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I suspect that might be a more recent cultural spin on these stories. Do the stories really characterize her as angry at Zeus but taking it out on his mistresses/victims, and too cowed to confront him? Or *ashamed* (a goddess, ashamed)? Hard for me to believe. If he just raped her (and what did rape mean to the ancient Greeks?), how'd she become queen of the gods, and not get thrown away like his other victims? Doesn't sound like shame to me - marrying him could have been seen as a way of holding him accountable. Imagine if Hera were the incontinent one, and Zeus attacked the guys she went after -- then it'd be possessive rage, right? Why can't Hera's anger be taken like that? I mean, she was queen of the freaking gods, not some captive helpless victim. Who characterized her that way? Is it really in the original texts? Maybe she liked being queen of the gods, and was more pissed off that any gal had gotten a piece of what was rightfully hers, than she was angry at Zeus being the way she always knew he was, weaksauce that she and the whole world he ruled, were just stuck with. Anger made all the gods irrational, there need not be anything specially humble-feminine about Hera's rage.

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- mirfak

This message was edited 4/27/2021, 2:11 PM