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Hera

The Queen of Olympus

Domain: Marriage & Family
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Element: Air
Relics of Power: Peacock Diadem

Speak with Hera

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Greeks

Region

Greece & the Mediterranean

Period

8th c. BC – 4th c. AD

The Olympian gods were worshipped by the city-states of ancient Greece, from Athens to Sparta, which raised them temples such as the Parthenon. Reigning atop Mount Olympus, they presided over every aspect of life and were celebrated in festivals like the Olympic Games. Homer and Hesiod fixed their myths, which shaped all of Western culture.

The Olympic Games were held every four years in honor of Zeus, and the Panathenaea celebrated Athena in Athens. The Eleusinian Mysteries initiated the faithful into the secrets of Demeter and Persephone, while crowds consulted Apollo's oracle at Delphi.

At a glance

Hera is the daughter of Cronus and Rhea, Zeus’s sister and wife in Hesiod’s genealogy, and a figure of authority in poetry, mythography, and local accounts. The Iliad shows her intervening in war and in Eurystheus’ succession; the Theogony treats her offspring; the Library attributed to Apollodorus tells of the attack on Heracles’ cradle; Ovid reworks the stories of Io and Semele; Pausanias describes the sanctuary at Argos. These versions do not form one uniform biography. Genre, period, and scope vary, and each claim should remain tied to its source. Scenes of conflict with Zeus do not exhaust Hera’s cult or civic presence, and one Argive statue does not define every representation of the goddess.

16 min read · Reviewed on September 25, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Peacock, diadem, scepter, cow and the pomegranate

Family

Parents

Cronus Rhea

Siblings

Hestia Demeter Hades Poseidon Zeus

Hera

Unions

Zeus

Children

Ares HephaestusHebeEileithyia

Genealogy according to Hesíodo, Teogonia 453–458 e 921–923

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Hesiod, Theogony. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb, 1914. read
Homer, Iliad. translation: A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1924. read
Pausanias, Description of Greece, books 2, 5, 7 and 8. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918–1935. read
Ovid, Metamorphoses, books 1 and 3. translation: Brookes More, 1922. read
Apollodorus, Library, books 1 and 2. translation: James George Frazer, Loeb, 1921. read

Studies

Walter Burkert, Greek Religion. Harvard University Press, 1985.
Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
Joan V. O'Brien, The Transformation of Hera: A Study of Ritual, Hero, and the Goddess in the Iliad. Rowman & Littlefield, 1993. open
Theoi Project, Hera. Aaron J. Atsma, 2000–2017. open

Name and epithets

The Greek name is Hērā (Ἥρα), adapted as Hera in English. Juno is the related Roman deity through processes of religious identification, but does not automatically replace Hera in every text.

In the ancient sources

Hesiod, Theogony, c. 700 BC. Genealogy from Cronus and Rhea, Hera as Zeus’s wife, the births of Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia, and that of Hephaestus without a love union. Homer, Iliad, 8th c. BC.

The myths

Hera and Zeus’s marriage and Olympian genealogy. Hesiod’s Theogony includes Hera among the children of Cronus and Rhea (453–458) and presents her as the wife Zeus took last (921).

Worship and archaeology

Pausanias, in book 2 of Description of Greece, documents the Argive Heraion from the perspective of a second-century CE traveler.

How the god was depicted

In Pausanias 2.17.4, Polyclitus’s statue at Argos is seated, made of gold and ivory, wears a crown with Graces and Seasons, and holds a sceptre and pomegranate.

What scholars debate

What can Pausanias’s description prove?. The traveler distinguishes sanctuary objects, local stories, and his own assessment.

After antiquity

Roman identification of Hera with Juno created religious equivalences, but Roman authors reworked stories in their own genres.

Did you know?

Pausanias says he will not explain the meaning of the pomegranate on Hera’s statue because he considers it a sacred mystery. He tells the cuckoo story but declares that he reports such tales without believing them.

Codex relic

Peacock Diadem. A golden crown set with iridescent plumes that perceives every betrayal committed beneath the heavens.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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