Hera

I am always made out to be the villain. Everyone wants to blame Hera and I am sick of it. I firmly believe that everyone has done their fair share of smiting, but when I do it I am the bad guy. It is time I told my side of the story. Zeus is the love of my life. A lot of men cannot handle a strong woman, but he balances me out. We are a power couple. So, can you blame me for wanting to keep him to myself? However, this was not an easy task. Many goddesses and women are jealous of what we have and they want it for themselves. I cannot say I blame them, but they lied and tricked my husband into doing unspeakable things. I could not just stand by and allow this deceit. For example, Leto was selfish. She was the goddess of motherhood, but that was not good enough for her. She wanted his power. If she had children with him, they would have status. So, she seduced him. She used her beauty to lure him in and tricked him into sleeping with her. When I found out she was pregnant, I was livid. I could not believe someone would take advantage of my Zeus like that. I had to act. I told her for her actions, she should not give birth in our homeland. She must flee because of her evil, selfish actions. But I am not all evil here. I allowed no harm to come to her children. Both of the twins, Artemis and Apollo, were permitted to live here at Olympus and hold positions of high power if I do say so myself.

Wow, Hera sure does know how to make herself the victim. Persephone here and as Zeus's child not born of Hera, I can tell you she is not so kind. Before she authorized my marriage and my time in the underworld, I got to see firsthand her treatment of Zeus's lovers. She was ruthless. Leto was banished from the mainland, still to this day, and punished to a lengthy, painful childbirth, which Hera, the goddess of childbirth, made sure of. However, Leto, whether she believes it or not, got off easily. Many of Hera's targets ended up as other animals or entrapped by a monster of her choice. My mother, Demeter, and I have tried to talk to her about it. She rejected that her husband was in the wrong. He could never treat her this way voluntarily. He would not use his tricks of deception. All this shows is that he is better at deception than we all originally thought.

Hi! I'm Aphrodite, another of Zeus's children here. My father is a man of power. He wants what he wants with no regard for those around him. That is how we ended up with majority of Mount Olympus with the same dad. I believe that he loves Hera. This is why he chose her as his bride over everyone else. However, he has a wandering eye and Hera was never going to leave him because of how it would look. What would the world think if the goddess of marriage couldn't keep a husband? Therefore, he could cheat and not face the wrath of Hera, but someone had to. She had continuous pent up anger towards him that must be expressed. This led the poor women, that more often than not Zeus took advantage of and I'm talking double if not triple digits, to be punished. The punishment, as Persephone mentioned, was never just.