Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Hera.
The gallery
The Origin of the Milky Way
Tintoretto, c. 1575
An oil painting by the Venetian master Tintoretto, now in the National Gallery, London. It depicts the myth in which Jupiter holds the infant Heracles to the breast of the sleeping Juno (Hera) so that the child may gain immortality; the milk that sprays upward from the startled goddess forms the Milky Way. The composition's swirling diagonals and tumbling putti are characteristic of Tintoretto's late dynamic style.
The Campana Hera
Roman copy after a Greek original, 2nd century AD
A monumental marble statue of Hera, a Roman copy of the second century AD after a Greek original. The goddess stands veiled and crowned with a diadem, an image of regal, matronly dignity befitting the queen of Olympus. Named after the Campana collection from which it was acquired, the statue is now in the Louvre, Paris.
On screen
Hercules
Ron Clements & John Musker
Disney softens the queen of the gods into a warm stepmother — a deliberate rewrite of the jealous Hera of the labours — so the film's real antagonist can be Hades instead.
Jason and the Argonauts
Don Chaffey
On Harryhausen's Olympus, Hera is Jason's quiet patron, tipping the divine scales while Zeus looks on — the goddess of marriage as a player in the Argonaut game.
In music & on stage
In play
Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons
Kelly Sue DeConnick
DeConnick's DC Black Label epic opens with Hera's rage and the forging of the Amazons — the queen of the gods as the mythic engine behind Wonder Woman's people.
Hades II
Supergiant Games
Supergiant's sequel brings Hera among the Olympian boon-givers: the goddess of marriage offers frost and family barbs as Melinoë fights Chronos.