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Zeus, and would give birth by slapping her hand on the ground. Her son Hephaestus was given birth to without Zeus being involved, an act of jealous revenge against Zeus for the birth of Athena. This act of revenge though backfired, when Hera threw Hephaestus out of Mount Olympus for his ugliness. Hephaestus gained his own retribution when he ensnared Hera in a magical throne; Hera was only released, when Aphrodite was given to Hephaestus as a wife.

Jealousy though is the centre piece of most of the tales of Hera. The nymph Echo was cursed by Hera to always repeat the words of others, after Hera found out Zeus had given Echo the job of distracting Hera whilst Zeus was having his affairs. The subjects of Zeus' affairs were also subject to Hera's wrath.

Zeus' mistress, Io, was turned into a white heifer by Zeus to avoid the two of them being caught together. The heifer was presented to Hera as a gift, and was promptly put in the charge of Argus, a giant with one hundred eyes, to ensure that Zeus was separated from Io. Zeus had Hermes kill Argus, and on finding out Hera took the giant's eyes and placed them on the plumage of the peacock. With her watch-keeper gone, Hera sent a gadfly to sting Io as the heifer wandered the earth.

Hera also tried to prevent the birth of Apollo and Artemis, when she discovered that Leto had become pregnant by Zeus. Hera banned Leto from giving birth on any part of the mainland or island. Though Leto found the floating island of Delos, the story goes that after being born Artemis assisted in the birth of Apollo. Hera seemed to spend much of her time chasing after Zeus' lovers, when she learned that Semele, a mortal princess from Thebes, was pregnant by Zeus, she tricked the princess into getting Zeus to show his true form. In his true form the thunder and lightning killed Semele, though Zeus completed the gestation of Dionysus in his own thigh. There are a number of versions of this story, although Hera does not look good in any of them, with the worst version having Hera send her Titans to rip the baby apart.

Occasionally Hera would get there before Zeus had impregnated anyone. One such instance was with Lamia, who was a queen of Libya, who Hera turned into a monster so Zeus would no longer love her. All in all it didn't do to cross Hera, part of the Trojan war is blamed on her anger, as Paris decided that Aphrodite was the most beautiful of the goddesses, thus angering Hera.There was no god or goddess who could stand up to Hera, although

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