Quotes from The Triple Goddess by Adam Mclean

"Zeus desired her, but Hera resisted the passionate advances of her brother. However, Hera was tricked by devious Zeus, who appeared to her in the form of a cuckoo, cold and frozen by the harshness of winter. Hera, in her role as protectress, felt compassion and wormed this young cuckoo at her breast. Zeus, changing back into his own form, took advantage of their closeness. Hera was forced to submit to his advances, but only yielded to him after extracting a promise of marriage."

"Hera sets the archetype for woman in relationship to man within a patriarchal social order, as ideal wife and companion. Thus she is a goddess of marriage (Gamileu), maternity and fidelity, a jealous guardian of the marriage vows and heredity."

"We should note especially the polarity that exists between this Hera archetype of woman - the outer facet of a woman's life, the conscious, light-filled, Ouranian side - with the Artemis - Hecate facet, which is more concerned with the inner independence, the relationship with the unconscious, the chthonic darkness within our being."

MODERN THOUGHTS

To me, relationships have always been magical - meaning very mysterious and completely uncontrollable. This isn't very surprising considering my affinity with Dionysus and Hera's relationship with Dionysus.

In our modern society we honor Hera, when we work to make a relationship work and when we teach and provide the best for our children. Even though in ancient times Hera only represented a woman's relation to man, today she should also represent man's relationship to woman.