Editing Hera (section)

=== Heracles ===
[[Image:Herakles strangling snakes Louvre G192.jpg|thumb|[[Heracles]] strangling the snakes sent by Hera, [[Attica|Attic]] red-figured [[stamnos]], ca. 480–470 BCE. From [[Vulci]], [[Etruria]].]]

Hera is the stepmother and enemy of [[Heracles]]. The name Heracles means "Glory of Hera". In Homer's ''Iliad'', when Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Zeus announced to all the gods that on that day a child by Zeus himself, would be born and rule all those around him. Hera, after requesting Zeus to swear an oath to that effect, descended from [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]] to [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] and made the wife of [[Sthenelus (son of Andromeda and Perseus)|Sthenelus]] (son of Perseus) give birth to [[Eurystheus]] after only seven months, while at the same time preventing Alcmene from delivering Heracles. This resulted in the fulfillment of Zeus's oath in that it was Eurystheus rather than Heracles.<ref name="Hom. Il. 19.95"/> In [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias']] recounting, Hera sent witches (as they were called by the Thebans) to hinder Alcmene's delivery of Heracles. The witches were successful in preventing the birth until [[Galanthis|Historis]], daughter of Tiresias, thought of a trick to deceive the witches. Like Galanthis, Historis announced that Alcmene had delivered her child; having been deceived, the witches went away, allowing Alcmene to give birth.<ref name="Paus. 9.11.3">[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.11.3 9.11.3]</ref>

Hera's wrath against Zeus's son continued and while Heracles was still an infant, Hera sent two [[Serpent (symbolism)|serpents]] to kill him as he lay in his cot. Heracles throttled the snakes with his bare hands and was found by his nurse playing with their limp bodies as if they were a child's toys.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZATs1x4BnsC&q=Galanthis+greek+mythology|title=Gods, Demigods and Demons: An Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology|last=Evslin|first=Bernard|date=2012-10-30|publisher=Open Road Media|isbn=978-1-4532-6438-6|language=en}}</ref>

According to an earlier source, however, Hera had nothing to do with the snakes in Heracles’ crib. [[Pherecydes of Syros|Pherecydes]] said that “it was Amphitryon who put the serpents in the bed, because [then] he would know which of the two children was his, and that when Iphicles fled, and Heracles stood his ground, he knew that Iphicles was begotten of his body.”<ref>{{Cite web |title=APOLLODORUS, THE LIBRARY 2.4.8 - Theoi Classical Texts Library |url=https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus2.html |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=www.theoi.com}}</ref>

[[File:Jacopo Tintoretto - The Origin of the Milky Way - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Origin of the Milky Way]]'' by [[Jacopo Tintoretto]], 1575]]
One account of the origin of the [[Milky Way]] is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she pulled him from her breast and a spurt of [[Milk of Hera|her milk]] formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=867195|title=The Origin of the Milky Way in the National Gallery|last1=Mandowsky|first1=Erna|journal=The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs|year=1938|volume=72|issue=419|pages=88–93}}</ref> Her milk also created a white flower, the lily.<ref>{{cite book | pages = [https://archive.org/details/Geoponica02/page/n111/mode/2up?view=theater 81-82] | author = Anonymous | title = Geoponika: Agricultural Pursuits | volume = II | translator = Thomas Owen | date = 1806 | location = [[London]]}}</ref> Unlike any Greeks, the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]]s instead pictured a full-grown bearded Heracles at Hera's breast, a reference to his adoption by her when he became an Immortal: he had previously wounded her severely in the breast.

When Heracles reached adulthood, Hera [[Insanity|drove him mad]], which led him to murder his family and this later led to him undertaking his famous labours (Alternatively, according to [[Euripides]]’ [[Herakles (Euripides)|''Herakles'']], this happened after his labors had been completed). Hera assigned Heracles to labour for King [[Eurystheus]] at Mycenae. She attempted to make almost all of Heracles's twelve labours more difficult. When he fought the [[Lernaean Hydra]], she sent a [[Karkinos|crab]] to bite at his feet in the hopes of distracting him. Later Hera stirred up the [[Amazons]] against him when he was on one of his quests, claiming that he kidnapped their queen, [[Hippolyte]]. When Heracles took the cattle of [[Geryon]], he shot Hera in the right breast with a triple-barbed arrow: the wound was incurable and left her in constant pain, as [[Dione (mythology)|Dione]] tells [[Aphrodite]] in the ''[[Iliad]]'', Book V. Afterwards, Hera sent a [[gadfly (mythology)|gadfly]] to bite the cattle, irritate them and scatter them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the water level of a river so much that Heracles could not ford the river with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. When he finally reached the court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera. 

That was not the only time Heracles had violently attacked Hera, either. After murdering [[Iphitus (son of Eurytus)|Iphitus]] of [[Oechalia]] in cold blood and seeking purification for the crime from [[Neleus]], king of [[Pylos]], Neleus and his fourteen children turned him away. After being purified elsewhere, “Heracles then marched against Neleus and not only sacked Pylos, ''but even wounded Hera, who was fighting as Neleus’ ally''. As for Neleus himself, Heracles killed him and his children, except for the youngest, Nestor.”<ref>[https://topostext.org/work/866 D Scholium on Homer’s Iliad, 5.392]</ref>

Eurystheus also wanted to sacrifice the [[Cretan Bull]] to Hera. She refused the sacrifice because it reflected glory on Heracles. The bull was released and wandered to Marathon, becoming known as the [[Marathonian Bull]].

Some myths state that in the end, Heracles befriended Hera by saving her from [[Porphyrion]], a giant who tried to rape her during the [[Gigantomachy]], and that she even gave her daughter [[Hebe (mythology)|Hebe]] as his bride. Whatever myth-making served to account for an archaic representation of Heracles as "Hera's man", it was thought [[Decorum|suitable]] for the builders of the Heraion at [[Paestum]] to depict the exploits of Heracles in [[bas-relief]].<ref>Kerenyi, p 131</ref>