Hera in Greek and Roman Mythology | Goddess of Marriage, Zeus's Family, and Her Role in the Trojan War

Three goddesses face one another over a single golden apple: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. The story begins when the judgment of who is the most beautiful is entrusted not to the gods but to a mortal prince, Paris.

Hera is said to be one of the three goddesses who entered this contest. The outcome of the judgment and what followed belong to the story of the Paris myth and are not covered here, but the very fact that Hera stood in that contest places her at the center of the Trojan War tradition.

A Relationship That Is Both Zeus's Sister and Wife

Hera is a goddess genealogically positioned as both Zeus's sister and his wife. This relationship—siblings and spouses at once—may seem unfamiliar through the lens of human family concepts, but it is a fully accepted arrangement among the Olympian gods.

This relationship is confirmed again in a scene that appears later. In Book 16 of the Iliad, when Zeus addresses Hera, he calls her 'wife and sister.' This dual position—as husband and as brother—forms the background for understanding the exchanges between the two gods.

Goddess of Marriage, Women, and Royal Power

Hera is handed down as an Olympian goddess connected with marriage, women, and royal power. She symbolizes the order of forming and protecting a household, as well as her position as queen of the gods.

This queenship is not merely an honorary title. In the gods' interventions surrounding the Trojan War, Hera is also remembered as a goddess who sided with the Greek army and lent them her strength, and this combination—a goddess of marriage and royal power taking a side in a war—becomes the background for the scenes that follow.

Iliad Book 14: Borrowing Aphrodite's Girdle

At a point when the war was turning against the Greek army, Hera felt she needed to keep her husband and brother Zeus occupied. If Zeus's gaze, watching over the battlefield from above, strayed even briefly from the Greek side, that gap could have changed the tide.

The method Hera chose was not direct confrontation but seduction. She approached Aphrodite and borrowed the girdle that held the power to captivate anyone. It was a choice to shake the tide through the tools of relationship rather than clashing by force.

Having finished her adornment, Hera appeared before Zeus. In this situation, where his wife and sister came to him of her own accord, Zeus lost his heart, and Hera asked Hypnos, the god of sleep, to put Zeus into a deep slumber. It was a scheme that was not complete with seduction alone—it had to extend all the way to Hypnos's intervention.

While Zeus slept, it was Poseidon who seized the opening. Poseidon had been wanting to help the Greek army, and taking advantage of this gap while Zeus's eyes were off the battlefield, he directly entered the fighting and aided the Greeks. What Hera created was a situation that tied Zeus down, and it was Poseidon's intervention that actually turned the tide within that gap.

There was a price to pay for this scheme. Waking from sleep, Zeus realized he had been deceived and raged. He drove Hera away fiercely and ordered Poseidon, who was out on the battlefield, to withdraw, taking back the advantage the Greek army had gained. Hera's scheme did not permanently change the tide; in exchange for opening a brief gap, she immediately paid a price to match.

The Death of Sarpedon: Why Hera Objected

At another point in the same war, Zeus was watching his mortal son Sarpedon fall into a situation where he would soon die on the battlefield. Zeus wanted to pull Sarpedon out of the battle and spare him from death, and he shared this thought with Hera.

In Book 16 of the Iliad, the way Zeus addresses Hera is once again 'wife and sister.' But Hera objects to this idea. The reason she put forward was not emotion but precedent. In the Trojan War, besides Sarpedon, other mortal sons of the gods were also out on the battlefield, and if Zeus pulled out only his own son from his fated death, the other gods would inevitably demand to save their own sons as well.

In the end, Zeus accepted Hera's words, and Sarpedon could not escape his fated death. What this passage shows is that Hera is not a being who simply follows her husband's will, but one who stands against him with concrete grounds in order to keep the rules of the entire war from being shaken.

Rome's Juno: A Continuing Name and Diverging Traditions

Hera corresponds to the name Juno in Roman mythology. However, this correspondence is merely a notation used when comparing myths.

There is no basis for reading Hera's stories in the Greek sources and Juno's stories handed down on the Roman side as the same work or the same tradition. It is more accurate to note that a continuing name does not mean the two mythological traditions merge into one.

Figures Leading to the Next Stories

You can continue reading about what kind of god Zeus, Hera's husband and brother, is in the Zeus myth. The story of Aphrodite, who stood with her at the judgment over the golden apple, can be found in the Aphrodite myth, and the full account of that judgment itself in the Paris myth.

Where Hera fits within the family tree of the Olympian gods can be explored in a broader picture in the Greek mythology genealogy overview.