Hera
Hera’s symbols are a queen’s: a tall crown, the polos, and a sceptre. The peacock was her sacred bird, and her great statue at Argos held a pomegranate, with a cuckoo perched on its sceptre.
Meaning
Hera was the sister and wife of Zeus and the queen of the gods. The Homeric Hymn to Hera calls her “golden-throned Hera”, whom all the gods on Olympus honour as they honour Zeus. The Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that she is frequently shown wearing a tall crown, or polos. Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849) calls her the only really married goddess among the Olympians, and so the goddess of marriage and of the birth of children; her ordinary attributes in art are the diadem, the veil, the sceptre and the peacock, and the veil hanging down the back of her head marks her as the bride of Zeus. Homer’s epithet for her, rendered “ox-eyed” in A. T. Murray’s Iliad, becomes “cow-eyed” in the Met’s guide for teachers. The Romans identified their Juno with Hera. She is honoured today in the Hellenic religion kept by the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes, recognised by the Greek state as a known religion in 2017.
Origin and history
The fullest ancient description of Hera with her symbols is of a statue nobody can now see. Pausanias visited her sanctuary fifteen stades from Mycenae, the Heraeum, and saw the huge seated statue of gold and ivory that Polycleitus had made. She wore a crown worked with the Graces and the Seasons, and held a pomegranate in one hand and a sceptre in the other. “About the pomegranate I must say nothing,” Pausanias writes, “for its story is somewhat of a holy mystery.” He does explain the cuckoo on the sceptre. When Zeus was in love with the young Hera he turned himself into a cuckoo, and she caught the bird to be her pet; Pausanias adds that he relates tales like this one without believing them.
The peacock was there too. Among the offerings at the Heraion, Pausanias saw a peacock of gold and gleaming stones dedicated by the emperor Hadrian, “because they hold the bird to be sacred to Hera”. The story of how the peacock got its eyes is Roman. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Mercury (the Roman Hermes) kills the hundred-eyed watchman Argus, and Juno, “Saturn’s daughter”, spreads the glitter of his eyes on the feathers of her bird, “emblazoning its tail with starry gems”.
Why is the peacock Hera’s bird?
The ancient writers give two answers. Pausanias simply records that the people of Argos held the bird sacred to Hera, which is why Hadrian gave her a jewelled one. Ovid gives a story: the peacock’s tail carries the eyes of Argus, set there by Juno after his death. Smith counts the peacock among her ordinary attributes in works of art, with the diadem, the veil and the sceptre.
The pomegranate Pausanias would not explain
Pausanias held back the meaning of the pomegranate in Hera’s hand as a holy mystery, and no other source used here explains it. The fruit also belongs to the story of Persephone: in Smith’s retelling of the myth of Demeter, Aidoneus gave Persephone part of a pomegranate to eat so that she could not stay with her mother all year. Pausanias does not connect the two.
Hera or Demeter?
The two goddesses can look alike in sculpture: both are mature, robed women, and both may hold a sceptre. Smith writes that Demeter’s image resembled Hera’s in its maternal character but had a softer expression and eyes less widely opened, and that Demeter wore a garland of ears of corn where Hera wore a crown or diadem, often with a veil. A polos and a peacock point to Hera; ears of wheat, a poppy or a torch point to Demeter.
Read next
- Next in Greek gods and their symbolsPoseidonPoseidon’s symbol is the trident, a three-pronged spear. Greek artists also gave him the horse, which he was said to have created, and the dolphin, so that he is easy to pick out among the gods.
- Iris, the rainbow messenger after whom the flower is named, was Juno's attendantIrisThe iris meant "message" in the flower dictionaries, after Iris, the rainbow messenger of the Greek gods. Sarah Josepha Hale gave it "my compliments" instead, and the German iris, the fleur-de-lis, meant "flame".
See also
Demeter, Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares.
Sources
- Homeric Hymn 12, To Hera 1–5 (tr. Evelyn-White), The Homeric Hymns, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), Homeric Hymn 12, To Hera, lines 1–5, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 1–5
- Greek Gods and Religious Practices (Colette and Seán Hemingway, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Colette Hemingway and Seán Hemingway, “Greek Gods and Religious Practices”, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2003), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, essay text
- Greek Art: From Prehistoric to Classical, a resource for educators (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art of the Ancient Greeks: From Prehistoric to Classical. A Resource for Educators (2000), “Greek Beliefs: Myth and Religion”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 17, “Greek Beliefs”
- Iliad 1.550–551 (Homer, tr. A. T. Murray), Homer, The Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray (1924), 1.550–551, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 1, lines 550–551
- Hera (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Hera”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
- Description of Greece 2.17.1 (Pausanias, tr. Jones and Ormerod), Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod (1918), 2.17.1, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 2, chapter 17, section 1
- Description of Greece 2.17.4 (Pausanias, tr. Jones and Ormerod), Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod (1918), 2.17.4, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 2, chapter 17, section 4
- Description of Greece 2.17.6 (Pausanias, tr. Jones and Ormerod), Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod (1918), 2.17.6, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 2, chapter 17, section 6
- Metamorphoses 1.713–723 (Ovid, tr. Brookes More), Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by Brookes More (1922), 1.713–723, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 1, lines 713–723
- Demeter (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Demeter”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
- What is the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE)? (YSEE, frequently asked questions), Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), “Frequently asked questions”, Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), first and second answers
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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 8, 2026. How we research
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