Editing Hera (section)

===Marriage with Zeus===
[[File:Over life-size statue of Hera, from the Gymnasium of Salamis, 2nd century AD, Cyprus Museum, Nicosia, Cyprus (22497777355).jpg|thumb|right|Marble statue of Hera, 2nd century, [[Cyprus Museum]], [[Nicosia]].]]

Hera is the goddess of marriage and childbirth rather than motherhood, and much of her mythology revolves around her marriage with her brother Zeus. She is charmed by him and she seduces him; he cheats on her and has many children with other goddesses and mortal women; she is intensely jealous and vindictive towards his children and their mothers; he is threatening and violent to her.<ref name=Burkert129/>

In the ''[[Iliad]]'', Zeus implies their marriage was some sort of elopement, as they lay secretly from their parents.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D14%3Acard%3D270 14.295&ndash;299].</ref> [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] records a tale of how they came to be married in which Zeus transformed into a [[cuckoo]] to woo Hera. She caught the bird and kept it as her pet; this is why the cuckoo is seated on her sceptre.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.17.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 2.17.4].</ref> According to a scholion on [[Theocritus]]' ''Idylls'', when Hera was heading toward Mount Thornax alone, Zeus created a terrible storm and transformed himself into a cuckoo who flew down and sat on her lap. Hera covered him with her cloak. Zeus then transformed back and took hold of her; because she was refusing to sleep with him due to their [[Rhea (mythology)|mother]], he promised to marry her.<ref>[[Scholia]] on [[Theocritus]]' ''Idylls'' [https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2021/08/21/explaining-the-cuckoo-women-know-everything-4/ 15.64].</ref>

In one account Hera refused to marry Zeus and hid in a cave to avoid him; an earthborn man named Achilles convinced her to give him a chance, and thus the two had their first sexual intercourse.<ref>[[Ptolemaeus Chennus]], ''New History'' Book 6, as epitomized by [[Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople|Patriarch Photius]] in his ''[[Bibliotheca (Photius)|Myriobiblon]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/237#190.47 190.47]</ref> According to a version attributed to [[Plutarch]], Hera had been reared by a nymph named [[Macris]] on the island of [[Euboea]], but Zeus stole her away, where Mt. [[Cithaeron]] "afforded them a shady recess." When Macris came to look for her ward, the mountain-god Cithaeron drove her away, saying that Zeus was taking his pleasure there with Leto.<ref>[[Eusebius]], ''[[Praeparatio evangelica]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=yNRKAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA92 3.1.84a-b]; Hard, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA137 137].</ref>
[[File:Zeus Hera Iris Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2304.jpg|thumb|left|240px|God council in Olympus: Zeus and Hera throning, [[Iris (mythology)|Iris]] serving them. Detail of the side A of an Attic red-figure belly-amphora, ca. 500 BC.[[Staatliche Antikensammlungen]], Munich]]

According to [[Callimachus]], their wedding feast lasted three hundred years.<ref>[[Callimachus]], ''[[Aetia (Callimachus)|Aetia]]'' fragment [https://dcc.dickinson.edu/callimachus-aetia/untitled-48 48]</ref> All the gods and mortals were invited, but a [[nymph]] named [[Chelone (Greek mythology)|Chelone]] was disrespectful or refused to attend, so Zeus thus turned her into a [[tortoise]]. The Apples of the [[Hesperides]] that [[Heracles]] was tasked by [[Eurystheus]] to take were a wedding gift by [[Gaia]] to the couple.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''Library'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D11 2.5.11].</ref> 

After a quarrel with Zeus, Hera left him and retreated to Euboea, and no word from Zeus managed to sway her mind. Cithaeron, the local king, then advised Zeus to take a wooden statue of a woman, wrap it up, and pretend to marry it. Zeus did as told, claiming "she" was Plataea, [[Asopus]]'s daughter. Hera, once she heard the news, disrupted the wedding ceremony and tore away the dress from the figure only to discover it was but a lifeless statue, and not a rival in love. The queen and her king were reconciled, and to commemorate this the people there celebrated a festival called [[Daedala]].<ref name=Pausanias927/> During the festival, a re-enactment of the myth was celebrated, where a wooden statue of Hera was chosen, bathed in the river Asopus and then raised on a chariot to lead the procession like a bride, and then ritually burned.{{sfn|Murray|1842|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=RNVPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA313 313]}}

According to [[Diodorus Siculus]], [[Alcmene]], the mother of Heracles, was the very last mortal woman Zeus ever slept with; following the birth of Heracles, he ceased to beget humans altogether.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], ''[[Bibliotheca historica|Library of History]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html#p391 4.14.4].</ref>