Published by Sage Journals, October 2021
Author: Olaya Fernández Guerrero
In the ancient Greek polytheistic religion, Hera was considered the wife of Zeus and she was worshipped as the goddess of marriage. This paper analyses pre-Olympian references to Hera as an unmarried Great Goddess related to nature and fertility, and it explores from a critical perspective the origins and contents of her cult as Hera Teleia, the “perfect wife.” Mythological tales about her fights with Zeus, their conflictive relationship and his continuous love affairs with goddesses and women show us that the divine Greek model for human marriage was far from being a state of marital bliss.
