1,752
edits
Changes
no edit summary
Zeus had an affair with Semele the beautiful daughter of Cadmus, the Theban King. Zeus disguised himself so that he could have an affair with Semele. Hera found out about the affair and she decided to have her revenge. She disguised herself as a nurse and tricked Zeus to show himself in his true form to Semele and when he did his thunder and lightning destroyed his beloved. Zeus took Semele's unborn child and completed its gestation by sewing it into his own thigh. He later became the god of Dionysus, the deity of wine and all forms of intoxication. It also claimed in some accounts of this God, that he later retrieved his mother from the realm of the dead. This was probably at a time when Zeus and Hera were on good terms<ref>Powell, p. 89</ref>.
==Io and Hera==
Another one of the more prominent affairs of Zeus was with Io, who was ironically a priest of Hera. When Hera heard about this she was furious, and she turned the unfortunate Io into a white cow. Now Hera knew that Zeus would transform the white heifer back into her old female form and continue the affair. She had a 100 eyed giant Argos, to keep watch on the heifer and to tell her if Zeus tried to change her back to her human form. Zeus, as cunning as ever, sent Hermes and he lulled the 100 eyed monster to sleep and killed it. Io in the form of the white heifer escaped. The Queen of the Gods saw this and she sent a gadfly to torment the heifer. Io in the form of the cow was driven half-mad by the gadfly<ref>Powell, p. 99</ref>. It was typical of the cruelty of Hera, who wasshown in the myths to be given to fits of rage. Later when Hera had become reconciled to Zeus it seems that Io was turned back into her old form by Zeus. Later she It is believed to have married a future King of Egypt.
==Conclusion==
The stories above are just some of the incidents recounted from Greek mythology regarding Zeus infidelities and Hera’s vengeance. The Goddess of women, marriage, and childbirth had a complex relationship with Zeus. He was frequently unfaithful and humiliated her with his affairs with mortals. To be a Goddess and to have your husband betray you with mere mortals was insulting. Then the fact that Zeus was having illegitimate children was a grievous insult to the Goddess of Marriage. Then it appears that she had genuine feelings for her husband Hera was worshipped in a society that believed in vengeance and its morality was very different from those from the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Heras cruelty was legendary. However, this was not something that would have shocked the Greeks. The Gods were great powers and they were not concerned with humans, from who they only sought respect. Nor would her hatred of the lovers of Zeus being seen as something immoral but would have been deemed to be understandable. However, it must be remembered that while Hera often hated Zeus, because of his infidelities, they were always reconciled and continued to live together in Olympus.
