Hera, << HIHR uh, >> was a goddess of life in Greek mythology. She was especially a protector of marriage and childbirth. Hera was important in the city of Olympia and was the principal goddess of the people of Argos and Samos. Hera was a daughter of Cronus and Rhea and the sister and wife of Zeus, the king of the gods. Her children included the gods Ares and Hephaestus.
Hera and Zeus quarreled regularly. Hera was fiercely hostile to any woman—divine or mortal—who won Zeus’s interest. Children of Zeus and his mistresses, notably Hercules and Dionysus, also suffered from her anger. Stories tell how Hera sent the many-eyed monster Argus to watch Zeus’s mistress Io. Zeus sent Hermes to kill Argus, who—in Greek versions—turned into a peacock, Hera’s special bird. According to the Roman poet Ovid, Hera stripped the dead Argus of his eyes to adorn the peacock’s tail.
