Hera

Also known as: bride of Zeus / the goddess Hera · Family: Olympians · Role: goddess · First appears: Book I 7

In Book I, Hera is married to Zeus as his bride and is named the parent of Heracles, “the illustrious son of Hera.” Yet she also stands against Heracles, having nurtured monsters as trials for him. By Book II, Jason has come under her especial care, and she gives Ancaeus son of Poseidon courage to continue the voyage.

In Book III, Hera joins Athena in seeking Cypris’ help to make Medea love Jason, whom she already greatly favours. She vows to deliver Jason and punish Pelias, conceals his delegation from the Colchians with mist, and detains Medea until their arrival. She then turns Medea from suicide toward helping Jason, makes him exceptionally compelling, and counsels Mopsus that the lovers must meet without strangers nearby; she later devises Medea’s coming to Ioleus as a bane to Pelias.

In Book IV, Hera drives Medea to flee with the sons of Phrixus, arranges the wind that carries her toward the Pelasgian land, and helps secure Jason’s return. She blocks the Colchians’ pursuit with terrifying lightning—“But Hera restrained them by terrible lightnings from the sky”—turns the heroes away from a perilous gulf onto their ordained route, and sends Iris to order Aeolus to still the winds except for the west wind. She has raised and loved Thetis, gave her Peleus as husband, summoned the gods to their marriage, and foretold that Achilles would marry Medea in the Elysian plain; she also drives Macris from the island in anger and sends the Phaeacians a true report of the heroes’ arrival.