I've been literally trying to post this since Sunday and I haven't have time! Anyways, this is a long story, and it in fact was longer to write than usual, but I can finally say it's finished!
As a matter of fact, I'd like to start declaring I do not like Hera. She's like my less favorite goddess, but a friend of mine told me it would be nice to write a story like this one, and even when I didn't like how it was -or it would make, as I didn't want to write it down at first- making Hera look as a good person, I couldn't stop the words from coming, and I simply had to write it, so here it is!
Too Prideful to Hurt
The first time he did it, it was with Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, and the result of that affair came out to be the Nine Muses: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpischore, Thalia and Ucrania.
She couldn't believe it. They had just got married a couple of decades before, after defeating their tyrannical father, Kronos, and their union had seemed to be doing just fine.
Everything had seemed to be going perfectly. Or at least it had been so until she found out Mnemosyne was pregnant.
It was actually Aphrodite who, as carefully as she could, informed Hera of what she had discovered by accidentally eavesdropping Zeus.
She'd been destroyed. She was the goddess of marriage, she represented the union between two people that loved each other for life, for eternity, not only for a couple of decades or for as long as passion lasted.
Something like simply that couldn't be happening.
The first time, Hera realized centuries later, was the worst of them all. She hadn't even known what to do or how to react, and she had been too hurt to think clearly or even to properly process the information.
And so she had done nothing about it, letting Zeus go along with his betrayal and pretending she didn't know a thing about it.
When months later the Nine Muses were born, her humor had ranged from wanting to throw herself in bed and cry to wanting to throw Zeus and his nine precious daughters, along with Mnemosyne herself, from Mount Olympus.
In the end, however, she had done none of the above, faking her obliviousness to what had happened or, if letting foresee in the slightest that she did know, giving the image that she wasn't bothered by it.
Years later, many years later, she had finally been able to understand the importance of the Muses in the life of the human beings, and she had found herself unable to hate those girls because she was too busy trying to ignore their existence to even grow bitter or scornful towards them or Mnemosyne.
She hadn't been able to give Zeus sons or daughters yet, and it was only natural that he looked for that in another woman, she thought, one that would actually give him the spawn he seemed to want, and she didn't even have the right to be mad, she decided, as she swallowed down guilt, hurt and pain.
Maybe, Hera told herself, it had all been herself.
Hera was a positive goddess, or that she thought at least, and maybe, she told herself, it had all been a mistake, an unforgettable mistake, but not an unforgivable one, and most importantly, one that would not, under any circumstances, be repeated.
–*–*–
It had been.
It had been repeated, Hera realized a few years in the future, when she, by herself this time, discovered Zeus had gotten pregnant another woman, and most importantly, a woman that wasn't his wife.
Leto, a Titaness, was pregnant, and the child, or children, as Olympus discovered later on, has her husband's, Zeus'.
Hera had become so mad, so furiously and ridiculously mad that it took longer for her to learn about Zeus' cheating on her that it took her hex against Leto to leave her lips.
No, she thought, if she couldn't have her husband for herself as the old respectable laws of marriage established, then Leto would not be able to have her spawn. No, she thought, if Leto didn't give birth to Zeus' bastard offspring, then she, Hera, would have nothing to worry about because there would be no remnants or proofs that Zeus actually had cheated and betrayed her more than once. No, she thought, if she got rid of Leto and her bastard children, then Zeus would finally realize what he had done and go back to her.
She was wrong, she realized. She had always been wrong.
–*–*–
Much to Hera's bother and disgrace, Apollo and Artemis had been successfully born at Ortygia thanks to Poseidon's intromission and Hera's bad luck, but that had not been the worst of it all.
After the twins' births, Zeus and she had finally had their first son, though that only turned out to be an addition on the list of things that hadn't gone as Hera should have wanted.
Hephaestus was born short after Leto had delivered her twins, but the birth of his son only brought even more bitterness into his mother's life, who upon her very own disappointment over herself took the not very thoughtful or appropriate decision of sending her own new born all the way down from Mount Olympus.
She said that it had been because she didn't like the way Hephaestus had looked like, but the truth was that she plainly didn't like the way her marriage, her life, or her family looked like, and she had been to prideful to admit it aloud back then.
When she finally realized that despising her very own son, blood of her blood, flesh of her flesh was only following the family-destructive path Zeus had traced for them, it was that very same pride the one thing that had stopped her from running to Hephaestus and holding the boy to her chest.
It had been too late, anyways. By the time she realized she was destructing the family she so desperately craved to protect just as much as Zeus was doing by his cheating, Hera had already been tied to her throne by the very same son she had despised so many times.
Really, what did she have to be prideful of? Her husband, her family, her marriage, herself? That sounded more like a list of the things that she was ashamed of.
–*–*–
It was just a matter of time, Hera thought, before Zeus did it again, and the next time it happened, she wouldn't even be surprised, she bitterly decided.
What did surprise her, however, was the way in which Zeus tried to hide his infidelity from her.
When it had all been said and done, Metis, another Titaness, became pregnant, and suddenly deciding that he didn't want any more children, Zeus took another bright decision that could be added to the Olympus' family list: he swallowed Metis and the unborn child she held within herself much like Kronos had eaten all of his children but Zeus centuries before.
Unfortunately for him, however, some months later he started to have regular headaches, which concluded in him asking Hephaestus to open his head and check if he had a tumor or something that he should be worried about.
Big was everyone's surprise when what came out of Zeus' wound was nothing else than a grown-up woman with blonde, long hair and a complete armor, screaming her lungs out in a battle cry.
Apparently, the Fates had decided to give Zeus the travail of childbirth that he was oh-so fond of giving to women.
Ironically, what angered Hera the most this one time was not that Zeus had brought another bastard son of his to the world, but the fact that he had taken the resolution of swallowing a pregnant woman in the same way that Kronos had swallowed her, Hera, and all of his siblings but Zeus before.
She knew what it felt like to live inside someone else's body, and she didn't wish that on her worst enemy, not even on the woman her husband had been unfaithful to her or on the bastard children her husband was populating Olympus with.
Maybe, she reasoned years later, that was the reason why she despised Athena less than the rest of her stepchildren. Maybe she was just tired of hating every single god she was forced to see every day for the whole eternity.
–*–*–
When she was informed that Maya, a pleaid this time, had become pregnant of her husband, she wasn't even surprised anymore, and she didn't even try to stop Maya from having her child.
Apparently, though, Hermes didn't even need her to get in trouble, as they soon discovered when after only a few hours of his birth he was already starting a fight with Apollo over the latest's sacred cows.
A clever one, Hera realized when she learned about how Hermes had managed to free himself from Apollo's anger by negotiating with the sun god and giving him the lyre.
When Hera finally met Hermes in person she had been too curious to fake that she felt hateful towards him. It was not even the kids' fault who they were born to, she realized after centuries of being cheated on and regularly coming to the realization that she had more step-children to add to the list.
–*–*–
Until then, at least, Zeus' infidelities had been restricted to people that were not directly related to Hera, and a part of her couldn't help but feel thankful for that.
But not anymore, she learned when Poseidon informed her who the one who had gotten Demeter pregnant was.
It was him, always him–Zeus, the one who had not been satisfied with only cheating on her, but that had also decided to take the things to the next level by cheating on Hera with her –their– very own sister.
And as for Demeter… that selfish, egocentric backstabber, Hera thought bitterly, that had also dared to betray her trust.
After that, more than fifty years passed before Hera could even stand being in the same room as Demeter, and more than two hundred years went by before she even talked to her again.
–*–*–
After Persephone was born, Hera took the decision that she was having a child of her own, one that was hers and only hers.
But she was the goddess of marriage, and unlike Zeus, she knew she was forbidden and unable to cheat on her husband or to be unfaithful to him, no matter how many times he was.
It was after she ran from Olympus in an attempt to hide from Zeus that Cloris, the eternally young nymph, made her wish come true by asking Hera to take her the most beautiful flower she could find in her garden.
As soon as Hera's fingers brushed against the red orchid she had chosen as the most beautiful, she found herself staring down at her new son: Ares.
But Ares was not what she had wanted and craved for so many years either, and Hera knew that even as she thanked Cloris for the gesture.
What she really wanted was a family. What she really wanted was a loving husband. What she really wanted was for her to do something and for that something to turn out right for once.
–*–*–
When Dionysius was born, Hera didn't even pay attention to him, given his mortal state.
Since Semele, his mother, was a mortal, then at least that bastard son of Zeus would have to be a mortal too, and although that didn't change the fact that Zeus had cheated on her once again, it did at least mean that she wouldn't be forced to see him every single time a council was commanded, as she had with her failures of sons and daughters –now that Hebe and Ilitia had been born– and all the other bastard sons Zeus had been a father to throughout the years.
It was not until years later that she realized she had been wrong, yet again.
Zeus had the brilliant, brilliant idea of transforming Dionysius into a god, which made him immortal, and which also meant that Hera would be forced to see him even if he had been born a demigod.
What angered Hera the most, however, was the fact that Hestia, her sister, her confident, her one and only friend, had given up her corresponding throne in Olympus so that Dionysius could have his own and the Olympians didn't have to face a war they were not prepared for.
Hera had been fuming. Hestia was a daughter of Rea and Kronos, one of the six original gods and goddesses from Olympus―they couldn't just take her throne and wipe her from the map as if she had never existed.
If the other gods were so worried about an upcoming war, why didn't Aphrodite offer her throne, or Athena or Demeter? Why not Artemis or Apollo gave up their places in the council? Better yet, why didn't Dionysius stayed as a mortal and died as one instead of entering Olympus as a god? But why, oh-why, did Hestia have to save Zeus' sorry ass by giving in her throne and stopping a war?
But maybe, and just maybe, what had Hera so annoyed was not even the inconsiderateness with which her sister was being treated, but something that was completely different.
She wanted war.
Unlike Zeus and all of the other Olympians, she wanted, desired and craved for a war. She craved to see each and every one of Zeus' children trying and aiming to destroy, to kill each other, even as she knew they were all immortals.
She craved to make Zeus realize what his infidelities towards her had caused―a war.
But in the end, none of that happened, as Hestia, who should have been the family goddess instead of her, Hera admitted, was too selfless to allow such a thing to happen, and rather decided to silently step back and be wiped away and forgotten than to force her family to suffer.
–*–*–
Some centuries after marrying Zeus and clinging on to the hope that the time would come when he would finally hit rock bottom, Hera finally had to face reality and realize Zeus would never stop doing what he did best―cheat on her and hurt her while doing so.
Apparently, it was only she the one who had to hit bottom.
That time came when she heard Zeus had fooled Persephone, his very own daughter, into thinking that he was Hades, her respective husband, just for then having her pregnant with Zagreus, another god, but at least a minor one for once.
This time, Hera realized, she couldn't even blame Persephone for what had happened, knowing as she did that Persephone had been under the belief that the one she was staying with was her husband. And knowing too, that Persephone was faithful to Hades at her heart.
Up until then Zeus had respected his daughters at least, if not to his wife, allowing Artemis and Athena to go on with the chastity thing as they had asked him to concede them.
Hestia too, had made a vote of everlasting maidenhood to avoid yet another war, this time one over her hand between Hermes and Poseidon, and Zeus had fully respected her decision, even supported it
Not so with Persephone, Hera grasped, somehow bothered by the mere thought of it.
For once, Hera wasn't sure whether if what infuriated her the most was the fact that Zeus had been unfaithful to her or the fact that Zeus had rapped his very own daughter.
Her anger only grew stronger when only a few years later Hera took notice that Persephone was pregnant again, and this time, just as the previous one, the father of her daughter, Melinoe, wasn't her husband, but Zeus again.
Well, Hera thought bitterly, when she took note of Demeter's destroyed expression, this was the punishment for Demeter that she had been craving and pleading for years, seeing her beloved offspring with Zeus suffer and ache, but now that all that suffering was finally happening, Hera genuinely wished that she could take it back.
For years, she had raised her hate and her own bitterness against Zeus and Demeter, and against all of Zeus' bastard sons and lovers, especially the last ones, but when she stared back at Persephone that one time, while the spring goddess avoided her gaze and bowed her head fearfully, what Hera felt burst in her chest was not hate, but pity.
–*–*–
When Perseus was born, Hera too couldn't help but pity Danae, his mother almost as much as she pitied Persephone.
The poor girl had been trapped in a tower for her whole life, thanks to her father's fear, who had been given a prophecy that said that he would be killed by the son Danae would give birth to.
Trying to prevent that from happening and in an attempt to escape fate, Acrisius had locked his own daughter away on a bronze tower, which proved a useless measure when Zeus entered the room as sunlight and got her pregnant nevertheless.
When Perseus' cried were heard by Acrisius, he forced his daughter and her new born child into a wooden box and threw them both to the sea, hoping on their death.
Unfortunately for Acrisius, Zeus asked Poseidon to calm down the seas so that Persephone and Perseus survived. Thanks to Poseidon's helped, who by the way had also helped in making Artemis' and Apollo's birth possible, both Danae and Perseus arrived safely to Seriphos.
Much to Hera's tranquility, Perseus had been mortal, and that was a good reason as to why she wasn't completely annoyed by his existence.
It was not until some years later that she thought about Perseus again, when he set sail in his quest to find Medusa's head and save his mother from being forced to marry Polydectes.
Hera was surprised by how much that boy loved his mother, enough to risk his one and only life just to guarantee her welfare and happiness. She didn't even bother to ask herself if one of her children would have done something slightly as touching for her when the answer was so obvious―a categorical no.
That was a hero, she thought, a hero that had too much of something that Zeus totally lacked of―loyalty.
She was also taken back with surprise when both Athena and Hermes met their half-brother and both of them offered something that would eventually help Perseus in his quest and most certainly save his life―Athena's shield and Hermes' flying sandals.
They were being nice and caring, Hera noticed, they were being selfless and worried about the life of someone who only shared half of their genes and yet, instead of competing against each other to get Zeus' attention, they were doing the complete opposite by trying to help Perseus go back to Seriphos safely.
Maybe she had judged them wrongly, Hera thought with a jealous tug in her chest. Maybe she could still learn the definition of the very family she was the goddess of by listening and observing the people she oh-so frequently accused of being the responsible ones of tearing her own family apart.
–*–*–
Some years later, Hera learned that there was another woman pregnant of her husband, but she wasn't even surprised anymore―she had lost that capacity long ago. She almost expected Zeus' infidelities now, and was slightly puzzled when several years passed by and no more of her husbands' bastard sons or daughters were added to the list.
This time, just like he had done with Persephone, Zeus disguised himself as Amphytrion, Alcmene's husband and then got her pregnant with the one demigod who would be remembered to be the greatest hero of all times–Heracles.
This time, she became furious. She was fuming because of the betrayal she was being a victim of, because of how she never seemed to be enough. She was furious because of what Zeus had done to that mortal, messing up Alcmene's marriage, the one thing she was the goddess of. And most importantly, she was outraged to realize that the offspring of that unfaithful relationship had been named after her. It was like making even more public the fact she had been stepped and cheated on.
However, Zeus was not yet done, she realized one morning when she woke up to find Heracles sucking from her breast.
Her anger had been so immense, so huge, that she found herself unable to even think clearly of what she was doing, which concluded in her acting instead―and all she could do was send the boy flying away from her, creating the Milky Way, which name she despised more than she despised Heracles himself. That was like yet another slap right across her face each time she turned and saw the stars.
To have the knowledge of the boy's existence and accept it was one thing, but to have that bastard son of her husband being breastfed by her―that was the ultimate humiliation.
Ever since then, all the pity she might have felt towards Heracles or his mother vanished and transformed into a deep, throbbing hate that would pass to history almost as much as Heracles' great deeds did. She knew she was being unfair to the demigod, Heracles hadn't decided to go place himself on her chest, but she either was too infuriated to care, or plainly didn't cared at all.
Over the years, every single time Heracles fought a monster, Hera would watch the fight, craving to see him die a painful death. Every single time Hera saw her pseudo-namesake suffer, a macabre part of her could only feel delighted at the morbid scene under her eyes.
When years later the pain of knowing he had killed his second wife and his own sons forced Heracles to a suicide attempt, Hera was beaming.
Finally, she thought, Heracles knew what she had been suffering on a regular basis during all those years, losing her family and every single possibility of ever having one, even if her loss was not as literal.
Unluckily for her, Zeus had other plans for his son, and he gifted Heracles with immortality just before the guy died, and not yet satisfied with it, Zeus forced the new god to marry Hebe, one of Hera's very own daughters.
True to tell, Hera had always thought that Zeus had done that just to punish her and make her feel bad for all the unnecessary suffering and pain she had forced Heracles to endure.
Even so, and even when she was now forced to see Heracles regularly on Mount Olympus and that her issues with him had given her the reputation of a bitter and heartless person, Hera could just not find it within her to feel regretful.
–*–*–
When several centuries later the Big Three swore over the Styx River to not conceive any more children, Hera felt calm and at ease for the first time ever since they had defeated Kronos and she had married Zeus, almost three millennia earlier.
Over the past, modern years, Zeus had had a lot of children, maybe even hundreds of them, especially with mortals. Too much to grow bitter on, and way too much to even keep count.
But finally it was over, she thought, smiling for the first time in a very, very long time.
She should have known better than to believe such bullshit.
–*–*–
When Thalia Grace was born only a few decades after making the oath, Hera had been surprised and puzzled against everything that logic dictated.
Of course, she thought. She should have seen that one thing coming. Of course.
Of course a blonde second-class celebrity was enough to make Zeus forget the notion of everything that was sacred an important.
Of course that only a pretty face was enough to seal the doom of them all just because the almighty Zeus felt like spending a night with an egocentric and self-centered beauty.
–*–*–
When scarcely five years later Jason Grace was born to the same eccentric actress, Hera found herself simply too tired to even feel mad at the child or at Zeus anymore.
Instead of hating the boy that had arrived to the world she rather decided to use him in her plans and give him the renown no hero had had since Heracles' death.
She was plainly too used to it to care anymore, she finally decided. She was too used to be cheated on to even feel hurt or angered anymore, and she was too furious to even be able to express herself in words.
Most importantly, she was too prideful to hurt for the same thing after so many centuries and ions.
She was too prideful to hurt, plainly and simply, she decided as she traced her heroe's destiny.
Before reading Percy Jackson I first fell in love with Greek, Roman and pretty much every single mythology on the world, so what eventually briught me to Percy was my already existing love for myths, no the other way around, which means I already had an opinion on the gods formed before I even read the books, which ends up as weird, because sometimes I'm talking and say something like 'Well, Hades never once was unfaithful to Persephone, unless you want to talk about Percy Jackson because then...' Where I want to get with this babbling is that I hated Hera long before she appeared in the series.
All of the myths that I talk about in this story are as real as a myth can be, so that means they have at least one or two different versions. For example, some people say it was Hephaestus the son Hera had on her own, or that Athena is only Zeus' daughter, or things like that.
Please think me what do you think about this story, and actually, I'm also interested in learning what you think about the other goddesses, and this goddess in specific, hate her, like her, pity her? What do you think?
Read you all soon!