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Greek myth - Hera and Zeus III
Nov. 23rd, 2020 12:20 amBeen vaguely thinking about Hera and Zeus and their relationship again - I think it was kicked off remembering/seeing that gifset from Blood of Zeus where Zeus and Poseidon have the “only a food would trust her.” / “No, only a fool would anger her.”
And like, the only part of that that’s wrong is Poseidon’s “no” because he should know better. Yes, only a fool would anger Hera, but only a fool would also trust her, unless they are 200% sure Hera 1. doesn’t have an agenda, 2. can’t use you for it (because she will).
Hera’s method of political maneuvering is lies. Lies, lies and lies, so she can put people where she wants them or get them to do what she wants. Hera spends basically a whole chapter in the Iliad lying to attain her goals (or just because she’s angry).
Zeus manipulating people to do what he wants is less lies and just making sure people do what he wants by acting so they will act like they can be expected to. To illustrate; if you go with the Epic Cycle being necessary and planned by Zeus and Themis, Zeus ensuring Eris fucks shit up means he suggest they ban her from the wedding, which, while it probably has never happened before... isn’t that just a logical suggestion? Eris is a menace. Ok, they ban her. Eris gets hacked off, the apple thing happens. Zeus does not award the apple himself (because it can’t be him, then it’s all over), so he hands it over to one of the Trojan princes generally known for being fair in his judgements, the goddesses bring out their bribes... etc you know how it goes.
(He does not lie to Hera when it comes to her noticing he talked to Thetis. It would be EASY if he just... came up with some lie to get her to settle about it, but instead he just goes “no u can’t know, not this time, go away, I take your advice often enough”.)
Also, like. Yes, Zeus threatens Hera with violence - he threatens quite a few people with violence if they don’t shut up and sit down, so it’s not just Hera. Those parts are my least favourite bits of the Iliad, but he does not ever actually resort to violence. He’s basically politically grandstanding to get people to fall in line.
What Zeus HAS done to Hera is, that one time she put him to sleep and almost killed Heracles, tie her up and hang her from the sky (which is also when he tosses Hephaistos off Olympus when he tries to stop him from doing that).
What Hera has done is the magical equivalent of drugging Zeus, twice (that thing with Heracles and in the Iliad itself), tie or intending to tie him up (depending on how far you consider her having gotten in her conspiracy), aaand either make it impossible or at least really, really hard for him to not want to have sex with her in the Iliad by getting Aphrodite’s girdle.
If what Zeus has done is bad, then what Hera has done is bad too, and I can’t see how one would be worse than the other. I do think they love each other, but like, this is a complicated as hell relationship even ignoring Zeus’ cheating (which none of the things I counted up that they’ve done to each other actually deal with).
And like, the only part of that that’s wrong is Poseidon’s “no” because he should know better. Yes, only a fool would anger Hera, but only a fool would also trust her, unless they are 200% sure Hera 1. doesn’t have an agenda, 2. can’t use you for it (because she will).
Hera’s method of political maneuvering is lies. Lies, lies and lies, so she can put people where she wants them or get them to do what she wants. Hera spends basically a whole chapter in the Iliad lying to attain her goals (or just because she’s angry).
Zeus manipulating people to do what he wants is less lies and just making sure people do what he wants by acting so they will act like they can be expected to. To illustrate; if you go with the Epic Cycle being necessary and planned by Zeus and Themis, Zeus ensuring Eris fucks shit up means he suggest they ban her from the wedding, which, while it probably has never happened before... isn’t that just a logical suggestion? Eris is a menace. Ok, they ban her. Eris gets hacked off, the apple thing happens. Zeus does not award the apple himself (because it can’t be him, then it’s all over), so he hands it over to one of the Trojan princes generally known for being fair in his judgements, the goddesses bring out their bribes... etc you know how it goes.
(He does not lie to Hera when it comes to her noticing he talked to Thetis. It would be EASY if he just... came up with some lie to get her to settle about it, but instead he just goes “no u can’t know, not this time, go away, I take your advice often enough”.)
Also, like. Yes, Zeus threatens Hera with violence - he threatens quite a few people with violence if they don’t shut up and sit down, so it’s not just Hera. Those parts are my least favourite bits of the Iliad, but he does not ever actually resort to violence. He’s basically politically grandstanding to get people to fall in line.
What Zeus HAS done to Hera is, that one time she put him to sleep and almost killed Heracles, tie her up and hang her from the sky (which is also when he tosses Hephaistos off Olympus when he tries to stop him from doing that).
What Hera has done is the magical equivalent of drugging Zeus, twice (that thing with Heracles and in the Iliad itself), tie or intending to tie him up (depending on how far you consider her having gotten in her conspiracy), aaand either make it impossible or at least really, really hard for him to not want to have sex with her in the Iliad by getting Aphrodite’s girdle.
If what Zeus has done is bad, then what Hera has done is bad too, and I can’t see how one would be worse than the other. I do think they love each other, but like, this is a complicated as hell relationship even ignoring Zeus’ cheating (which none of the things I counted up that they’ve done to each other actually deal with).
