HERA
Real Name:
Here (Latin spelling)
Occupation:
Queen of Olympus, goddess of women, marriage and fidelity
Legal Status:
Citizen of Olympus
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of Hera's existence except as a mythological character.
Other Aliases:
Juno (Roman name), Uni (Etruscan name), Mari (Basque name), Beroe, Augustine
Jones, Juno Reason (mortal identities),
Place of Birth:
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives:
Cronus (father), Rhea (mother), Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Japet, Oceanus, Ophion,
(uncles), Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Themis, Dione,
Phoebe (aunts), Zeus
(brother/husband), Hades, Chiron (brothers), Demeter,
Hestia (sisters), Ares,
Hephaestus
(sons), Hercules,
Apollo, Hermes,
Dionysus (step-sons), Discord,
Eileithyia, Hebe (daughters), Artemis,
Athena, Aphrodite,
Helen,
Pandia, Persephone
(step-daughters), Cupid,
Deimos, Phobos (grandsons), Ouranus (grandfather), Gaea
(grandmother),
Group Affiliations: The Gods of Olympus
Base of Operations:
First Appearance: Thor I #129
History: Hera is the daughter of Cronus, god of earth, and his wife, Rhea. Cronus and Rhea were of a race of extra-dimensional beings known as the Titans, off-spring of the sky-god Ouranus and the primeval earth-goddess Gaea, who ruled most of Ancient Greece and were worshipped as gods by mortal man. (Ouranus and Cronus are not to be confused with the Eternals Uranos and Chronos, the latter of whom is also known as Kronos). Cronus overthrew his father's rule by fatally wounding him. The dying Ouranus prophesied that Cronus would likewise be overthrown by one of his own children. As a result, upon the birth of each of his children, Cronus had the child imprisoned in Tartarus, the most dismal section of the underworld known as Hades. The off-spring he sent there were Hestia, Hades, Poseidon, Hera and Demeter. (Later, legends erroneously claimed that Cronus had had actually swallowed his children and that they remained alive inside him until released by Zeus.)
Appalled at the treatment of her children, Rhea conspired with Gaea to overthrow Cronus. Gaea instructed Rhea to conceal her next pregnancy from Cronus. Rhea's youngest son, Zeus, freed Hera and her siblings from Tartarus and lead the Cyclopes, Hecatocheiroi and a few Titans not loyal to Cronus against his father in a ten-year war to claim Olympus. Still a relatively young goddess, Hera was sheltered by the Titaness Tethys while Cronus and his allies fought Zeus. Cronus was eventually defeated and Zeus claimed Olympus for himself.
Assuming his role as ruler of Olympus, Zeus courted Hera to be his next wife despite being married several times before. He soon managed to enchant her by stirring up a great thunderstorm and then taking the form of a distressed cuckoo weathered over by the storm. Hera took pity on the cuckoo and gave it shelter as Zeus revealed himself to her. At their wedding, Gaea gave Hera the Garden of the Hesperides as a gift.
As wife of Zeus, Hera became queen of Olympus, and gave birth to the gods Ares and Hephaestus among several daughters named Eileithyia, Discord and Hebe. Not wanting to be reminded of Zeus's other wives or having any other children to eclipse that of her sons, she exiled many of Zeus's other wives from Olympus. She drove Metis away to Libya where she was protected by Triton, son of Poseidon, and sent a great serpent called Python to pursue Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis. Dione, mother of Aphrodite found sanctuary among the Gods of Mesopotamia while Maia conceived Hermes in a cave. Impersonating Beroe, the nurse of Theban princess Semele, Hera tricked Semele into having Zeus reveal his godly powers to her, an act that resulted in her demise. Most of Hera's hatred was levied upon Hercules, Zeus's son by Alcmene, a princess of Thebes in the Thirteenth Century.
Despite her anger toward Hercules, Hera protected the Thessalian prince Jason who gathered the Argonauts in a quest for the Golden Fleece. When Hercules became a god, Hera tried to reconcile with him by offering her youngest daughter, Hebe, to him as a bride.
Indirectly responsible for the Trojan War, Hera competed against Athena and Aphrodite for a golden apple inscribed "To the Fairest" which was tossed by Discord at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. They decided to allow Zeus to resolve the matter of who best deserved the apple, but instead of getting involved, Zeus allowed the exiled Trojan prince Paris to make the decision. He granted the apple to Aphrodite for the love of Helen, a Spartan princess, another daughter of Zeus. Angered, Hera and Athena supported the Greeks against Troy and enlisted Poseidon's help to imprison Zeus when he forbade them from manipulating the course of the war. Freed by Briareus, one of the Hecatocheiroi, Zeus punished Hera for her insolence by hanging her from Olympus by her wrists for a time.
During the Roman Empire, Hera was worshipped under the name Juno. She tried to dissuade Zeus from allowing worship of the Olympian Gods to cease under an edict from the Third Host of the Celestials. Along with the queens of the other pantheons of earth, Hera looked for human beings that could pose as examples of the true potential of human beings. In 1919, she and Frigga, wife of Odin, chieftain of the Asgardian Gods, discovered Mark Cadmon living on the streets of Chicago, Illinois and saw his true untapped potential. They placed him among a group of other young s who became known as the Young Gods, and when the Fourth Host of the Celestials occurred, Gaea produced the Young Gods to the Celestials as what the human race could attain if allowed to exist. The Celestials accepted the Young Gods as prime examples of humanity and departed Earth taking the Young Gods with them.
In recent years, Hera has continued to make as much trouble for Hercules as possible. She sided with the Avengers when Zeus held them accountable for the injuries Hercules sustained by the Masters of Evil, but she later posed as a mortal woman named Augustine Jones and challenged her son Ares to a contest to see who could give Hercules the most sorrow. Zeus became aware of her sadistic game and once more confined her to Olympus.
After the seeming destruction of the Asgardian gods, Hera then
reached back into history to the days of Ancient Greece and restored to life
King Eurystheus of Mycenae, who had sent Hercules on his original legendary
Twelve Labors. Since the deaths of the Asgardians, Zeus had formed a mortal
conglomerate on Earth from behind the mortal identity of J. Peter Reason (from "Rhea's son") with
the other Olympians in the roles of stockholders. Hera bequeathed that Hercules
was becoming an embarrassment in the public eye so she formulated a new modern
Twelve Labors for Hercules to go through expecting him to further embarrass
himself with Eurystheus pulling the strings. Hercules, however, finished all the
new labors and returned Eurystheus to death. Hera meanwhile distanced herself
from these events and returned to Olympus on her own without any indication of
her involvement.
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 435 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown, sometimes
Strength Level: Hera possesses the normal strength of an Olympian goddess
of her size, height and build who engages in extensive regular exercises; she
can lift (press) around 25 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Hera possesses the conventional physical attributes
of the Olympian gods. Like all Olympians, she is immortal: she has not aged since
reaching hood and cannot die by any conventional means. She is immune to all
Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If she were somehow
wounded, her godly life force would enable her to recover with superhuman speed. It
would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of her
bodily molecules to cause her a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for
a god of significant power, such as Zeus, Poseidon or for a number of
Olympian gods of equal power working together to revive her. Hera also possesses
superhuman strength and her Olympian metabolism provides her with far greater than
human endurance in all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and bone is about three
times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Olympians' superhuman
strength and weight.)
Hera also has significant abilities to tap into and manipulate
energies akin to magic. She can change her form, teleport through dimensional
barriers, such as from Earth to Olympus, and send her voices and images over
vast distances. She can move matter with a gesture of her hand, and conjure
destructive blasts as well as small lightning bolts. Her exact power level is
unknown, but she is not as powerful as Zeus or Poseidon, but she is more than a
match for younger gods and goddesses such as Apollo and Aphrodite.
Pets: Hera has a number of pet birds, particularly the peacock which is
her symbol.
Clarifications: Hera is not to be
confused with:
Last updated: 04/30/06