Hera
(Juno)

"Lady Hera of Argos, she who goes / On golden sandals," is the Goddess of Marriage -- primarily her own. As Edith Hamilton notes, "When any account of her gets down to details, it shows her chiefly engaged in punishing the many women Zeus fell in love with, even when they yielded only because he coerced or tricked them."

She, along with Hestia and Demeter, is one of the three daughters of Rhea and Cronus. Hera had been swallowed by her father, but Metis provided Zeus with a drug, which he then used to force Cronus to regurgitate Hera. Rhea, to spare her daughter from falling prey once more to the consuming and murderous paranoia of Cronus, entrusted Hera to the care of Oceanus and Tethys, who brought her up alongside their own three thousand children.

Zeus, after his victory over the Titans, married several wives. "Last," says Hesiod, "he took blooming Hera for his wife." Although last to be chosen, Hera is not the least among Zeus's wives. Indeed, she is the most powerful of the goddesses of Olympus. While ultimately recognizing the authority of her husband, she insists on being consulted, often asserts her will contrary to his wishes, and provokes a fear of herself in every lovely female (immortal or mortal) who dares to attract the roving eye of Zeus. She is the assertive Greek wife who would have overpowered any husband other than Zeus himself.