About a Woman

First blog post of the year! Yay! I remember being terrified about having to write something where everyone could see it last year. Now though, I’m just glad that we’re getting back into posting.

Right now, I’m reading Book IV, slowly, so as to memorize it before the first official Honors party. While reading Book XVI for this week I came across something that related well to what I’ve been reading in Book IV. In the beginning of Book IV, the gods have gathered to discuss the war in which they all have such a vested interest. During this gathering, Zeus and Hera have what seems to be a lover’s quarrel. In the end of said quarrel, Zeus bows to Hera’s wishes in regards to what will happen below on the battlefield.

In the Book we read for today, a similar quarrel takes place, though much shorter than the one in Book IV, and the end result is the same. In both instances, Hera replies to Zeus’s original decision by saying “Do it then; but not all the rest of us gods will approve you.”  And then Homer ends both arguments saying, “She spoke, nor did the father of the gods and men disobey her…”

What is it about Hera that makes Zeus acquiesce to her wishes so easily? And what is it that makes Hera think that she speaks for all the other gods? Doesn’t the text say that Zeus is the father of the gods and of men? Of course, if Zeus is the father of gods and men, does that not make Hera the mother? If this is the case, then I can see where Hera would think she could sway the other gods to her side, and therefore speak for them. But if not, and we know how promiscuous the gods could be, what makes her so important?

I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but I thought I’d put them out there and see what other people think!

Tantum e tenebris receptum constabit,

~Meghan

P.S. I commented on Jannah's "Honor and Achilles"