Hera: The Goddess and her Glory

Olympians # 3

By George O’Connor

ISBN# 9781596434332

Author’s Website: http://geooco.blogspot.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar

“In all the cosmos, there is only one being that Zeus, the king of the gods is afraid of… his queen, Hera”

The comic of Hera: The Goddess and her Glory begins after Zeus eats Metis on the previous volume. On the first volume of the series, we saw that Zeus already had an interest for Hera. He rescued her when their father Kronos threw them up, not letting her touch the ground like their other siblings.

Zeus starts to court Hera, but she stops all of his attempts; she doesn’t want to be his queen nor another one of his conquests in his long list. Finally, one day, she gives in, but she tells him to make her his wife and to promise not to be unfaithful to her or she will make the women and children pay.

Gods, goddess, naiads, nymphs, centaurs, satyrs, giants, titans (those not imprisoned in the Tartarus,) and even humans assist the wedding. Rhea, the Titaness, gave to her favorite daughter the most exquisite gift – a tree that was guarded by the serpent Ladon. This tree produced apples of a perfect golden luster that shimmered and shined in the beaming sun.

Their wedding night lasted three hundred years and during these years Earth was peaceful. With time, Hera and Zeus had children. Ares, who was beautiful, but was bloodthirsty and cruel. Hephaistos, who was kind and an excellent craftsman, but was ugly and brutish.

Eventually, Zeus’ eyes started to wander, and when that happens someone else pays for Hera’s wrath. From here on; I recommend you read the comic to see the glory and wrath of Hera.

Hera’s comic tells more of the story of Alcides, which you may know him by the names of Heracles or Hercules. The Olympian series is a good way to learn via illustrations. One good example is Alcides, whom most of the time we know as Heracles, which means, “Glory of Hera”. Even though they are half-siblings, Athena and Hermes save their brother Alcides when his mother abandoned him fearing the goddess Hera. I like to think of it as those who weren’t children of Hera needed to help each other.

The reader can also learn that king Eurystheus was Heracles cousin. As some may remember, Heracles had to do twelve tasks. On the contrary to the comic, it seems that he had to clean the gods’ mistakes. In addition, we see how Hera was testing Heracles to see how worthy he was of being one of the gods because not all of Zeus’ children could become one.

If you think for a moment, Athena was inside Zeus’ head for more than three hundred years because we see that Ares and Hephaistos were all grown up and helped their father.

The old stories say that Zeus not only chased girls around, but that sometimes he had male lovers. We briefly see in the comic that Heracles inherited some of this trait. In the Argonaut’s trip, we see that he makes a particular friendship with Hylas, and when he is lost, Heracles goes into a rampage which takes him time to return to his senses and almost destroys a country. This shows how the illustrator manages to insert different themes into the comic.

The comic is very realistic and well-drawn, especially when we can see the detail of the weight of time on Heracles; his head starts to bald and some hair turns white, but he always is strong to keep on with his father’s heritage. After winning his freedom and having great adventures he marries, but at the end he dies because there was not enough trust and love from his wife.

The comic was very interesting and entertaining, I recommend you to read Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory, there is always something new to learn from the Olympian Series. And remember, Hera has eyes everywhere – her wrath is legendary.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*