Hera

Hera is the Greek goddess of women and marriage, and the wife and older sister of Zeus from Disney's 1997 film Hercules and its television series. She is voiced by Samantha Eggar.

Mythology
In Greek mythology, Hera was known as the Queen of the Gods, wife and sister of Zeus, the King of the Gods. Hera was the goddess of marriage and women.

History
Hera was Hercules's step-mother and his enemy. When Hercules was born, she sent 2 serpents to kill him, but he was found instead playing with them as if they were toys. She also is involved in the origins of the Milky Way when Zeus tricked her into nursing Hercules and she tore him away from her once she recognized who the baby was, severely wounding her.

Hercules (film)
In the 1997 film Hercules, Hera is portrayed as the mother of Hercules. In actual mythology, Hercules' mother was a mortal woman (Zeus, despite being married, had children with numerous other women), and the jealous Hera acted as an antagonist to Hercules (much like Hades in this version).

In contrast to this, the Disney version portrays Hera as a loving and kind mother to Hercules. She appears to be somewhat overprotective of him, as evidenced when she objects to her Husband Zeus letting the newborn Hercules play with his thunderbolts. She is voiced by Samantha Eggar. Hera does not seem to be as unfriendly to Hades as the other gods in the series, as shown when she persuaded Zeus to attend Hades' pool party.

Powers & Abilities
Hera possesses the conventional attributes of the Olympian gods.

Powers

 * Superhuman Strength : Like all Olympians, Hera is superhumanly strong.
 * Immortality : Like all Olympians, Hera is immortal and therefore will never die.
 * Omnipresence : Like most of the Olympians, Hera is able to be at two places at once.
 * Magic : Like most of the Olympians, Hera possess the ability to use magic. Hera has demonstrated this ability by teleporting, changing her physical size and manipulating clouds.

Abilties

 * Hera oversees marriage.
 * Hera is able to throw Zeus' thunderbolt.

Trivia

 * In the original myth, Hera was the stepmother of Hercules.
 * She had hated Hercules in the myth.
 * In the myth, she often tried to have him killed.
 * In the original myth, when he was eight months old, she sent two snakes to kill him but he strangled them to death and played with them as if they were toys.
 * Also in the myth, she caused Hercules to kill Megara and their children.
 * Many knockoffs of this film following the Disney film's release especially Renaissance Films' Hercules and Xena: The Battle for Mt. Olympus, an animated sequel to Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess (which infamously featured the villain song "We're the Titans(, We're the Best)") are ironically more faithful to the original myth right down to featuring an evil Hera, and in an even more ironic twist, the Disney Wonderful World of Knowledge series book "Myths and Legends" (released in the 1970s) featured a more faithful version of the Hercules myth, also complete with an evil Hera. This means that this version of the character is one of the only adaptations of the Hercules myth that do not show her as antagonist.

Appearances

 * Hercules and the Apollo Mission
 * Hercules and the King of Thessaly
 * Hercules and the Pool Party
 * Hercules and the Return of Typhon
 * Hercules and the Parents' Weekend
 * Hercules and the Tiff on Olympus