"Well, I would have to say that this
tour is going very well! I just have a wonderful feeling that you all
are going to see some wonderful things in this room. This is our hall
dedicated Hera. The most exciting part of this room is that it is the
completely restored Temple of Hera! As you can see from the pictures to
the right, the temple is located very close to us in Olympia, but due
to weather and the lack of upkeep from the Greek government, the temple
has been left to ruins."
"I will have to tell you, though, Hera was not the graceful goddess that we all think of today. If you do not read all the details, you will see a goddess who is always on top of her game , but as I told you in the Hall of Zeus, she was a very jealous and competitive goddess. She always wanted to be greater than her husband, and some gods placed her on an even level with Zeus. Zeus revealed to her many secrets that other gods did not know about. Even though she could betray Zeus's trust, she ultimately knew in the back of her mind that Zeus would always be a little greater than she was, so she obeyed unconditionally."
As Cypris started to walk to the left far corner of the room, she began to speak to the guests about what she was going to show them. "Before I let all of you look around on your own, I want to show you the most important thing in this room about Hera!"
As the guests got closer to the end of the hall, they begin to see a beautiful garden! This was no ordinary garden either; it had to be the most magnificent group of trees and plants these guests had ever seen. Everyone was automatically drawn to all of the apple trees. The colors of the trees were absolutely the brightest you could ever imagine. The green leaves ranged from deep hunter green to the brightest Islamic green in the world. Then the guests' eyes were drawn directly to the bark of the tree. There was no dying spot on any of these trees. Everything was picture perfect with the shiny red apple sitting perfectly in place between all of the green leaves. Then they noticed that there was one tree that was different from all the others. Instead of the bright red apples sitting in the leaves of the trees, this one tree had golden apples.
"Now I know all of you are wondering about just one of these trees! This is the tree of the golden apples. It was given to Hera after her marriage to Zeus as a wedding present from Gaia, the goddess of earth. Hera was honored by this gift, so she wanted to ensure its protection. She placed the tree in her garden where Hesperides, the "Daighters of the Evening," guarded it. If you have any questions please let me know!"
As the guests started to scatter, one young lady was left by herself with Cypris, and she asked, "Isn't there a story where Hera is denied a golden apple?"
"I am so excited someone asked me about this because I am actually apart of this story!"
The young lady looked very confused, but Cypris continued to say, "Cypris is only one of my alias names! My real name is Aphrodite, but you have to promise to keep this a secret! I have never told this to a guest before! I mean when you tell people you are a goddess it sometimes frightens them away, but I am sure you are doing fine, right?"
The young lady's eyes widened, but she slowly managed to get something out of her mouth. "Ummm... yeah... I, I, I, I am doing just great!"
"Awesome! Then let me tell you what I have to do with Hera. It all started when we went to the wedding of the mortal King Peelus and Thetis, the goddess of the sea. Every god and goddess was invited except for Eris because she is the goddess of discord, and no one wants that at their wedding! Everyone was shocked when she showed up to the wedding and acted as if she should be showed to a front row seat! To her surprise, though, she was escorted out of the event! I have never seen her so anger, so I knew something was going to happen! And as she left the wedding she threw me a golden apple with a note attached. The note said "To the Fairest." I knew it was for me, but of course Hera and Athena took claim to the apple, too! Many of the gods and goddesses began to get upset about the fighting, so they asked Zeus to decide who was really the fairest of the goddesses, but he refused to choose and said that Paris, the prince of Troy, should decide. I knew exactly how to convince Paris to pick me, but I let Athena and Hera bribe him first. Hera promised to let him rule over all the lands and domination of wealth. Athena said she would give him many skills and the greatest strength among all the mortals if he picked her. I knew the longing of his heart, so I promised him marriage to the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. Paris immediately gave me the golden apple and then a lot of drama happened. I knew I was the fairest, but Hera and Athena still were very bitter Paris, and also to the whole land of Troy, where Paris came from, so a few things fell into place and the Trojan War began."
The young lady was speechless after this, but she knew the guests were moving on into the next room so she followed the group in total shock.
Author's Note: With this story I revealed Cypris's identity as Aphrodite to only one of the guests. My idea for this will expand in the next story and all of the other guests will find out about her secret identity! We all know people are with keeping secrets! By using the story about the golden apple it was very easy to set up the revealing of her identity since both characters are in this story. I also really liked this story because it showed how Hera always wants to be on top of all the goddesses, but in this case she lost the contest and helped cause a war. Like my last story, I only used the original story in a short part of the story that I wrote. I think it is more important to show background information on Hera, and it provides great details for the story that I wrote. I also was able to use details about Temple that really do exist in Greece. These are real picture of the temple and I think it adds to the reality of the gods in this story.
The only part of the original story that I changed was who was telling the story. It adds more excitement to the story because Cypris adds her energy and personality to the story along with some personal biases too.
Return to Coverpage
Go back to the Story of Zeus
Back to the Introduction
Continue reading about Poseidon
"I will have to tell you, though, Hera was not the graceful goddess that we all think of today. If you do not read all the details, you will see a goddess who is always on top of her game , but as I told you in the Hall of Zeus, she was a very jealous and competitive goddess. She always wanted to be greater than her husband, and some gods placed her on an even level with Zeus. Zeus revealed to her many secrets that other gods did not know about. Even though she could betray Zeus's trust, she ultimately knew in the back of her mind that Zeus would always be a little greater than she was, so she obeyed unconditionally."
As Cypris started to walk to the left far corner of the room, she began to speak to the guests about what she was going to show them. "Before I let all of you look around on your own, I want to show you the most important thing in this room about Hera!"
As the guests got closer to the end of the hall, they begin to see a beautiful garden! This was no ordinary garden either; it had to be the most magnificent group of trees and plants these guests had ever seen. Everyone was automatically drawn to all of the apple trees. The colors of the trees were absolutely the brightest you could ever imagine. The green leaves ranged from deep hunter green to the brightest Islamic green in the world. Then the guests' eyes were drawn directly to the bark of the tree. There was no dying spot on any of these trees. Everything was picture perfect with the shiny red apple sitting perfectly in place between all of the green leaves. Then they noticed that there was one tree that was different from all the others. Instead of the bright red apples sitting in the leaves of the trees, this one tree had golden apples.
"Now I know all of you are wondering about just one of these trees! This is the tree of the golden apples. It was given to Hera after her marriage to Zeus as a wedding present from Gaia, the goddess of earth. Hera was honored by this gift, so she wanted to ensure its protection. She placed the tree in her garden where Hesperides, the "Daighters of the Evening," guarded it. If you have any questions please let me know!"
As the guests started to scatter, one young lady was left by herself with Cypris, and she asked, "Isn't there a story where Hera is denied a golden apple?"
"I am so excited someone asked me about this because I am actually apart of this story!"
The young lady looked very confused, but Cypris continued to say, "Cypris is only one of my alias names! My real name is Aphrodite, but you have to promise to keep this a secret! I have never told this to a guest before! I mean when you tell people you are a goddess it sometimes frightens them away, but I am sure you are doing fine, right?"
The young lady's eyes widened, but she slowly managed to get something out of her mouth. "Ummm... yeah... I, I, I, I am doing just great!"
"Awesome! Then let me tell you what I have to do with Hera. It all started when we went to the wedding of the mortal King Peelus and Thetis, the goddess of the sea. Every god and goddess was invited except for Eris because she is the goddess of discord, and no one wants that at their wedding! Everyone was shocked when she showed up to the wedding and acted as if she should be showed to a front row seat! To her surprise, though, she was escorted out of the event! I have never seen her so anger, so I knew something was going to happen! And as she left the wedding she threw me a golden apple with a note attached. The note said "To the Fairest." I knew it was for me, but of course Hera and Athena took claim to the apple, too! Many of the gods and goddesses began to get upset about the fighting, so they asked Zeus to decide who was really the fairest of the goddesses, but he refused to choose and said that Paris, the prince of Troy, should decide. I knew exactly how to convince Paris to pick me, but I let Athena and Hera bribe him first. Hera promised to let him rule over all the lands and domination of wealth. Athena said she would give him many skills and the greatest strength among all the mortals if he picked her. I knew the longing of his heart, so I promised him marriage to the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. Paris immediately gave me the golden apple and then a lot of drama happened. I knew I was the fairest, but Hera and Athena still were very bitter Paris, and also to the whole land of Troy, where Paris came from, so a few things fell into place and the Trojan War began."
The young lady was speechless after this, but she knew the guests were moving on into the next room so she followed the group in total shock.
Author's Note: With this story I revealed Cypris's identity as Aphrodite to only one of the guests. My idea for this will expand in the next story and all of the other guests will find out about her secret identity! We all know people are with keeping secrets! By using the story about the golden apple it was very easy to set up the revealing of her identity since both characters are in this story. I also really liked this story because it showed how Hera always wants to be on top of all the goddesses, but in this case she lost the contest and helped cause a war. Like my last story, I only used the original story in a short part of the story that I wrote. I think it is more important to show background information on Hera, and it provides great details for the story that I wrote. I also was able to use details about Temple that really do exist in Greece. These are real picture of the temple and I think it adds to the reality of the gods in this story.
The only part of the original story that I changed was who was telling the story. It adds more excitement to the story because Cypris adds her energy and personality to the story along with some personal biases too.
Return to Coverpage
Go back to the Story of Zeus
Back to the Introduction
Continue reading about Poseidon
Bibliography
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 92 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.)
Web Source: The Judgement of Paris
Introduction to Hera from Theoi.com
Web Source: Intro to Hera
Image Information
Hera, Athenian red-figure lekythos C5th B.C., Rhode Island School of Design
Doric capital at the Temple of Hera (east side, 4th column from S corner).
Restored ruins of the Temple of Hera.
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 92 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.)
Web Source: The Judgement of Paris
Introduction to Hera from Theoi.com
Web Source: Intro to Hera
Image Information
Hera, Athenian red-figure lekythos C5th B.C., Rhode Island School of Design
Doric capital at the Temple of Hera (east side, 4th column from S corner).
Restored ruins of the Temple of Hera.
