Hera, the sister and wife of Zeus, was queen of Mount Olympus, where the gods were said to reside. She was the goddess of marriage and childbirth, and her nuptial to Zeus was known as a hieros gamos (sacred marriage), which was ritually re-enacted in cult festivals.
This is a plaster cast of a marble head of Hera from the Sanctuary of Hera near Argos. The original is thought to have been the work of the school of Polyclitus carved around 400 BCE. Hera was worshipped as the chief local goddess in the Argolid and the Argives paid homage by dedicating a magnificent sanctuary to her. During her festival, the priestess of Hera was carried over the fields in a fertility rite.
