The goddess Hera cursed her with just an echo for a voice as punishment for distracting her from the affairs of Zeus with her endless chatter. As a son of Zeus, Tantalus was on intimate terms with the gods, and was often invited to dine with them at their table in the heavens. 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. 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. 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. Women who were pursued by Zeus learned to avoid Hera as well. His name, which means foresight, emphasizes his intellect, for he was known as a cunning trickster. That impiety shocked the Thebans, and they returned to their daily pursuits in awestruck silence and trepidation. 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. Many of his mistresses and their children fell afoul of Heras terrible temper. 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. Wherever I turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power; nor is my form and presence unworthy of a goddess. 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. Nobody was willing to perform the necessary religious rituals that would cleanse him of his guilt and restore him to good standing, so Ixion was forced to live in the wilderness as an outlaw. Semele was a Thebian princess. He first married the Titaness Metis, but turned her into a fly and swallowed her when he learned that her son would eventually overthrow him. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. In Greek mythology, Actaeon was a famous Theban hero, who loved to hunt in the outback of his native region of Boeotia. However, when his fellow Titans refused to heed his advice and resort to trickery, Prometheus switched sides and joined the Olympians. For her part, Hera was not initially open to the marriage either. Following are ten of the weirdest divine punishments from Ancient Greek religion and mythology. That championing of mankind got him in trouble with the gods, who devised a horrific punishment for him in consequence. In the legends of Heracles, his stepmother is featured as his constant antagonist. The Story of Semele as Told by Nemesis - ThoughtCo How Did Odysseus Get Punished - 1194 Words | Internet Public Library Ironically, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, was trapped in a loveless marriage; Athena, wisest of beings, always deferred to Zeus; and Hera, Goddess of Marriage, was married to the worst serial adulterer ever known. Heracles married Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera and the goddess of youth. Hera was appropriately faithful, and Zeus was both protective of his wife and remarkably even-tempered with her. 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. To make his pettiness stick, the chief god prohibited anybody from letting humanity in on the secret of fire. Prometheus stole fire for mankind. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. So she turned him into a stag. Tired of being humiliated by her husband the goddess started to plot against the ruler of Olympus. He took the form of a bull to abduct and ravish the Phoenician princess, Europa. Thus he was tormented by everlasting hunger and thirst, despite food and water being so near. This rarely-repeated story appears to be a later myth, however, and most stories show him as a protective and peaceable, albeit unfaithful, husband. Despite their contentious marriage and her flights of jealousy, Hera was known as the goddess of marriage. Best Answer. Io was one of those unfortunate victims of Heras fits of jealousy. Unfortunately, Sisyphus cunning was combined with questionable ethics, which got him in trouble with the gods, particularly with Zeus. Among the Thebans, rumors planted by Hera persisted that Zeus had not been his . Chiron a mythical being with the lower body of a horse, and the torso and upper body of a human was notable in Greek legend for his youth-nurturing nature. For example, she turned the Libyan queen Lamia into a monster when she learned that Zeus had fathered children with her. 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. Even then, the gods were not yet done with Niobe. So they set out to make an example of him. Hera means lady and was undoubtedly the title of a powerful mother goddess whom the Greeks inherited from the earlier inhabitants of Argos, which was a major city in the Peloponnese. In return for this deed . Copy. Greek culture commonly accepted, however, that men often cheated on their wives. One day, the people of Thebes went out to celebrate the feast of Latona a religious festival in honor of Leto, the mother of the gods Apollo and Artemis and as described in Bulfinchs Mythology: It was on occasion of the annual celebration in honor of Latona and her offspring, Apollo and Diana [i.e Artemis] when the people of Thebes were assembled, their brows crowned with laurel, bearing frankincense to the altars and paying their vows, that Niobe appeared among the crowd. They had good reason for trepidation because taunting Leto turned out to be a bad idea. When Argus was finally out, Hermes grabbed a stone and smashed his head in, and freed Io from her tether so Zeus could get some loving time with his bovine mistress. He instilled in Actaeon a passion for hunting that would prove the Theban heros undoing. When the thigh-sewn child was born, he was named Dionysus. There, the chief god devised a punishment that became a proverbial term for temptation. Aside from the avowed virgins, she was one of the only goddesses to never have a child outside of her marriage. Zeus gathered the rest of the boys body parts, got the god Hephaestus to make him a bronze shoulder, put them all together and restored the kid to life. Greeks seemed to realize that their goddess. Hera first tried to kill Heracles as a baby by sending two serpents to his bed, but this failed when Heracles killed the serpents. Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal - TV Tropes Why did echo distract Hera? - Sage-Answer She really did have a terrible husband who fathered children with every maiden, goddess, and nymph that crossed his path. However, what offended the divine pantheon the most was when Tantalus killed his own son, Pelops, and served him to the gods at a banquet as a means of testing their powers of observation. The only deity to touch the food was the goddess Demeter, who was distracted by the death of her daughter, Persephone, and absent-mindedly ate part of Pelops shoulder. The Greek gods were quite fallible, and humans usually just had to endure their divine decisions, whether just or unjust and the Ancient Greeks frequently portrayed their gods acting unjustly. Fortunately, Thetis helped Zeus by summoning Briareus to help free the God from his shackles. 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. Semele. Hera and the Roman Juno. to prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes! What were Zeus punishments? The Mythology Of Hera Explained - Grunge.com Those archetypes would be: ruler, creator, and rebel. He also liked to blab, and revealed to mortals secrets he had learned at the table of the gods in heaven. It's hard not to feel sympathetic to Zeus' wife, Hera. Hence, making Zeus owe Thetis a favor. He instructed his wife not to bury him or perform any of the sacred death rituals when he passed away, and to just throw his corpse out. She was a queen of Thebes, and was blessed with great fortune. Heracles had followed his fathers tendencies in life and had many affairs, but he was said to have settled down in a happy marriage with Hebe. What bad things did Zeus do? Her fury toward her husbands indiscretions can be attributed to this domain. Hera agreed to dismiss the gadfly when Zeus promised to leave Io alone forever. 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. He then courted Thetis, but abandoned the idea of marrying that Titaness when a similar prediction was made. However, Sisyphus had one more trick up his sleeve to cheat Death. How did Hera try to kill Heracles as a baby? Because of his misdeeds on earth and up in the heavens as well the gods condemned him to eternal torment. Ixion, in Greek legend, son either of the god Ares or of Phlegyas, king of the Lapiths in Thessaly. In another instance, she even plotted with Poseidon to remove her husband from power. 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. Hera Punished Her Husband's Former Mistress by Prolonging Her Childbirth Labor for Years. Zeus, the king of the gods of Mount Olympus, had many relationships but it was his sister, Hera, whom he wanted to rule by his side as his wife. The crime of the king of Sipylus resulted in the murder and mayhem among his descendants. Tantalus was placed in a pool of water, beneath a fruit tree with low branches. How did Hera punish Io? - Answers Hera was the queen of Olympus, wife of Zeus, and deity associated with family, women, and children. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. That snitching made Zeus angrier still. After this, Heracles' mother was worried about Hera she might enact revenge. For his part, Zeus was unfaithful but was rarely seen treating Hera with particularly cruelty. The wine god laid a curse upon Lycurgus kingdom, rendering its soil barren and incapable of producing fruit. Disobeying ones parents was a great sin in Ancient Greece, so all the daughters, except one who took pity on her new husband after he respected her desire to remain a virgin, murdered their spouses on the wedding night. Demeter was another of Zeus' sisters. 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 .