From the dark clouds, several peacocks appear. Behind them a few more, and still a whole flock. They spread their wings wide, and sunlight reflects on them with amazing lights. The bluish necks of the birds arch in flight. Birds drag a golden chariot. Thin, like cobwebs, the reins confidently hold in their hands the winged goddess Irida. Immediately behind her, leaning on her baton, one more goddess is visible: tall, looks proud, the body of the goddess is covered with magnificent robes, and in her hair, a starry diadem, strict, dark and imperious eyes look at you. This is Hera, the heavenly queen, the wife of Zeus. At the moment, as usual, she carries out a morning promenade over the world, which, of course, considers it her property.
But in reality, little happens at her request. Zeus often agreed with her, but not always, but rather in order to avoid a quarrel, to which Hera was very prone. When Zeus does not have enough patience, he rudely lets her feel who is in charge. There was a case when he tied Hera with a chain and tied his hands to the top of Olympus, and for greater torment, he tied two heavy hammers to his legs. And only two days later, at the request of the gods, freed her.
Hera very close to her heart perceived everything that was said about her beauty. She did not tolerate any comparisons, believing that the queen of heaven should be the most beautiful in the world. Poets, to please her, praised the clear snow-white of her hands and large dark blue eyes, comparing them with the eyes of a cow. But women thought of it differently. The daughters of Tsar Pret, without taking cover, said that they were not inferior to her in beauty. Hera sent madness upon them, and they fled into the forest, mumbled, grazed in the meadows, considering themselves cows. She punished other arrogant girls by turning them into stone steps of the temple. Their father, who was a priest, walked every day on the petrified bodies of his daughters and heard the soft moan of his children under his feet.
The white-headed goddess was the patroness of women. The girls prayed to her on the day of marriage, she took care of motherhood and comforted the widows. In the city of Olympia, where one of the oldest temples of Hera was located, games were held every five years in which only girls took part. In shirts on her naked body, with her hair loose, the girls competed among themselves in running. The winner received an award - an olive branch and a piece of the liver of sacrificial animals. In general, Hera in each city had its own temple, drops or altar. In ancient times, its embodiment was a simple pillar or deck. She was later portrayed as a respected matron of majestic beauty. Such a one was depicted by Polyclette in a colossal statue standing in the temple of Hera in Argos. The goddess sat on the throne, holding a pomegranate fruit in one hand, a symbol of fertility, and in the other a wand with a cuckoo dedicated to her by a bird.