Editing Hera (section)

==Emblems==
[[Image:James Barry 001.jpg|thumb|''Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida'' by [[James Barry (painter)|James Barry]], 1773 (City Art Galleries, Sheffield)]]
In Hellenistic imagery, Hera's chariot was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]. Alexander's tutor, [[Aristotle]], refers to it as "the Persian bird." The peacock motif was revived in the [[Renaissance]] iconography that unified Hera and Juno.<ref>Seznec, Jean, ''The Survival of the Pagan Gods: Mythological Tradition in Renaissance Humanism and Art,'' 1953</ref> A bird that had been associated with Hera on an archaic level, when most of the Aegean goddesses were associated with "their" bird, was the [[cuckoo]], which appears in mythic fragments concerning the first wooing of a virginal Hera by Zeus.

Her archaic association was primarily with cattle, as a Cow Goddess, who was especially venerated in "cattle-rich" [[Euboea]]. On [[Cyprus]], very early archaeological sites contain bull skulls that have been adapted for use as masks (see [[Bull (mythology)]]). Her familiar [[epithets in Homer|Homeric epithet]] ''Boôpis'', is always translated "cow-eyed". In this respect, Hera bears some resemblance to the [[Ancient Egyptian religion|Ancient Egyptian]] deity [[Hathor]], a maternal goddess associated with cattle. Hera absorbed the cult of her heifer-priestess [[Io (mythology)|Io]] and may be related to the [[Vedic period|Vedic]] earth-goddess [[Prithvi]].<ref name=West184/>

Scholar of Greek mythology [[Walter Burkert]] writes in ''Greek Religion'', "Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos." At Argos in a Greek myth the priestess of Hera  [[Io (mythology)|Phoronis]] ties her mistress to an aniconic pillar. At Samos Hera's plank was tied on a willow tree to ensure fertility.<ref name=Burkert131/>