Hera--villain or misunderstood?

Hera has always come across as a jealous, plotting woman. Do you think this characterization is accurate? Did she have reasons for acting as she did?

Well regrettably since Greek myth is very misogynistic, one woman is especially going to be vilified. Hera bears the greatest burden.

At first glance, the Queen of the Gods doesn't have a lot to be proud of. Many of her popular myths involve punishing the mortal women Zeus notoriously screwed. A version of Hephaestus' birth has her birthing him alone in retaliation for Zeus birthing Athena alone, but Heph was so ugly she threw him off Olympus and her effort was scorned by the other gods. Paris spurned her offer of worldly power for Aphrodite.

But for mortals, Hera is very important. Zeus may be a ladies' man, but Hera represents the sanctity of faithful marriage. She's thus particularly important for a couple's union to be blessed, and she blesses the marriage bed where a bride (sometimes) loses her virginity. So her role in everyday society is much more positive than in myth, because a successful wedding could not occur without invoking her.

In myth she does have a few bright spots, such as eventually reconciling with Heracles and aiding Jason to find the fleece, but by and large she's not taken seriously by the Olympians.

I had a classics professor once defend Hera because she really could not do much to Zeus in retaliation for his cheating ways so she took out her vengeance on the innocents.
Perhaps. But she always struck me as a colossal *****. Sorry.

She came across as a ***** to me too, and I don't think it's right to take frustrations out on mortals, but she did have a hard road: not an excuse, but helps you understand her a little better.

One terrific story about her temper that I love is the story of Tieresias. He was a person that had the rare occasion to have lived part of his life as a man, and part of it as a woman. At that time, Jupiter (this is from Ovid, so I am using their Roman names), and Juno were arguing as to who enjoyed sex more: men or women. Juno insisted men enjoyed it more, but Jupiter felt differently. So they asked Tieresias since he was impartial. He claimed that women enjoyed sex more.
In anger Juno blinded Tieresias, but Jupiter, happy with his answer, gave him the gift of prophecy.
So Tieresias became the famous prophet of Thebes.

I always had a low opinion of Hera, but I just rewatched the old classic Jason and the Argonauts and it paints her as a saint. I plan to look into her some more as a result. She was definately one of the most widely worshipped gods. And certainly one of the most powerful.

i think Hera is that jealous because of Zeus, too? imagine your husband has a lots of women and girls with him? i think this is one of the reasons, and because Zeus is more powerful than she, Hera could do nothing and instead, turn her anger towards her husband's women.
just my idea.

That makes sense.

I do not think Hera is a villain or misunderstood; she's just a biotch!

If those people who say that there was goddess worship before the Olympians arrived are right - then there's another explanation - well two really -
first, Hera jujst isn't a ***** and didn't do half the things she is said to have done - its all a smear campaign by those dirty misogynistic new arrival male gods.
Or, Hera was good natured enough before all the male gods turned up. But after they spoiled the whole show and she got Zeus dumped on her, well she got sour.
Long live Hera greatest of the immortals!

I kind of feel like all of the Olympians were a little-or a lot- less than perfect. They seem to all be conniving and self-endulgent and irresponsible. They worried more about their own personal gains and less about the welfare of their human creations.
I like Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter Series because she paints, my idea, of an accurate picture where the Olympians were as I described them and the Atlantean gods as being helpful, as putting humans from before themselves which led them to becoming so advanced. Gena Showalter paints the Olympians as being less than good and the Titans as being the better gods.

I think if any god had reason to be sour it was Pluto and Vulcan. Pluto got the short end of the stick when it came to domains and poor Vulcan was given beautiful Venus as a wife only to have her cheat on him! Though Pluto got a beautiful wife from the deal-eventually- poor Vulcan was never the same again

i suppose quite a lot of the gods got raw deals when you think about it

That's also the explanation for why there's no female books of the Bible-misogynists. I've always thought Hera was great and never heard that she was a *****. Maybe I just heard the stories and agreed with her!

Was Hera once nicer before the arrival of the male gods? Who knows. Was she even "Hera" at that time?
There has been much written about goddess worship before the arrival of
the Indo-Europeans with their nasty warrior male gods.
I think there is still much debate about this stuff.
But yes, the literature we have that paints her harshly was written by men who likely saw women as little more than property.
I once had a classicist explain his sympathy for Hera because of all the stuff Zeus put her through.
So I'll cut her some slack.

I am under the impression that sometimes a woman just needs to show her other side when the time calls for it. There are times when it calls for it and any strong woman would end up sometimes having to kiss it up and remember that not every moment of a lady involves being a "nice girl".

Hey somebody had to represent the point of view of "Anger". There is justified anger in the world and unjustified anger. Justified anger is consequence of being wronged. Poor Hera!

I always felt sorry for Hera. I can understand how some might say that she was a termagant, and literally speaking, I suppose the was! But at the same time, she went through a lot. Zeus cheating on her time and again clearly wore her divine patience to a thread and drove her to revenge.

Well, there are Ruth and Esther, and the deuterocanonical Judith.

For characters, Deborah was a renowned judge, Jael was commended for hammering a tent peg through the temple of a man, the prostitute Rahab is a heroine. When approached with a request from his mother, King Solomon said that he would not deny his mother anything—he did end up denying his mother's request, since it was a ruse his brother had concocted to usurp the throne. Solomon also praised women, and women who worked and sold their wares in Proverbs.

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i seee your point