Hera Myth

The notorious Zeus had done it again. He had, yet another affair, with a forest nymph. Hera, the queen of the gods, was not too pleased after learning about her husband’s affair. She wanted to seek revenge on her cheating husband, so Hera fabricated a plan to bring the king’s downfall. Hera traveled down from Mount Olympus into the forest. Softly chirping, the birds gathered together in the trees around her. Their voices ran quiet and soon no sound could be heard. While traveling deeper into the forest, Hera heard the most beautiful voice coming from a pond. The girl, petite and long-haired, was singing while washing her long locks. Waterfall trickling behind her, her voice rang out through the land. When Hera had called out her voice, “Echo,

Hera started to tell Echo a legend, “When you find your true love, no matter his status or ranking, you can win him forever by doing one simple thing.” Listening intently to the words on Hera’s lips, Echo absorbed every drop of them like a dry ground soaking up the rain. Hera continued, “Gather a jar and scream the name of your love into to it, seal it up and throw it into the ocean.” Seeing Echo’s confusion, Hera said, “Poseidon, the god of the sea, would take pity on any soul that was desperate. He would conjure up his friend Cupid, and have him shoot your true love with an arrow.” Hera left quickly, knowing that Echo would do what she had said. While the jar with the voice was sinking, Hera’s fish swallowed it and delivered it to her. The jar, a large glass, was cold to the touch as Hera held it. Thirsty for power, she breathed in the sound and gulped it

Echo struggled to sing and knew what Hera had done. Zeus came down to the forest to see Echo and saw how she struggled to even speak. With that warning, Zeus knew Hera had done something. Hera, not knowing that Zeus knew what she did, challenged him to a friendly competition. The competition was that whoever could make the largest spectacle for the humans would be awarded a gift from Apollo, the god of the sky. Before the big competition, Hera traveled down from Mount Olympus, but this time to find a human. After searching for three days for a suitable match, Hera found the perfect man. His name was Peter and he was known to be a very naive, yet sweet man. Hera told Peter to wait under an olive tree on the tallest mountain and watch the sky that