Zeus Hangs Hera in the Sky As punishment for her attempt to overthrow him, Zeus seized Hera and hung her in the sky by golden chains. Stories of Transformation. Danaus was the twin brother of the mythical king Aegyptus of Egypt, and the twins had some serious sibling rivalry going on. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. Zeus married one Titaness and courted another before marrying Hera to ensure that their son would not be powerful enough to overthrow him. They would pray, ask for help in any kind of situation, and do sacrifices for them. Leto was thus forced to keep wandering the earth, without a chance to settle down anywhere to give birth. So the father-in-law seized some of Ixions valuable horses as security for the promised bride price. Hera also sent the gigantic Titan Tityos to rape Leto, but she was once again saved by her children, Apollo and Artemis, who killed their mothers would-be rapist. The liver re-grew each night, and the eagle returned each day to repeat the process, subjecting Prometheus to perpetuity of torment by day, and nights full of dread of what the morrow would bring. See answer (1) Best Answer. To spare the local Argives from the ravages of war, Danaus reluctantly consented to wed his daughters to his twin sons. it gives us insight into human nature, and more specifically into the nature of . According to Hesiod, why does Zeus get mad at Prometheus? The disputes between Hera and Zeus were not limited to his extramarital affairs. According to Greek mythology, Lycurgus got drunk on wine and tried to rape his own mother. She ruled over the proper arrangements of marriage, and her husbands many affairs were a direct affront not only to their marriage, but also to her role as a goddess. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull . Hera drugged Zeus and the other gods bound him on his bed and stole his thunderbolt. Being Zeus' mistress was tough. Python was sent by Hera to find and kill Apollo's mother, Leto, for Zeus' act of adultery against her. Danaus hauled the daughter who had disobeyed him before a court, but her husband intervened and murdered Danaus in revenge for the deaths of his 49 brothers. to prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes! Fortunately, Thetis helped Zeus by summoning Briareus to help free the God from his shackles. Only hope was left inside the box, to keep life bearable despite its sufferings. Although the affair and pregnancy had occurred before Heras marriage to Zeus, the Queen of Heaven was still jealous of Leto, and set out to turn her life into a living hell. abuse of Hera by Zeus is an important element which has been accepted, it seems, as something taken for granted which does not seem worthy of . She attempted many times to cause his death or just make his life difficult, even driving him insane and forcing him to kill his own family. When Zeus heard, he couldnt believe that Ixion, whom he had rescued and cleansed of his guilt, then honored by hosting him in heaven, could be so ungrateful and brazen. However during the feast he tried to pick up on Zeus' wife, Hera. Hera then assigned Argus Panoptes, a giant with a hundred eyes, to tether the white cow to an olive tree, and keep a constant watch on her. Zeus then turned on Tantalus, and subjected him to the wrath of the gods. He would hurl a thunderbolt at those who disobeyed or disappointed him, sometimes striking them dead. It is from Tantalus punishment, of desperately wanting something that seems so close but that is just beyond reach, that we get the English word tantalize. How Did Odysseus Get Punished. The marriage of Zeus and Hera, however, was known more for their arguments than their joy. The trend of Hera being jealous and spiteful toward her husbands children continued throughout their reign. Pixabay. After crisscrossing the world for years while in labor, unable to find a resting place, Leto came across a barren island not connected to the ocean floor, so it did not count as a real island by Heras definition. Eventually Zeus experienced an enormous headache;[79] Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ares, or Palaemon (depending on the sources examined)[80] cleaved Zeus' head with the double-headed Minoan axe, the labrys. Prometheus had been one of the leaders of the Titans went they waged war for mastery of the heavens against the Olympian gods, when the latter rose up to replace the Titans. Hera was almost always depicted as being jealous of these children, to the point that she was driven to vindictiveness. EKHO (Echo) was an Oreiad-nymph of Mount Kithairon (Cithaeron) in Boiotia. Zeus was the king of the Greek gods who lived on Mount Olympus. Why does Echo get punished? Instead, Hera would often fly into jealous rages, and take it out on the unfortunates seduced or tricked or sometimes flat out raped by Zeus in order to satisfy his lusts. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. Following are ten of the weirdest divine punishments from Ancient Greek religion and mythology. Zeus did not chain Epimetheus to a rock. He was the husband of Dia, daughter of Deioneus, to whom he promised a gift as a bride price. Ixion's Punishment. In Greek legend, Tantalus was a king of Sypilus in Lydia, in western Anatolia. For his part, Zeus was unfaithful but was rarely seen treating Hera with particularly cruelty. 4) Hera. Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Dionysus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, and the . A peeved Zeus responded by taking fire away from mankind, and wiping its secret from human minds, so they would have to eat meat row, and shiver from the cold in the dark of night. What folly, said she, is this! Hera, titled the Queen of Heaven, reigned from the gods home atop Mount Olympus as the wife and sister and wife of Zeus, chief god of the Greek pantheon. Ixion. The city of Thebes and the city of Orhomenos had a war. However, she committed the sin of hubris a mixture of extreme pride, dangerous overconfidence, and overweening arrogance. Zeus and Hera as king and queen of Olympus were not expected to have a loving relationship. However, she did not address that by taking it up with Zeus and directing her wrath at him for breaking whatever passed for marital vows and obligations of monogamy atop Mount Olympus. Only hope was left inside the box, to keep life bearable despite its sufferings. That was when Sisyphus discovered he had been too clever by half, and too smart for his own good. Zeus, to punish him, bound him on a fiery wheel, which rolled unceasingly through the air or, according to the more common tradition, in the underworld. When Zeus looked down from the heavens and saw the dark of night dispelled by the flicker of fires, he grew livid. Tantalus was placed in a pool of water, beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Hera also sent the gigantic Titan Tityos to rape Leto, but she was once again saved by her children, Apollo and Artemis, who killed their mothers would-be rapist. The Ancient Greeks worldview differed greatly from the orderly worldview of the major monotheistic religions, in which the universe is ruled by an omniscient, omnipotent, and infallible God. This was not to last, however, as the pairing of a womanizing god and a jealous goddess inevitably led to conflict and unhappiness. However, when his fellow Titans refused to heed his advice and resort to trickery, Prometheus switched sides and joined the Olympians. In his mortal life, Heras attacks on Heracles had been relentless. In Greek myth, Leto was a Titan goddess whose beauty captivated Zeus, and she became his first and favorite lover. Having ordered the cutting down of all grapevines, the crazy king mistook his own son for a vine and chopped him to death with a sword, pruning away his ears, nose, fingers and toes. So Apollo strung his golden bow, and shot down all seven of Niobes sons, one after the other. Most entries in this article are about mortal or immortal beings who did something to invite the wrath of the gods, or at least found themselves in a situation in which the wrath of a good was understandable, even if unjustified. The One Piece chapter ends with Zeus being cut in half by Brook, but the damage has been done.Zeus has chosen to side with Big Mom even under duress. In their flight, they sought refuge in Lycia, whose peasants, on Heras instructions, sought to prevent Leto and her infants from drinking water. That angered Zeus, whose divine responsibilities included the promotion of Xenia. Hera, Queen of the Heavens and Chief wife of Zeus, was jealous of all of Zeus's lovers because they would give demigods, but . Many women and minor goddesses were changed into other forms by Hera. There, a giant eagle would fly in every day to rip open his guts and feast upon his liver. Updates? Zeus and the other Olympian gods lived on Mount Olympus. Have I not cause for pride? To make his pettiness stick, the chief god prohibited anybody from letting humanity in on the secret of fire. In Greek legend, the Danaides were the fifty daughters of Danaus, king of Libya, and a main figure in the founding myth of the city state of Argos, in the Peloponnese. That murder was particularly odious in Greek eyes because it violated Xenia the laws of hospitality governing the relationship between guests and hosts. Hermes did that by shooting the breeze with the many-eyed giant, getting him to shut his eyes one by one by playing the flute and telling stories. This rarely-repeated story appears to be a later myth, however, and most stories show him as a protective and peaceable, albeit unfaithful, husband. Here are some 15 quick facts about Zeus. The Greek Goddesses shared in the oppression of ancient mortal women, and their example is important to the history of feminism. The gods were ticked off at him for showing them up and making them look like fools, and took offense at his self-aggrandizing deceitfulness, and the hubris of believing himself more cunning than Zeus. Prometheus stole fire for mankind. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. That impiety shocked the Thebans, and they returned to their daily pursuits in awestruck silence and trepidation. Making it worse for those who gave in to Zeus, or were raped by him, was having to deal with his insanely jealous wife, Hera, and her crazy punishments not of her philandering husband, but of his victims. Her husband/ sibling was an insatiable and predatory nymphomaniac with a roving eye, always on the prowl, and constantly cheating on Hera. So they condemned Sisyphus to an eternity of rolling a huge boulder up a steep hill. Why should Latona be honored with worship rather than I? That set a precedent that allowed humans henceforth to sacrifice animals to the god by burning their bones and fat, but keeping the meat for themselves. First, Hera kicked the pregnant Leto out of Mount Olympus, forcing her to wander the world amongst mortals. To exacerbate the unfairness of it all, Leto had been Zeus mistress before he married Hera, so the chief god had not even been cheating on his wife at the time. When her father went looking for her, Sisyphus told him where to find his daughter, in exchange for Asopus creating a spring to flow into Sisyphus city of Corinth. The son of Cronus and Rhea, he is probably most famous for his infidelity to his sister and wife, Hera . Soon as Sisyphus got his boulder to the top of the hill, it would roll down the other side, and he would have to go back down and collect his boulder to roll it up the hill again. She was all too aware of Zeus' past . Even though she was the goddess of marriage, her own marriage was far from perfect. Zeus realized he needed another approach. . Without deep love or an expectation of fidelity on the husbands part, the rulers who looked up to them hoped to emulate their relatively peaceful cohabitation. The Ancient Greeks sometimes saw their gods as arbitrary and capricious, and few myths depict that conception of the Olympians arbitrariness and capriciousness as does the myth of Actaeon. He got on Zeus wrong side when he tricked him into accepting the bones and fat of sacrificial animals instead of their meat. Exposed liars were made to dedicate a statue to Zeus, often at the sanctuary of Olympia. Copy. While some claimed that the couple were initially happy, other sources implied that Hera was prone to jealousy early in their relationship. How do Hera and nemesis punish Echo and Narcissus? So he sent the messenger god Hermes, disguised as a shepherd, to lull Argus to sleep. What bad things did Zeus do? Her most famous anger was directed not at one of Zeuss mistresses, but at his son. Despite having helped the gods secure victory, Prometheus eroded his store of goodwill with them by siding with humanity against the Olympians. Theirs was, like most rulers, a marriage of political necessity. So Leto turned them into frogs before the infant Apollo eventually slew the dragon. However, Sisyphus had one more trick up his sleeve to cheat Death. Zeus then turned on Tantalus, and subjected him to the wrath of the gods. To all this let me add, I have seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. They were to carry jugs of water to fill a bathtub to wash away their sins, but the bathtub could never be filled because it had a hole in the bottom. By Noelle Talmon / Aug. 30, 2021 1:34 pm EST. She was one of Zeus many lovers and like most came to an unfortunate end due to Hera's jealous hatred. In Greek mythology, Actaeon was a famous Theban hero, who loved to hunt in the outback of his native region of Boeotia. Her children lay unburied for nine days, because the gods turned the Thebans into stone, until the tenth day, when they allowed the burials to proceed. For that, the gods subjected her to a terrible punishment. She took great pride in both her birth and her looks, but what she took the greatest pride in was her large brood of fourteen children seven sons, and seven daughters. When Lo was forced to leave her father's house, she wandered until she reached Egypt, where the curse was lifted. Hera made Argus, a giant with one hundred eyes, keep watch over Io. My work has also been published on Buzzfeed and most recently in Time magazine. Eventually, a more perfect Olympian marriage would be exemplified by Heracles and Heras own daughter, Hebe. In a flash, Apollo and Artemis, whose nicknames included The Immortal Archers, showed up at the citadel of Thebes. After crisscrossing the world for years while in labor, unable to find a resting place, Leto came across a barren island not connected to the ocean floor, so it did not count as a real island by Heras definition. She is best known as the mother of Dionysus. Hera saw the poor bird and kindly brought him into the shelter of her bosom to warm and dry him. Io swam the straits between Europe and Asia, which were known thereafter as the Bosporus (Greek for ford of the cow), and the sea southwest of Greece, which became known as the Ionian Sea. Unfortunately, Sisyphus cunning was combined with questionable ethics, which got him in trouble with the gods, particularly with Zeus. Women were bound by the laws of monogamy, but their husbands often took mistresses. He often used a thunderbolt to defeat his enemies, making the thunderbolt or lightning bolt the weapon he most often used. Niobes hubris provoked Letos children, the gods Apollo and Artemis, to seek vengeance for the insult to their mom, who had suffered greatly on their behalf see earlier entry about Leto, above. However, he ended up abusing that divine favor, committed a variety of offenses that angered the Olympians, and brought divine punishment upon himself. However, after Zeus impregnated Leto with twins, he abandoned her in order to marry his sister, Hera. He was invited by the gods to feast with them. While she was killed shortly before giving birth the child was resuced by Zeus. Zeus has one of the largest if not the largest number of "relationships" of this kind of any deity in world history. He became Heras son-in-law and an official member of his fathers household. To save himself from the livid Lycurgus, Dionysius was forced to flee, and escaped the wrath of the angry king by leaping into the sea. Io was one of those unfortunate victims of Heras fits of jealousy. Apollo commanded the hero to do certain tasks as a punishment for his wrongs, so that the evil might be cleansed from his spirit. While Tantalus divine punishment and other supernatural aspects of his story are mythical, there might have been a historical king Tantalus in real life, who ruled an Anatolian city named Tantalis. So he made a cloud in the shape of Hera, and sent her Ixions way to see what his guest would do. When his mortal life ended and he became a god, however, she ended her campaign against him. Zeus created the laws that ruled the world according to his will, the god despite loving his wife was not faithful to her and he had plenty of extra marital affairs and because of this the goddess Hera and Zeus lived in a permanent state of quarrel. Roman name: Juno. To vent his anger at mankind, Zeus sent Pandora down to earth with a box whose lid, when it was eventually removed, unleashed upon the world all the evils that plague humanity, such as diseases, plagues, war, death, and the constant need for backbreaking labor to eke sustenance out of the earth. Apollo was punished by Zeus for killing the serpentine, Python, who was the child of the Primordial God, Gaia. He murdered his father-in-law and could find no one to purify him until Zeus did so and admitted him as a guest to Olympus. Why did Zeus turn into a swan? There, Dionysus was rescued by the sea nymph Thetis, who kindly received the wine god and sheltered him in an undersea cave. This was a demonstration of the unforgiving nature of the Olympians. It would, ironically, be her most hated stepchild who finally fit the ideal. In one story, which appears to have not been widespread, she even plotted to overthrow her husband. Lusting after her, the chief god pursued Io, but she resisted his advances at first until her father kicked her out on the advice of some oracles. The terrified Actaeon bounded into the woods, but his own dogs detected the scent of a stag, and failing to recognize their master in his new body, chased him down and tore him to pieces. Zeus was notoriously unfaithful to his wife, while Hera was known for her extreme jealousy. Semele, the human mother of Dionysus, was tricked by Hera into seeing Zeus in his full glory. Each time Sisyphus is close to completing his task; however, the . Hera Punished Her Husband's Former Mistress by Prolonging Her Childbirth Labor for Years. Even then, the gods were not yet done with Niobe. That championing of mankind got him in trouble with the gods, who devised a horrific punishment for him in consequence. So behind Zeus back, he started hitting on and pursuing Hera. Zeus destroyed Tantalus, then personally took his soul to Hades, the underworld of Greek mythology. Her children lay unburied for nine days, because the gods turned the Thebans into stone, until the tenth day, when they allowed the burials to proceed. Ixion, in Greek legend, son either of the god Ares or of Phlegyas, king of the Lapiths in Thessaly. Then, when it was time to give birth, the Queen of Heaven saw to it that the childbirth was as miserable as could be, by prolonging Letos labor. Zeus was the Greek god of the skies. For that, the gods subjected her to a terrible punishment. There are a number of times in Hesiod's text that despises women, being mortal, immortal, or flesh-eating monsters. Zeus' wife did not recognize her mini-mortal enemy and inadvertently nursed him out of pity. A peeved Zeus responded by taking fire away from mankind, and wiping its secret from human minds, so they would have to eat meat row, and shiver from the cold in the dark of night. By analyzing the character of a goddess we follow the late psychologist James Hillman's suggestion that "Mythology is psychology in ancient dress," - ie. Making it worse for those who gave in to Zeus, or were raped by him, was having to deal . When a coup was started by the other Gods who were led by Hera, Poseidon, and Athena, Zeus was tied to the bed by unbreakable chains so that he would submit to their requests.