He wears an
oval cap and the chiton leaving the right arm and shoulder bare. His
symbol is the hammer and sometimes he is given the tongs.
Hera
(Juno). The "only really married goddess among the Olympians" and
one of the few divinities who are purely Greek. Unlike the other great
nature goddesses Hera was not the "Queen of gods and men"
but the wife of the Supreme god Zeus and equally reverenced by the other
gods. Zeus listens to her counsels and she feels free to censure him when
occa- sion offers. Nevertheless, she is his inferior in power and obliged
to obey him. She is represented as obstinate, jealous, quarrelsome and
quite ready to resort to cunning and intrigue to compass her ends. Hera
personifies the atmosphere, she is "Queen of the Air,"
the great goddess of nature and is identified with the Roman Juno. Her
most celebrated temple was at Mt. Emboea. A colossal sitting statue of
Hera of gold and ivory made for her sanctuary was the work of Polyc1etus.
She was often depicted wearing a crown adorned with the Charites and Horre
and holding in one hand a pomegranate and in the other a sceptre surmounted
by a cuckoo. She was frequently represented veiled. In the earliest form
of her worship the goddess was represented by a pillar or possibly the "ani'conic
image" that was associated with most of the great nature goddesses.
The peacock and cuckoo were sacred to her.
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