Hera Teleia

> *"How dare you shameless bitch come up and face me. Better for you to hunt down the ravening beast rather than to match your strength against mine. But if you would want to know what fighting is, then, come on, you will see how strong I am when you try to match your strength against mine!"*
>
>

## Hera Teleia

### Titles

* Ἀλέξανδρος (Alexandros) 'Protector of Men'
* Αἰγοφάγος (Aigophágos) 'Goat-Eater'
* Ἀκραῖα (Akráia) '(She) of the Heights'
* Ἀμμωνία (Ammonia)
* Ἄνθεια (Antheia), meaning flowery
* Ἀργεία (Argéia) '(She) of Argos'
* Βασίλεια (Basíleia) 'Queen'
* Βουναία (Bounáia) '(She) of the Mound'
* Βοῶπις (Boṓpis) 'Cow-Eyed' or 'Cow-Faced'
* Λευκώλενος (Leukṓlenos) 'White-Armed'
* Παῖς (Pais) 'Child' (in her role as virgin)
* Παρθένος (Parthénos) 'Virgin'
* Τελεία (Teléia) (as goddess of marriage)
* Χήρη (Chḗrē) 'Widowed'
* Τελχινία (Telchinia)
* Ζυγία (Zygia), as the presider over marriage

## Professional Status

### Crimes

* Murder
* Cruel-and-unusual punishments
* Negligence
* Treason
* Destruction of property
* Identity theft
* Entrapment
* Harassment
* Animal cruelty
* Bestiality
* Abuse of power
* Psychological abuse
* Incest

**Hera Teleia** is the Goddess of marriage, women, marital harmony, and the protector of women during childbirth.

## Personality

One of Hera's defining characteristics is her jealous and vengeful nature in dealing with any who offend her, especially Zeus' numerous adulterous lovers and illegitimate offspring. She also is a pathological liar who stands prejudiced, narcissistic, egocentric, haughty, dishonest, hypocritical, corrupt, arrogant, depraved, treacherous, malevolent, sadistic, abusive, deceitful, selfish and tyrannical. She is shown to be highly adept at cheating and manipulating people, and is not above insulting or making them as miserable as possible.

In spite of visibly supporting (or pretending to support) people, she is ultimately out for herself alone and stands ready to betray anyone, even her own blood relatives, for her vain, foolhardy personal desires.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Monster Conjuration**: Hera could summon any living monster and, thanks to Echidna, had their complete loyalty.
* **Menstruation Manipulation**: Hera could grant women easy or hard periods depending on the woman (women who suffered more painful periods were said to be being punished by Hera for doing something unladylike, such as prostitution.)
* **Child Birth**: No child could be born without Hera or one of her nymph handmaidens present during the labor.
* **Luck Manipulation**: Hera's duties to mankind were subtler than her siblings, people blessed by Hera were said to just seem to be lucky. However this meant that when angered, Hera levied curses of misfortune upon those that offended her.
* **Shape shifting**: Like Zeus, Hera assumed many forms to interact with the mortal world in secret, though usually it was to spy on Zeus or eavesdrop on followers she suspected of disloyalty.
* **Transmutation**: Hera had the power to change mortals into a variety of animals, objects or monsters. One of Hera's fall-back punishment methods once catching a mortal outright insulting or undermining her was to transform them into something non-human, such as live-stock, a monster or even stone.
* **Mind Control**: Hera could seize control of a mortal's mind for brief periods, or simply drive them permanently mad. Hera's favored power is a combination of illusion, hypnotism and mind control.

## Background

Hera is the daughter of the youngest Titan Cronus and his wife, and sister, Rhea. Cronus was fated to be overthrown by one of his children; to prevent this, he swallowed all of his newborn children whole until Rhea tricked him into swallowing a stone instead of her youngest child, Zeus. Zeus grew up in secret and when he grew up he tricked his father into regurgitating his siblings, including Hera. Zeus then led the revolt against the Titans, banished them, and divided the dominion over the world with his brothers Poseidon and Hades.

### Seduction by Zeus

Hera had been approached many times by Zeus, wishing to bed her but Hera refused each advance. On Hera's part, this was because, as goddess of marriage, she had high standards and wanted to remain a virgin goddess as a paragon of woman-hood, or it was simply because she was the sister of Zeus. However Zeus believed Hera was just playing hard to get and was quite smitten with her. One night, Hera found a small bird caught in a great storm and took the weak creature in to nurse it back to health until the storm passed and fell asleep warming it in her breast. When Hera awoke, she found Zeus next to her; he had taken the form of the bird and reverted to his true form in the night while Hera slept, having his way with her. Hera was horrified, but the joke was on the sly god, for as goddess of marriage, Hera refused to be defiled by anyone who was not her husband and the only way to stop the height of anger and wrath from Hera was for Zeus to marry her. Though the two had a less than romantic start, Hera and Zeus were said to be quite in love. After the wedding, Zeus and Hera are said to have gone on a one-hundred year honeymoon filled with romance and sex the likes of which no mortal man or woman could comprehend. After they returned, they remained happily married for a time but Zeus's attention wandered considerably. The more Zeus became a slave to his libido, the more Hera became a slave to her vengeance.

### Hera and Argos

One of Zeus's most notorious affairs was with Io, a mortal woman. Unlike most other affairs, Zeus developed actual feelings for Io and was considering leaving Hera for her. Hera found out about the affair and proceeded to catch Zeus in the act. When Zeus heard Hera arriving, he turned Io into a cow in the heat of the moment to cover up the affair. When Hera arrived, she saw Zeus simply standing next to a cow, but was perceptive enough to piece together what Zeus had done. Hera inquired about what Zeus was doing with the cow and in an effort to deflect Hera's aggression, Zeus said he was just selecting a gift/pet for her (Cows were an acceptable sacrifice in ancient Greece as a symbol associated with woman-hood and birth). Hera slyly accepted the gift and decided to take Io from Zeus, where she would keep the cow under lock and key and perhaps later eat it. Zeus began to object but when Hera coyly inquired why, Zeus saw he was trapped and had to let her take Io.

Hera put Io in her garden and ordered her servant Argos to guard her. Argos was a giant with one-hundred eyes all over his body, each set of which slept separately, so not only was Argos always awake, but always refreshed and vigilant as if he had just woken up from a nap; best of all Argos was completely devoted to Hera and her loyalist minion so he could not be bribed or charmed. Hera told Argos to watch the cow and see to it no one took it, man or god, until she tired of it enough to eat it. Zeus knew Hera knew who the cow was and knew she was just keeping her alive until he confessed and Hera would surely eat her out of spite eventually if Zeus held out too long. Zeus sent his son Hermes, messenger of the gods and god of dreams, to rescue Io. Hermes was both cunning and talented and approached Argos as a friendly bard. Ignoring the cow, Hermes treated Argos to some music, but his mystical notes lulled all of Argos's eyes to sleep, at which point Hermes killed Argos in his sleep and stole back Io. Zeus turned Io back but the poor woman was too upset to continue being with Zeus and ran away all the way to Aram. Hera found Argos dead and saw Io was gone. Rather than rush to bust Zeus, Hera was overcome with grief for her loyal servant. To honor his memory, Hera placed Argos's eyes on the tails of her favorite animal, the peacock, and it is said that the patterns on the goddess's pets were ever watching eyes linked to Hera.

### Echidna

Zeus was made king of the Gods when he had defeated Cronus, his father, and freed his siblings, Hera included. Zeus was protected by Gaia, his grandmother, while he grew up and told of his grandfather Uranus, as Uranus had imprisoned Gaia's monstrous children for not being beautiful enough to walk upon her. Gaia gave her son Cronus a magic scythe that would wound even Uranus and told him to use it to force his father to free his monstrous brothers and sisters, but Cronus instead used the scythe to castrate Uranus and banish him, leaving Cronus his powers and throne as king of the titans; still, Cronus kept his sibling imprisoned in Tartarus, feeling the creatures were far too ugly to be seen with him and his more beautiful siblings. Gaia looked after Zeus as he grew but made him promise that when he came of age to take on his father he would free his monstrous uncles and aunts imprisoned in Tartarus. Sure enough, Zeus kept his word and freed the more ugly titans to side with him in overthrowing Cronus and the other titans. But Zeus imprisoned the titans in Tartarus in their place as they were far too powerful and would surely seek vengeance if left free. It was this act that inspired Gaia's wrath yet again and lead to the creation of Echidna and Typhon, the world's first monsters.

Typhon was a giant one-hundred headed dragon with claws, wings and fiery breath coming from each mouth. Echidna was a giant snake nymph with many breasts, multiple tentacle-like arms and venomous breath. Gaia birthed and raised them to take revenge on the Gods for freeing half her children only to imprison the other half. Typhon and Echidna grew and eventually were sent to destroy their way to Ascim but Echidna was pregnant with Typhon's brood and half-way there, Echidna had to turn back and find a cave to hide in as she went into labor. Typhon fought the gods but was eventually defeated by Zeus, who threw a mountain on top of him, a mountain that would come to be known as Mt. Etna, a volcano whose flames and smoke were said to be Typhon's wrath from deep below. When Zeus tracked down Echidna, he saw her with her brood of monsters, but Echidna had just given birth and was in no condition to fight. As Zeus was about to coup-de-grâce Echidna, Hera held Zeus back and forbade him to strike, for though Typhon and Echidna would surely have set out to destroy her too, Echidna had not fought and more importantly was a new mother and for whatever else, Hera was still guardian of pregnancy and could not permit a new mother to be killed with her children in her arms. Zeus spared Echidna for Hera and let the monsters grow, hoping that one day perhaps they would prove suitable challenges for mortal heroes to overcome and prove their worth. Echidna was overcome with relief and became good friends with Hera and her most loyal non-human worshiper. In gratitude for Hera's noble deed, Echidna gave Hera her first born son, Cerberus as a pet. Hera was disgusted with the three headed wolf-hound, but not wanting to offend her new ally, simply passed it along to her brother Hades rather than give Cerberus back or kill him. Echidna became the mother of all monsters, she pledged all her children to Hera and through her Hera, gained the service of just about all the world's monsters.

### Leto and the Twins: Apollon and Artemis

When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she convinced the nature spirits to prevent Leto from giving birth on terra-firma, the mainland, any island at sea, or any place under the sun. Poseidon gave pity to Leto and guided her to the floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island where Leto was able to give birth to her children. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. The island later became sacred to Apollon.

Artemis was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollon. Artemis was born one day before Apollon, on the island of Ortygia and she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollon.

Later, Tityos attempted to rape Leto at the behest of Hera. He was slain by Artemis and Apollon.

### Judgment of Paris

A prophecy stated that a son of the sea-nymph Thetis, with whom Zeus fell in love after gazing upon her in the oceans off the coast, would become greater than his father. Possibly for this reason, Thetis was betrothed to an elderly human king, Peleus son of Aeacus, either upon Zeus' orders, or because she wished to please Hera, who had raised her. All the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles) and brought many gifts. Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited and was stopped at the door by Hermes, on Zeus' order. She was annoyed at this, so she threw from the door a gift of her own: a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "To the fairest"). Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.

The goddesses quarreled bitterly over it, and none of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the enmity of the other two. They chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Trojan prince. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, they appeared before Paris to have him choose. The goddesses undressed before him, either at his request or for the sake of winning. Still, Paris could not decide, as all three were ideally beautiful, so they resorted to bribes. Hera offered Paris political power and control of all of the North, while Athena offered wisdom, fame, and glory in battle, and Aphrodite offered the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as a wife, and he accordingly chose her. This woman was Helen, who was, unfortunately for Paris, already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. The other two goddesses were enraged by this and through Helen's abduction by Paris, they brought about the Trojan War.

### Semele and Dionysus

When Hera learned that Semele, daughter of Cadmus King of Thebes, was pregnant by Zeus, she disguised herself as Semele's nurse and persuaded the princess to insist that Zeus show himself to her in his true form using Apate's girdle. When he was compelled to do so, having sworn by Styx, his thunder and lightning destroyed Semele. Zeus took Semele's unborn child, Dionysus, and completed its gestation sewn into his own thigh.

### Lamia

Lamia was a lovely queen of Libya, whom Zeus loved and slept with. Hera, in jealousy, caused Lamia to kill her own children; out of grief for her actions, Lamia was turned into a misshapen creature that would therefore snatch and murder other people's children.

### Gerana

Gerana was a queen of the Pygmies who boasted she was more beautiful than Hera. The wrathful goddess turned her into a crane and proclaimed that her bird descendants should wage eternal war on the Pygmy folk.

### Cydippe

Cydippe, a priestess of Hera, was on her way to a festival in the goddess' honor. The oxen which were to pull her cart were overdue and her sons, Biton and Cleobis, pulled the cart the entire way (45 stadia, 8 kilometers). Cydippe was impressed with their devotion to her and Hera, and so asked Hera to give her children the best gift a god could give a person. Hera ordained that the brothers would die in their sleep.

This honor bestowed upon the children was later used by Solon as proof when trying to convince Croesus that it is impossible to judge a person's happiness until they have died a fruitful death after a joyous life.

### Ixion

When Zeus had pity on Ixion and brought him to Ascim and introduced him to the gods, instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful for Hera. Zeus found out about his intentions and made a cloud in the shape of Hera, who was later named Nephele, and tricked Ixion into coupling with it. From their union came Centaurus. So Ixion was expelled from Ascim and Zeus ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning. Therefore, Ixion was bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, first spinning across the heavens, but later transferred to Tartarus.

## Relationships

### Romances:

#### Zeus (Brother/Husband)

Hera and Zeus lead a complicated relationship; after their first few hundred years of marriage, their relationship was constantly under-strain. Zeus was incapable of a monogamous relationship, yet both Hera's conservative values for marriage and her pride as a representative of it demanded that Zeus love her and only her.

### Siblings:

#### Demeter (Sister)

Hera's sister, Demeter, had her daughter, Persephone, by Zeus, however there is no indication that Hera had any feuds with Demeter over this, either Hera did not know or she was willing to forgive her sister for a one-night-stand.

#### Hestia (Sister)

Like all gods and goddesses, Hera was extremely fond of her sister Hestia, who, in-fact, did manage to remain an eternal virgin and freely did all house-work for Hera and the other gods.

#### Poseidon (Brother)

Poseidon has a rivalry with Zeus, much the same as Hera, and he was one of the first gods to support her in her attempt to usurp her husband.

### Children and Step-children:

#### Athena Pallas (Step-daughter/Niece)

Athena was Zeus' daughter via his first wife, Metis, whom Zeus had divorced to marry Hera. As Metis freely allowed Zeus to divorce her for a woman he loved more, she stayed on as his advisor for years and when Athena was claimed by Zeus, she proved the paragon of Greek values and did him proud; because of this, Hera had a strong resentment towards Athena, partially because it was an unpleasant reminder about Metis that, in-fact, Hera was originally the so called 'other-woman' and partially because Athena earned more praise than her own children. Hera encouraged her own son, Ares, to out-stage Athena as god of war, but Ares became so addicted to blood-lust he was far more of a brute than a tactician like Athena - further embarrassing Hera.

#### Hephaestus (Son)

Hera's son Hephaestus was born deformed. In disgust after looking at him the first time, Hera threw him down to earth. He spent years teaching himself how to craft beautiful jewelry to present to his mother to endear himself to her. Once Hephaestus was convinced he had achieved perfection, he gave Hera her jewels, hoping that their beauty might distract her from his ugliness. Hera was flattered by the bribe for her love and welcomed Hephaestus back to Ascim, where he became employed as the blacksmith of the gods.

#### Hebe (Daughter)

Hera's daughter Hebe was her only daughter with Zeus and Hera treasured her as a delicate doll. Hebe is often painted as being fawned over by Hera, who combs her hair, applies her make-up and corrects the posture as a doting mother.

### Others:

#### Aphrodite

Hera was largely neutral to Aphrodite, however, as goddess of beauty and a prominent debutante, Aphrodite and Hera's egos would occasionally clash, such as the time both insisted they were the fairest goddess on Ascim. The feud between Hera, Aphrodite and later Athena would initiate a contest for beauty that would result in the Trojan War.

## Trivia

* The name of Hera has several possible and mutually exclusive etymologies; one possibility is to connect it with Greek ὥρα *hōra*, season, and to interpret it as ripe for marriage and according to Plato ἐρατή *eratē*, "beloved" as Zeus is said to have married her for love. According to Plutarch, Hera was an allegorical name and an anagram of *aēr* (ἀήρ, "air"). So begins the section on Hera in Walter Burkert's *Greek Religion*. In a note, he records other scholars' arguments "for the meaning Mistress as a feminine to *Heros*, Master." John Chadwick, a decipherer of Linear B, remarks "her name may be connected with *hērōs*, ἥρως, 'hero', but that is no help since it too is etymologically obscure." A. J. van Windekens, offers "young cow, heifer", which is consonant with Hera's common epithet βοῶπις (*boōpis*, "cow-eyed"). R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. Her name is attested in Mycenaean Greek written in the Linear B syllabic script as 𐀁𐀨 *e-ra*, appearing on tablets found in Pylos and Thebes, as well in the Cypriotic dialect in the dative *e-ra-i*.
* Hera's clergy were strong advocates against pedophilia, unless the minor in question was a spouse of the adult.

## Quotes

* *"You have done your work. Now go back to the underworld. What happens next is my concern."*
* *"Are you still angry at me? If I ask you for a favour, would you refuse it? Are you forever mad at me for defending the Danaans, while you help the Trojans?"*