Editing Hera (section)

=== Near-Eastern origin===
In [[Crete]] the bull was associated with religious practices. In the legend of the [[Minotaur]] the Queen of [[Knossos]] is hidden inside an artificial hollow cow and she is mating with a bull-form god in a sacred ceremony. The [[hieros gamos]] indicates a ritual of fertility magic, which was probably introduced from [[Near East]] in the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] region.<ref  name=Schach>Schachermeyer(1964) ,"Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta", p. 308-310</ref> The "hieros gamos" of Zeus with the earth goddess (finally named Hera) was celebrated at  [[Knossos]] in [[Crete]].<ref name=Elder/><ref name=Schach/>  In [[Near East]] the solar-deity and the moon-goddess are often represented as a bull and a cow <ref name=Schach/> and [[Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher|Roscher]] proposed that Hera was a moon-goddess.<ref>Roscher (1875), "Studien z.vergleichend Mythologie der Griechen und Romer II, Juno und Hera". p 40,387: Nilsson, ""Geschichte", Vol. I, p.432</ref> The combination feminine divinity-cow-moon is not unusual in [[Crete]] and [[Near East]].<ref name=Schach/> The relationship of Hera with the cow still existed in the historical times and this probably relates her to Near-Eastern forms of cow-goddesses like [[Hathor]] (or [[Bat (goddess)|Bat]]).<ref name=Dietrich178/> The Egyptian sky-goddess Hathor is the consort of the sky-god [[Horus]].