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| Hera Seated Statue 8.5 |
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| 8.5 inches tall |
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Daughter of Chronos and wife of the King of the Gods Zeus, Hera is the Goddess of Royalty and Marriage. She was identified with Juno by the Romans, and the Greeks stressed her Queenliness and Noble Beauty in her epithets and representations. Rituals in her honor involved various types of Sacred Marriages, and indeed her own blessings were often sought after for a prosperous marriage by even the most common of people, as she guaranteed and protected the marriage bond. Iris, the image of the Rainbow and a messenger of the Gods, became Hera's servant in later classical times.
It is interesting to note that Hera has a triple aspect, and was called Pais (child), Teleia (wife) and Chera (widow) simultaneously. Also interesting is the fact that motherhood, a definite part of her myth, was little stressed in her cult. She is the mother of Ares (Mars), Hebe and Eileithyia (Goddess of Childbirth). Although she suckled Heracles, and his name may mean "Glory of Hera", their relationship was not close. She also nursed the Hydra, the Nemean Lion and was the sole parent of Typhon and Hephaestus.
Hera's earliest office seems to have been a Goddess of Lush Vegetation and Animals, especially herd animals of the plains. In this role of Goddess of Nature's Bounty she may in fact be connected to the lost and ancient Aegean Great Goddess, of which we know so little.
Image copied from a Greek Amphora, circa 700 BCE. Antique stone colored resin statue, 8.5 inches tall. |
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| STA012 |
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