to eke sustenance out of the earth. 1. However, what offended the divine pantheon the most was when Tantalus killed his own son, Pelops, and served him to the gods at a banquet as a means of testing their powers of observation. In his mortal life, Heras attacks on Heracles had been relentless. Prometheus had been one of the leaders of the Titans went they waged war for mastery of the heavens against the Olympian gods, when the latter rose up to replace the Titans. Demeter was another of Zeus' sisters. She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks. Zeus however took pity on Ixion, and although promotion of Xenia was part of the chief Olympian gods portfolio, he cleansed him of the defilement, and invited him to Mount Olympus, to dine at the table of the gods. Sure enough, Ixion ravished the fake Hera a union that ultimately produced the centaurs. Corrections? Why did Zeus turn into a swan? When the thigh-sewn child was born, he was named Dionysus. Zeus created the laws that ruled the world according to his will, the god despite loving his wife was not faithful to her and he had plenty of extra marital affairs and because of this the goddess Hera and Zeus lived in a permanent state of quarrel. Although Hera was married to Zeus, his serial interest in women led him far from her bed. One of Tantalus sins was stealing ambrosia and nectar, the food of the gods, and giving it to mortals. Zeus punished Apollo to purify him. Zeus' wife did not recognize her mini-mortal enemy and inadvertently nursed him out of pity. Nevertheless, he eventually did not give anything to his father-in-law, so Deioneus decided to punish him by stealing some of his horses. Hera's weapon was not so straightforward. For his part, Zeus was unfaithful but was rarely seen treating Hera with particularly cruelty. Her fellow goddesses could feel her wrath, as well. Leda and the Swan When of age, Leda was married to King Tyndareus of Sparta; Tyndareus having been placed on the throne by Heracles. 1 / 70. The only deity to touch the food was the goddess Demeter, who was distracted by the death of her daughter, Persephone, and absent-mindedly ate part of Pelops shoulder. The king and queen of the gods were supposed to be the model of a perfect marriage, but the stories of Zeus and Hera show that their relationship was anything but divine! She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks. Semele was a Thebian princess. Being Zeus' mistress was tough. He then ordered the messenger god, Hermes, to seize Ixion and bind him to a wheel of fire, condemned to spin forever across the heavens. Hera, now even more jealous of Leto after she gave birth to Zeus children, sent a dragon to chase her and her newborns around. Zeus and Hera were not each others first choice in partners. Heracles married Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera and the goddess of youth. A lot of what we have read about him has given the impression that he has a few archetypes that describe him perfectly. As one of the original 6 Olympians, Hera was the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. So when his disciples, the Maenads, threw a festival in honor of the wine god atop the sacred mountain of Nyseion in Lycurgus kingdom, Dionysius took on human form and attended as the guest of honor. Zeus noticed Io, a mortal woman, and lusted after her. a) ancient humans were not as intelligent as modern humans are. The breach of Xenia left Ixion defiled, shunned by fellow Greeks and unfit to live amidst men. Hera decided to pay Zeus back for his infidelity by making the rest of Hercules' life as miserable as she could. When Lycurgus heard that his command was being defied and that Dionysius was in his kingdom, he flew into a rage. The crime of the king of Sipylus resulted in the murder and mayhem among his descendants. As a consequence, his eye was blinded by Odysseus, which was a sign of Zeus' punishment for the ones who fail to follow his command and harm the guests. He then courted Thetis, but abandoned the idea of marrying that Titaness when a similar prediction was made. In Greek legend, Tantalus was a king of Sypilus in Lydia, in western Anatolia. The trend of Hera being jealous and spiteful toward her husbands children continued throughout their reign. For example, she turned the Libyan queen Lamia into a monster when she learned that Zeus had fathered children with her. The Romans identified the Greek goddess Hera with their own goddess of marriage, Juno. Disobeying ones parents was a great sin in Ancient Greece, so all the daughters, except one who took pity on her new husband after he respected her desire to remain a virgin, murdered their spouses on the wedding night. When Zeus heard, he couldnt believe that Ixion, whom he had rescued and cleansed of his guilt, then honored by hosting him in heaven, could be so ungrateful and brazen. This rarely-repeated story appears to be a later myth, however, and most stories show him as a protective and peaceable, albeit unfaithful, husband. He instructed his wife not to bury him or perform any of the sacred death rituals when he passed away, and to just throw his corpse out. She attempted many times to cause his death or just make his life difficult, even driving him insane and forcing him to kill his own family. Zeus Hangs Hera in the Sky As punishment for her attempt to overthrow him, Zeus seized Hera and hung her in the sky by golden chains. Ixion's Punishment. Many of his mistresses and their children fell afoul of Heras terrible temper. Because of his misdeeds on earth and up in the heavens as well the gods condemned him to eternal torment. In Greek mythology, Hera was the queen of the Olympian gods and the wife of Zeus, the king of the gods. Tantalus was also the great grandfather of Menelaus, the Spartan king and cuckolded husband of Helen of Troy, and his brother Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeks in the Trojan War. Hera tormented many of Zeus's mistresses. Wrzburg L 500, Attic red figure Panathenaic amphora, c. 500 B.C. Io swam the straits between Europe and Asia, which were known thereafter as the Bosporus (Greek for ford of the cow), and the sea southwest of Greece, which became known as the Ionian Sea. There, a giant eagle would fly in every day to rip open his guts and feast upon his liver. Zeus (Greek: & ) (Ancient Greek: , , & ) is the King of the Olympian gods and God of the Sky, Weather, Thunderstorms, Lightning bolts, Winds and Clouds. According to Greek mythology, Io was a priestess whose beauty caught Zeus eye and caused him to fall head over heels in love with her. This play shows many the archetypes in the characters in this play, like Zeus Prometheus, and Hephaestus. According to Hesiod, why does Zeus get mad at Prometheus? Zeus is the Olympian god of the sky and the thunder, the king of all other gods and men, and, consequently, the chief figure in Greek mythology. In only one story did Zeus punish Hera for her actions when she plotted to overthrow him. Hera agreed to dismiss the gadfly when Zeus promised to leave Io alone forever. Unlike the main monotheistic religions, the Ancient Greeks did not have an infallible God who is always out to do good even if human minds are sometimes incapable of comprehending that good sometimes. In a flash, Apollo and Artemis, whose nicknames included The Immortal Archers, showed up at the citadel of Thebes. In their flight, they sought refuge in Lycia, whose peasants, on Heras instructions, sought to prevent Leto and her infants from drinking water. Late in their history, the Greeks adapted their mythology to include a more loving and faithful couple in the household of their king. Understandably, Hera was none too happy about her husbands serial infidelities, which left her feeling slighted. Lusting after her, the chief god pursued Io, but she resisted his advances at first until her father kicked her out on the advice of some oracles. Hera, daughter of Cronus and Rhea, is Zeus's . In one story, which appears to have not been widespread, she even plotted to overthrow her husband. Understandably, Dionysius was greatly angered by Lycurgus disrespect and impiety, so he set out to visit divine punishment upon the Thracian king by taking away his sanity and reducing him to a raving loon. Zeus immediately returned to his true form andtrue to form, indeedravished her. See answer (1) Best Answer. Detailed explanation: In Book 13 of the Odyssey, Zeus is portrayed as the ultimate authority among the gods, who can decide the fate of mortals and mediate disputes among the deities. To make his pettiness stick, the chief god prohibited anybody from letting humanity in on the secret of fire. Leto then went on to become a goddess of motherhood, with a divine portfolio that also included protection of the young. In Greek mythology, Actaeon was a famous Theban hero, who loved to hunt in the outback of his native region of Boeotia. His name, which means foresight, emphasizes his intellect, for he was known as a cunning trickster. The disputes between Hera and Zeus were not limited to his extramarital affairs. After crisscrossing the world for years while in labor, unable to find a resting place, Leto came across a barren island not connected to the ocean floor, so it did not count as a real island by Heras definition. The Ancient Greeks mythology and religion envisioned their main gods in anthropomorphic terms, resembling humans in many aspects. She gave her name to the continent of Europe and her three sons Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon, became the judges of the land of the dead. Her husband/ sibling was an insatiable and predatory nymphomaniac with a roving eye, always on the prowl, and constantly cheating on Hera. Tantalus was placed in a pool of water, beneath a fruit tree with low branches. In the meantime, Lycurgus conducted an anti-Dionysian purge throughout his kingdom and carried out a persecution that saw the rounding up, arrest, and imprisonment of the Maenads and other followers of Dionysius. According to Ovid, how id Zeus punish Lycaon? Will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titans daughter, with her two children? He continued to live to a ripe old age, before dying a second time. Zeus, the king of the gods of Mount Olympus, had many relationships but it was his sister, Hera, whom he wanted to rule by his side as his wife. Zeus and Heras children were able to exemplify the happy, stable relationship their father and mother had never been able to represent. Hera is a goddess in Greek mythology and one of the Twelve Olympians. To vent his anger at mankind, Zeus sent Pandora down to earth with a box whose lid, when it was eventually removed, unleashed upon the world all the evils that plague humanity, such as diseases, plagues, war, death, and the constant need for backbreaking labor to eke sustenance out of the earth. To exacerbate the unfairness of it all, Leto had been Zeus mistress before he married Hera, so the chief god had not even been cheating on his wife at the time. However, what offended the divine pantheon the most was when Tantalus killed his own son, Pelops, and served him to the gods at a banquet as a means of testing their powers of observation. Hercules () was now a grown, strong man. In the text, Odysseus is found shouting at Polyphemus saying, "You had the gall to eat the guests in your own house, and Zeus made you pay for it" (IX,478-479). The goddess Hera cursed her with just an echo for a voice as punishment for distracting her from the affairs of Zeus with her endless chatter. Ixion abused his pardon by trying to seduce Zeuss wife, Hera. Aegyptus had fifty sons, and when he commanded that his twins fifty daughters be married to his sons, Danaus declined. Most entries in this article are about mortal or immortal beings who did something to invite the wrath of the gods, or at least found themselves in a situation in which the wrath of a good was understandable, even if unjustified. Archaeological evidence also attests to the existence of a king Tantalus in ancient times. Leto was Zeus first mistress, and became the first to fall victim both to the chief god, who slaked his lust and abandoned her when she got pregnant, and then to the cray wrath of his wife. As a punishment for man. Fortunately, Thetis helped Zeus by summoning Briareus to help free the God from his shackles. "Hera," he slurred, "you know, women enjoy lovemaking more than men ever do." Hera stiffened. Exposed liars were made to dedicate a statue to Zeus, often at the sanctuary of Olympia. The One Piece chapter ends with Zeus being cut in half by Brook, but the damage has been done.Zeus has chosen to side with Big Mom even under duress. Omissions? He ruled as king on Mount Olympus, which is the highest point in Greece. For that, the gods subjected her to a terrible punishment. The son of Cronus and Rhea, he is probably most famous for his infidelity to his sister and wife, Hera . Although the extent of Actaeons sin, if it could even be called that, was to simply have had the misfortune of bumping into a naked goddess, Artemis was livid that a mortal saw her naked. Wherever I turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power; nor is my form and presence unworthy of a goddess. The wine god laid a curse upon Lycurgus kingdom, rendering its soil barren and incapable of producing fruit. After Hercules completed his 12 (or if you prefer 10 labors), the centaur Nessus, whom Hercules killed to defend Dienara from tricked her into killing Hercules by wiping some of his blood on a cloth. Worshiped throughout the Roman Empire as the protector of Roman women and noble wife to Jupiter (the Roman equivalent to Zeus), Juno was oftentimes presented to be both militaristic and matronly. Before her body was cold, Zeus had snatched from it the six-month unborn child and sewed it into his thigh. Demeter, a Story of a Mother's Triumph. According to some legends, Hera was jealous that her husband had produced such a powerful goddess without her. My work has also been published on Buzzfeed and most recently in Time magazine. In addition to her noble birth and descent from a king, Niobe was a stunning beauty. While he was at Thebes () he defeated the King of Orhomenos and made its citizens pay double the taxes back to Thebes. One day, the people of Thebes went out to celebrate the feast of Latona a religious festival in honor of Leto, the mother of the gods Apollo and Artemis and as described in Bulfinchs Mythology: It was on occasion of the annual celebration in honor of Latona and her offspring, Apollo and Diana [i.e Artemis] when the people of Thebes were assembled, their brows crowned with laurel, bearing frankincense to the altars and paying their vows, that Niobe appeared among the crowd. Copy. To save himself from the livid Lycurgus, Dionysius was forced to flee, and escaped the wrath of the angry king by leaping into the sea. Zeus and the other Olympian gods lived on Mount Olympus. The islands barrenness also meant it had nothing to lose, and thus nothing to fear from Heras wrath by defying her will. Most entries in this article are about mortal or immortal beings who did something to invite the wrath of the gods, or at least found themselves in a situation in which the wrath of a good was understandable, even if unjustified. When Argus was finally out, Hermes grabbed a stone and smashed his head in, and freed Io from her tether so Zeus could get some loving time with his bovine mistress. They were unsuccessful, and it was many years before Zeus forgave them for the attempt. The Titan God of Fire, Prometheus, was punished by Zeus for his deception, trickery, and betrayal. The liver re-grew each night, and the eagle returned each day to repeat the process, subjecting Prometheus to perpetuity of torment by day, and nights full of dread of what the morrow would bring. She took great pride in both her birth and her looks, but what she took the greatest pride in was her large brood of fourteen children seven sons, and seven daughters. The geographer Strabo, citing earlier sources, described the wealth of Tantalus as driving from mines in Mount Sypilus. Zeus has one of the largest if not the largest number of "relationships" of this kind of any deity in world history. My father was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the gods; my mother was a goddess. As a son of Zeus, Tantalus was on intimate terms with the gods, and was often invited to dine with them at their table in the heavens. As you can see, Hera's jealousy and vengeful nature shaped many of the most popular stories in all of Greek mythology. She punished others in a different way, however. When he sobered up and realized what he had almost done, he swore off the drink, became a teetotaler, and enacted a version of Prohibition in his kingdom by banning wine and ordering the destruction of all grapevines throughout the realm. Hephaestus made a woman out of clay, a beautiful woman. We should note that all of his "relationships" with women produced childrengenerally sons . He is credited with creating humans from clay, and for being a champion of mankind in the halls of the heavens. After this, Heracles' mother was worried about Hera she might enact revenge. Hera means lady and was undoubtedly the title of a powerful mother goddess whom the Greeks inherited from the earlier inhabitants of Argos, which was a major city in the Peloponnese. Hera also sent the gigantic Titan Tityos to rape Leto, but she was once again saved by her children, Apollo and Artemis, who killed their mothers would-be rapist. Not to be outdone, Artemis strung her bow, and slew all seven of Niobes daughters. What did Zeus punish Ixion? They then cut off their heads and buried them near a lake south of Argos. As the goat-legged Satyr, he seduced Antiope. He also liked to blab, and revealed to mortals secrets he had learned at the table of the gods in heaven. Then, when it was time to give birth, the Queen of Heaven saw to it that the childbirth was as miserable as could be, by prolonging Letos labor. Unfortunately, Sisyphus cunning was combined with questionable ethics, which got him in trouble with the gods, particularly with Zeus. How Did Odysseus Get Punished. Her most famous anger was directed not at one of Zeuss mistresses, but at his son. In Greek legend, Prometheus was a Titan a race of divine beings who preceded the Olympian gods. That was when Sisyphus discovered he had been too clever by half, and too smart for his own good. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the wind wafted the branches away, and whenever he reached for water to take a drink it flowed away from him. Zeus, driven to distraction by his lust for Io, was unable to bear the separation. Sisyphus however tricked the death god by asking him how the chains worked, and ended up chaining that deity. In Greek myth, Leto was a Titan goddess whose beauty captivated Zeus, and she became his first and favorite lover. According to some stories, Zeus then turned Io . He would hurl a thunderbolt at those who disobeyed or disappointed him, sometimes striking them dead. In addition to her noble birth and descent from a king, Niobe was a stunning beauty. Dionysius, being a god, was not about to heed the dictates of a mortal, not even a mortal king. Even then, the gods were not yet done with Niobe. What folly, said she, is this! While Tantalus divine punishment and other supernatural aspects of his story are mythical, there might have been a historical king Tantalus in real life, who ruled an Anatolian city named Tantalis. In his madness, Lycurgus slew his wife and family. As the wife of Zeus, Hera was considered the queen of Mount Olympus. Yet Tantalus, his punishment, and his damned family also inspired many great works of Classical literature: His punishment has, ironically, ensured an enduring legacy. When her father went looking for her, Sisyphus told him where to find his daughter, in exchange for Asopus creating a spring to flow into Sisyphus city of Corinth. The Nemean Lion. Being Zeus mistress was tough. His name, which means foresight, emphasizes his intellect, for he was known as a cunning trickster. However, Zeus also respects the autonomy and diversity of the gods, and often allows them to act according to their own preferences and interests. Ixion was the king of the Lapiths in Greek mythology, the son of Ares and Perimele. As a punishment, Hera takes away Echo's voice so that she is only able to repeat whatever she hears. Soon as Sisyphus got his boulder to the top of the hill, it would roll down the other side, and he would have to go back down and collect his boulder to roll it up the hill again. This was not to last, however, as the pairing of a womanizing god and a jealous goddess inevitably led to conflict and unhappiness. Most famously, she served as the antagonist in the legends of her stepson Heracles. However, the gods possessed superhuman powers that made their human-like follies a terror to behold, and were often unrestrained by morality and the social norms applicable to humans. Hera Punished Her Husband's Former Mistress by Prolonging Her Childbirth Labor for Years. OSU Classical Mythology 2220. The overall impression of women from Theogony and Works and Days, leads one to believe that Hesiod is a misogynist. The geographer Strabo, citing earlier sources, described the wealth of Tantalus as driving from mines in Mount Sypilus. There was a degree of idealism in how the couple was shown, however.