Hera, in Greek mythology, a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and the sister and wife of Zeus. She corresponds to the Roman Juno. The name Hera means the "chosen one." She was the type of a faithful wife and mother, and was treated with reverence by the other gods, Zeus himself respecting her counsels, although she must obey him unquestioningly. She was jealous, but with excellent reason, for her husband was often faithless. The disposition ascribed to Hera by Greek writers is much that of a modern termagant. When she became too obstinate and quarrelsome Zeus punished her. Once he hung her up in the clouds with her hands bound and anvils tied to her feet. Later writers give Hera the character of queen of heaven, second in power to Zeus only. Hera aided the Greeks in the Trojan war, because Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, gave the golden apple inscribed "for the fairest," not to her, but to her beautiful rival Aphrodite. In art, Hera is represented as a majestic woman, wearing a diadem and clad in flowing drapery. In her right hand she holds a sceptre. The Graces and the Hours were her handmaids, and Iris, the rainbow, was her messenger.
