Zeus and Hera were not each others first choice in partners. 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. There, Dionysus was rescued by the sea nymph Thetis, who kindly received the wine god and sheltered him in an undersea cave. Thus he was tormented by everlasting hunger and thirst, despite food and water being so near. In Greek mythology, Actaeon was a famous Theban hero, who loved to hunt in the outback of his native region of Boeotia. 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. 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. 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. Yet Tantalus, his punishment, and his damned family also inspired many great works of Classical literature: His punishment has, ironically, ensured an enduring legacy. Without deep love or an expectation of fidelity on the husbands part, the rulers who looked up to them hoped to emulate their relatively peaceful cohabitation. Hera, daughter of Cronus and Rhea, is Zeus's . Zeus was the principal deity of the Greek pantheon, the god of the weather and . Hera first tried to kill Heracles as a baby by sending two serpents to his bed, but this failed when Heracles killed the serpents. However, before the wedding, Danaus gathered his daughters around him, and passed a dagger to each, with instructions to murder their husbands as soon as they were alone with them. Being Zeus mistress was tough. Danaus hauled the daughter who had disobeyed him before a court, but her husband intervened and murdered Danaus in revenge for the deaths of his 49 brothers. 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. Wrzburg L 500, Attic red figure Panathenaic amphora, c. 500 B.C. She drove him made so that he killed his own family, then orchestrated the twelve labors that would earn him absolution. 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. 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. The city of Thebes and the city of Orhomenos had a war. Demeter was another of Zeus' sisters. The gods threatened Sisyphus with dire punishment if he did not free Death, so he reluctantly did. In Greek mythology, Actaeon was a famous Theban hero, who loved to hunt in the outback of his native region of Boeotia. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. In a flash, Apollo and Artemis, whose nicknames included The Immortal Archers, showed up at the citadel of Thebes. He got on Zeus wrong side when he tricked him into accepting the bones and fat of sacrificial animals instead of their meat. They were to carry jugs of water to fill a bathtub to wash away their sins, but the bathtub could never be filled because it had a hole in the bottom. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. That snitching made Zeus angrier still. 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. In their flight, they sought refuge in Lycia, whose peasants, on Heras instructions, sought to prevent Leto and her infants from drinking water. ZEUS, God of Horndogs. What folly, said she, is this! Copy. 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. Most famously, she served as the antagonist in the legends of her stepson Heracles. The four main domains of Hera include Women, Childbirth, Family, and most . What Were the Hamadryads in Greek Mythology? She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks. When his mortal life ended and he became a god, however, she ended her campaign against him. Study now. However, when his fellow Titans refused to heed his advice and resort to trickery, Prometheus switched sides and joined the Olympians. She was all too aware of Zeus' past . Zeus noticed Io, a mortal woman, and lusted after her. He became a king of the Lapiths tribe in Thessaly, in northern Greece, and from early on, he built up an infamous reputation as somebody who was mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Zeus then turned on Tantalus, and subjected him to the wrath of the gods. Tantalus was a son of Zeus and a nymph minor female nature deities, typically depicted as uninhibited nubile maidens who love to sing and dance. The islands barrenness also meant it had nothing to lose, and thus nothing to fear from Heras wrath by defying her will. In their flight, they sought refuge in Lycia, whose peasants, on Heras instructions, sought to prevent Leto and her infants from drinking water. Despite their contentious marriage and her flights of jealousy, Hera was known as the goddess of marriage. Hera cursed her by turning her into a cow. Theirs was, like most rulers, a marriage of political necessity. Still, the Greeks seemed to realize that their goddess of marriage did not have a perfect union. That ensured the gods victory, and doomed the Titans to defeat. In this way, the relationship between Zeus and Hera did represent an ideal, albeit one that seems horrible to modern readers. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. However during the feast he tried to pick up on Zeus' wife, Hera. Her husband/ sibling was an insatiable and predatory nymphomaniac with a roving eye, always on the prowl, and constantly cheating on Hera. In the version of the myth told in Prometheus Bound she initially rejected Zeus' advances, until her father threw her out of his house on the advice of oracles. That championing of mankind got him in trouble with the gods, who devised a horrific punishment for him in consequence. Archaeological evidence also attests to the existence of a king Tantalus in ancient times. Have I not cause for pride? to prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes! So they condemned Sisyphus to an eternity of rolling a huge boulder up a steep hill. 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. The marriage of Zeus and Hera was tumultuous even though they were supposed to represent the ideal king and queen. Zeus destroyed Tantalus, then personally took his soul to Hades, the underworld of Greek mythology. Hence, making Zeus owe Thetis a favor. Zeus ordered his son Hermes, the messenger god, to bind Ixion to a large, fiery wheel which would travel across the sky forever. According to most sources, Zeus did not originally intend to marry his sister, Hera. The son of Cronus and Rhea, he is probably most famous for his infidelity to his sister and wife, Hera . In addition to her noble birth and descent from a king, Niobe was a stunning beauty. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull . First, Hera kicked the pregnant Leto out of Mount Olympus, forcing her to wander the world amongst mortals. My father was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the gods; my mother was a goddess. It is from Tantalus punishment, of desperately wanting something that seems so close but that is just beyond reach, that we get the English word tantalize. As to the 49 daughters who had murdered their husbands, they remarried, choosing new mates from the winners of a footrace. 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. Hera eventually came to terms with the situation, accepted things as they were, and let Leto and her children be. Zeus has one of the largest if not the largest number of "relationships" of this kind of any deity in world history. She obeyed, and when Sisyphus arrived at the underworld, he begged Death to allow him to return to earth to punish his wife for her impiety. It would, ironically, be her most hated stepchild who finally fit the ideal. Lo was a beautiful mortal who was the daughter of Inachus of Argo. Sure enough, Ixion ravished the fake Hera a union that ultimately produced the centaurs. When Lo was forced to leave her father's house, she wandered until she reached Egypt, where the curse was lifted. He and his wife then ruled Argos, inaugurating a dynasty that ran that city for centuries. My name is Mike and for as long as I can remember (too long!) Abode: Mount Olympus. The disputes between Hera and Zeus were not limited to his extramarital affairs. Aside from the avowed virgins, she was one of the only goddesses to never have a child outside of her marriage. In Greek legend, Tantalus was a king of Sypilus in Lydia, in western Anatolia. Semele. One day, while out hunting with his dogs in Boeotia, Actaeon unwittingly stumbled upon the chaste goddess Artemis Diana to the Romans while she was naked, bathing in spring with some wood nymphs. That ensured the gods victory, and doomed the Titans to defeat. Her most famous anger was directed not at one of Zeuss mistresses, but at his son. Epimetheus. He first married the Titaness Metis, but turned her into a fly and swallowed her when he learned that her son would eventually overthrow him. The wine god laid a curse upon Lycurgus kingdom, rendering its soil barren and incapable of producing fruit. 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. Pixabay. Although the affair and pregnancy had occurred before Heras marriage to Zeus, the Queen of Heaven was still jealous of Leto, and set out to turn her life into a living hell. Death agreed, but once Sisyphus was back on earth, he jumped bail and went on the lam. 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. 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. Hera, titled the Queen of Heaven, reigned from the gods' home atop Mount Olympus as the wife and sister and wife of Zeus, chief god of the Greek pantheon. In only one story did Zeus punish Hera for her actions when she plotted to overthrow him. The Rocky Relationship of Zeus and Hera. When Zeus looked down from the heavens and saw the dark of night dispelled by the flicker of fires, he grew livid. Ranker All The Ways Hera Got Revenge On Zeus For Cheating On Her, Meaww Blood Of Zeus: Zeus As Cheating Husband, Scorned Wife Hera Bring War To Olympus As Heron Flies To The Rescue, ThoughtCo Thetis: Not Just a Greek Nymph, Ancient History Encyclopedia Prometheus, Bulfinch, Thomas Bulfinchs Mythology (2010), Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology Actaeon, Keefer, Professor Julia, New York University The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Folk Religion (1972), Nilsson, Martin P. Mycenean Origin of Greek Mythology (2017), Peabody, Josephine Preston, Tales Beyond Belief The Myth of Niobe, Theoi Greek Mythology The Titaness Leto, History Collection Truly Intense Vengeance Stories From Greek Mythology, omniscient, omnipotent, and infallible God, having him taken to the Caucasus Mountains, punishment was not already horrible enough, Keefer, Professor Julia, New York University , Peabody, Josephine Preston, Tales Beyond Belief . As if her punishment was not already horrible enough, Zeus piled on and capped it off by turning Niobe into a pillar of stone, in which state she would continue to weep throughout eternity for her loss. 4) Hera. Athena was born out of her fathers head and was generally described as not having a mother in any real sense. She then sent emissaries to all cities and settlements, forbidding them to offer Leto shelter, food, or water. The geographer Strabo, citing earlier sources, described the wealth of Tantalus as driving from mines in Mount Sypilus. Archaeological evidence also attests to the existence of a king Tantalus in ancient times. In fact, Zeus tricked Hera into marrying him, kicking off a lifetime of infidelity and revenge stories involving the mythological couple. 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. 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. Tantalus was placed in a pool of water, beneath a fruit tree with low branches. In Greek myth, Leto was a Titan goddess whose beauty captivated Zeus, and she became his first and favorite lover. Chiron a mythical being with the lower body of a horse, and the torso and upper body of a human was notable in Greek legend for his youth-nurturing nature. However, after Zeus impregnated Leto with twins, he abandoned her in order to marry his sister, Hera. Please like and share this article if you found it useful. So he appeared to her in the guise of a bedraggled, rain-soaked cuckoo. As you can see, Hera's jealousy and vengeful nature shaped many of the most popular stories in all of Greek mythology. So she begged Zeus to give her the heifer as a present, and unable to come up with an excuse to refuse, he grudgingly gave his lover as a gift to his wife. Zeus gathered the rest of the boys body parts, got the god Hephaestus to make him a bronze shoulder, put them all together and restored the kid to life. The astonished and livid Zeus expelled the ingrate from Olympus, and blasted his former guest with a thunderbolt. He is credited with creating humans from clay, and for being a champion of mankind in the halls of the heavens. However, when his fellow Titans refused to heed his advice and resort to trickery, Prometheus switched sides and joined the Olympians. He was invited by the gods to feast with them. Io, who had been turned into a cow by Zeus to hide her from his wife, spent years wandering the earth to avoid both Zeuss advances and Heras punishment. Aegyptus had fifty sons, and when he commanded that his twins fifty daughters be married to his sons, Danaus declined. As we read the Odyssey by Homer we have learned that gods and goddess were an important part of the lives of the people in ancient Greek. What folly, said she, is this! As the wife of Zeus, Hera was considered the queen of Mount Olympus. In his mortal life, Heras attacks on Heracles had been relentless. Omissions? Some nymphs in Greek mythology were famous, but others were only known in a certain time Charybdis: The Deadly Whirpool of Greek Mythology, Nymphs: The Many Nature Spirits of Ancient Greece, Hecate Greek Goddess of Witchcraft : The Complete Guide. Hera eventually came to terms with the situation, accepted things as they were, and let Leto and her children be. You might expect the king of the gods and his queen to be the epitome of a happy, or at least amicable, couple. Her feelings were probably exacerbated by the fact that Zeus seemed to prefer these human children over her own son, Ares. Those archetypes would be: ruler, creator, and rebel. He is also the God of Law, Order, Justice, Power, Human Fate and the Human Race. This location is either the same Mount Olympus that physically exists in Greece today or it was an acropolis in the sky, according to Greek Legends and Myths.The Greek gods made Mount Olympus their home during the Titanomachy, which was a war between the Titans an older group of Greek gods and Zeus and the 12 Olympian gods. 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. When Zeus looked down from the heavens and saw the dark of night dispelled by the flicker of fires, he grew livid. While Zeus had dozens, if not hundreds, of children, Hera was always faithful. Ixions first major trespass that offended the gods was against his father-in-law. Hera was the queen of Olympus, wife of Zeus, and deity associated with family, women, and children. In Greek legend, Tantalus was a king of Sypilus in Lydia, in western Anatolia. Prometheus however defied Zeus by stealing fire from Mount Olympus and smuggling it down to earth to share with mankind and help them survive lifes struggles. There was a degree of idealism in how the couple was shown, however. That set a precedent that allowed humans henceforth to sacrifice animals to the god by burning their bones and fat, but keeping the meat for themselves. Zeus' Wife Punished His Mistress by Driving Her Mad, Forced to Wander the Earth in Torment. That was when Sisyphus discovered he had been too clever by half, and too smart for his own good. Zeus: God of the Skies. However, when Ixion was introduced to Zeus wife, Hera, he fell passionately in love and lusted after her. Although the affair and pregnancy had occurred before Heras marriage to Zeus, the Queen of Heaven was still jealous of Leto, and set out to turn her life into a living hell. 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. Even though she was the goddess of marriage, her own marriage was far from perfect. In the second century, AD, the geographer Pausanias reported seeing a sepulcher of Tantalus, and visiting a port bearing his name. Zeus Horkios: Zeus he was the keeper of oaths. Ixion was the king of the Lapiths in Greek mythology, the son of Ares and Perimele. However, she committed the sin of hubris a mixture of extreme pride, dangerous overconfidence, and overweening arrogance. Although Hera was married to Zeus, his serial interest in women led him far from her bed. Leto was thus forced to keep wandering the earth, without a chance to settle down anywhere to give birth. See answer (1) Best Answer. In the Iliad, Hera conspired to make Zeus sleep so the gods could be free of his command to stay out of the battles of men. To all this let me add, I have seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Roman name: Jupiter. Making it worse for those who gave in to Zeus, or were raped by him, was having to deal with his insanely jealous wife, Hera, and her crazy punishments not of her philandering husband, but of his victims. Zeus took many other forms to seduce women and nymphs. Ixion, in Greek mythology, was a son of the war god Ares and a mortal woman. Lycurgus of Thrace was a mythical king of the Edoni people in southern Thrace, and he had a beef with Dionysius, the Greek god of grape and wine. Hera tried to kill him as an infant, but when Heracles survived and grew into a strong young man she redoubled her efforts. I didn't mentioned the worst part about Zeus' constant seduction and/or sexual assault of every pretty girl in Greece his wife Hera would inevitably torture the the women, too. According to Hesiod, why does Zeus get mad at Prometheus? Remains of the Temple of Zeus in Athens by TravelCoffeeBook. Zeus, to punish him, bound him on a fiery wheel, which rolled unceasingly through the air or, according to the more common tradition, in the underworld. Ixion, in Greek legend, son either of the god Ares or of Phlegyas, king of the Lapiths in Thessaly. Hera had to cope with Zeus' numerous affairs, which turned her into an angry, jealous, and vengeful goddess. He first married the Titaness Metis, but turned her into a fly and swallowed her when he learned that her son would eventually overthrow him. As to Prometheus, Zeus punished him by having him taken to the Caucasus Mountains, where he was chained to a rock. She is most associated as the goddess of women, marriage, and childbirth. I am the owner and chief researcher at this site. No human could survive such an event, and Semele was burned alive. As if her punishment was not already horrible enough, Zeus piled on and capped it off by turning Niobe into a pillar of stone, in which state she would continue to weep throughout eternity for her loss. Late in their history, the Greeks adapted their mythology to include a more loving and faithful couple in the household of their king. Corrections? He often used a thunderbolt to defeat his enemies, making the thunderbolt or lightning bolt the weapon he most often used. 1 / 70. Only hope was left inside the box, to keep life bearable despite its sufferings. Not to be outdone, Artemis strung her bow, and slew all seven of Niobes daughters. Io was a priestess of the Goddess Hera in Argos, whose cult her father Inachus was supposed to have introduced to Argos.