Prompt: bitter.

Rating: T.

Length: 1,600 words or so.

Summary: they say she is bitter, and Hera cannot disagree with their truth.

Pairing: mentioned!Hera/Zeus, & hinted!Helios/Hera.

Character(s): Hera, and briefly mentioned Olympians, Gaea, Cronus, & Helios.

Author's Note:

This was actually supposed to be really short, but somehow the words just kept on coming. I saw some of the reviews for the first chapter, and I'm glad you people are enjoying this. It makes me want to update a bit faster, even though every new chapter will be random and sudden, since I have no fixed pattern with my writing. This style and genre may differ compared to the last story, but it's still kind of dark, maybe darker than the previous one, nonetheless I hope you enjoy reading this one too!

Bitter

They say she is bitter, and maybe, Hera can agree with them there. Because, she was not always like this.

She once knew, how to smile, timid though it was —years of being imprisoned in her father's belly had taught her nothing but fear—, it was something of a wonder to look at, or so her siblings had once told her.

Hera believed that maybe after being free of Cronus, she would not be imprisoned again...she thought, she would be free. A fool's wish it was, made by a naïve and yet so-very-young goddess, who did not know any better. For, how could she? Hera, like her older siblings had been trapped in darkness since her birth, where the light she glimpsed of for that short moment had been taken away so quickly, she did not even know why. And despite what Rhea would tell them of the world, words were not experience, nor were they knowledge to one who had not seen the world, in all its beautiful glory and terrifying ugliness.

She thought that after the years of being locked away, Zeus —who had been their savior—, was a great brother and an even more magnificent god. Of course, she had thought wrong, but no one had dared to crush Hera's beliefs then. Mostly, because, at that time, they had all thought the same.

No one expected Hera to marry Zeus, not when she swore on the freedom that she had so recently just gained that, "As long as I live, I will not be like our mother Rhea, I will not marry a god who makes me watch my children suffer, and I will not marry a god who thinks he is worthy of greatness, for arrogance only makes a god more foolish. I will marry a god that loves me and not his throne..." And because, Zeus was so much like her father, —from what Gaea had told her, when she asked her what she thought of Zeus— Hera had decided that Zeus was not worthy of her time. She had been slightly arrogant and quite picky to what kind of god could capture her heart. Because she had fought in the war against her father, and his-titans, since they were not all of his siblings, some of them had not enjoyed the prospect of war with young gods, and had not been so blindly loyal to Cronus to fight his war, against the very children he'd condemned to eternal misery and darkness. So, her behavior was not chastised, for not many goddesses were to known to go to war, and still remain so righteous and kind.

It was also because Hera had been fond of Helios, not in love with him, but so very fond of him, Hestia had told Hades that, if Metis's son had not been prophesized to usurp Zeus's throne, Helios could have whisked away Hera to his realm of light, and forever brightened Hera's dark view of the world. It had made Hades eyes sharpen in a glare right then, and Hestia sigh wistfully, but no one had said anything to Zeus for stealing Hera away, not until they'd been told of how Zeus had managed to get Hera to marry him. It was why, in the many years later, that Hades never saw eye to eye with his younger sibling, and Hestia had chosen to never marry.

That is what she had said back then, but that is not what happened, because most of the time, Hera pretends it did not. She likes to lie to herself, and imagine she was courted. She tells herself, "It is alright if I am no longer a virgin" even though to her, it really is not; though deep inside of her, an angry voice whispers, "No! It is not. I am-was...a virgin goddess. People worshiped ME, as a virgin goddess! What would they think if they knew of what transpired that night?!" And so, she lies to herself, and to all but two of her oldest siblings, "Zeus decided to court me, and with time, I began to fall in l-love with him." It is a lie that makes her want to retch and never face anyone ever again. It is a lie, about a truth that makes her want to carve her insides out, and lock herself in solitude so that nothing bad will ever happen to her again. She lets the marriage happen instead, and begins to slowly hate herself with each and every passing day. Inwardly, she secretly begins to wish Zeus had never saved them; she begins to miss the comfort of the never-changing darkness, and of the siblings who always took care of her then.

The incident, which occurred, but Hera tells herself that it did not, was when she lost her virginity, and could no longer be considered a virgin goddess of purity.

He had come to her in the guise of a cuckoo, rain-soaked and frazzled; she had taken pity upon the creature, and brought him into the shelter of her bosom so it could be warm and safe from the rain. But not before long, the cuckoo had transformed into Zeus, and then, he'd taken her against her wishes, shaming her terribly. To which, there had been no other option but to marry him. She could have taken her life, but she could not do that to her mother, and besides the only ways gods could die were not really pleasant —she sort of envies mortals for the way death comes so easily to them.

That incident, had robbed her of her smiles, and made rain fall for months, for Gaea had known of her sadness and wanted the world to know that she was just as sad for her granddaughter. Despite that, her smiles never returned, and were as rare as snowfall in the hottest of deserts. It pained the hearts of Hades and Hestia, left Demeter rather annoyed because she could not fathom why Hera had stopped smiling, Poseidon quite befuddled with why Hera no longer laughed at his jokes, and Zeus, nonchalant as always.

Hera was always shy with her smiles, as if she did not know if smiling was allowed or if happiness still eluded her understanding, which is why they were known to be so beautiful when they would appear. It was why, the people of Argos worshiped her so fervently, for the statue they had of her, was one with a lovely smile, and slight crinkle of her eyes.

A sculptor had once been graced by her presence, since he'd always been praying for a woman to love him someday so he could have a wife and family. Now Hera had been no goddess of love, but she knew women, and one had loved the sculptor since her youth, to end their misery, she came upon the woman in her dreams and told her, "You know, if you made your intentions clear, you could have been married by now." Since Hera was not allowed to interfere in the personal matters of mortals, she just hinted to the woman to show her interest in the sculptor, and that by doing so, all would fall into place, and to the sculptor appeared in his daydream, and told him with a smile, "Patience is the utmost of virtues, Daimon, wait, and then you will find a woman who loves you." Daimon, the sculptor, had been in awe of the beauty of the smile of his virgin goddess that, that was how he'd sculpted her.

Her words had rang true, when the woman had come by one day, and told him, she found men who could create beautiful sculptures, very charming. Since he'd been the only sculptor in Argos back then, he'd smiled and inwardly thanked his goddess, before deciding to take his chances and court the woman his goddess had foretold of loving him. They married soon enough, and were blessed by Hera on the day of their wedding, and lived a long and happy life together. The people of Argos had adored the statue, having the only statue of a smiling virgin Hera, and well, it had brought Argos fame and wealth, for they'd been the only kingdom with the statue of a smiling goddess, the first one of Hera since Zeus had been crowned king of Olympus.

It was then that Hera was known as Argéia, 'She of Argos'.

So yes. Hera was indeed a bitter goddess.

But you see, unlike the myths that show Zeus as a great god, and Hera as a vindictive and jealous wife, she had not always been bitter. She had once been happy, and could have had a man who loved her, and not his power nor his throne. You see, Hera had nothing to smile about anymore, and that was why she let them speak of her in such a way. She was-is a bitter goddess, her face losing its youthfulness throughout the years, as she had lost her joy and reason to care about looking happy when she really was not.

And that was why, no statue of Hera ever showed her smiles, the one in Argos had been destroyed in time, even though some say that Hera had done so, for it reminded her of a young goddess who no longer was.

Because Hera was so very bitter.

end.