As punishment for her attempt to overthrow him, Zeus seized Hera and hung her in the sky by golden chains. Hera wailed in pain all night, but no one would help her out of fear of Zeus.
Zeus finally became enamored of the goddess who was to become his permanent wife — Hera. After courting her unsuccessfully he changed himself into a disheveled cuckoo. When Hera took pity on the bird and held it to her breast, Zeus resumed his true form and ravished her.
Olympus. Yet, the Greek gods were beings of immense power, so consequentially, fights between spouses were horrifically violent. When Zeus threatened Hera with extravagant punishment, he usually meant what he said, and when fists flew, Zeus did not pull his punches.
Revenge on Zeus
She wanted Zeus all to herself, but Zeus cheated on her constantly with other goddesses and with mortal women. Hera often took out her revenge on the women who Zeus loved and the children they had with Zeus.
The relationship between Zeus and Hera had always been tumultuous. Zeus was consistently unfaithful, and Hera spent all her time exerting revenge on her husband's mistresses and offspring. The two also seemed to be in constant competition with each other.
Zeus fell in love with Io and seduced her. To try to keep Hera from noticing he covered the world with a thick blanket of clouds. This backfired, arousing Hera's suspicions. She came down from Mount Olympus and begain dispersing the clouds.
Zeus has cheated on Hera over a hundred times. However, she keeps forgiving him in the end.
Hera was reborn out of her father, Cronus.
Hercules did try to smooth things over with the angry queen of the gods; when he noticed that she had not opposed him during his fight against Hippocoon, he sacrificed goats to her, in thanks. When Hercules died, Hera's anger finally cooled, and after the hero ascended to Olympus, he married Hera's daughter, Hebe.
It was said that he scourged her, and hurled Hephaestus from heaven to earth when hurrying to his mother's assistance; that in anger for her persecution of his son Heracles, he hung her out in the air with golden chains to her arms and an anvil on each foot.
Perhaps partly because of the strange circumstances of her birth, Athena is often cited as Zeus's favourite child. He also greatly admired her strength of character and fighting spirit. Some believe Athena was Zeus's first born child, which might, somewhat unfairly, suggest why he chose her as his favourite.
Before his marriage to Hera, Zeus consorted with a number of the female Titanes (and his sister Demeter). These liaisons are ordered by Hesiod as follows: (1) Metis; (2) Themis; (3) Eurynome; (4) Demeter; (5) Mnemosyne; (6) Leto.
1. Hera Was an Olympian. Hera was the youngest daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Her father Cronus swallowed her whole, along with all of her siblings (except Zeus), to absorb their power, and to try and stop them from overthrowing him.
To punish Echo, Hera deprived her of speech, except for the ability to repeat the last words of another. Echo's hopeless love for Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image, made her fade away until all that was left of her was her voice.
Of all the sons Zeus had fathered on other women, Hera hated Heracles most of all, for the seed of Zeus flowed in his veins most copiously.
Hera hated Pelias because he had killed Sidero, his step-grandmother, in one of the goddess's temples. She later convinced Jason and Medea to kill Pelias.
They fight constantly over each other's decisions, and Hera resents Zeus due to his affairs and womanizing behavior. Sometime during her marriage, Hera would start an on and off affair with Hades that would end around the "80s." It is unknown if Zeus was ever aware of the affair.
One day, Kronos found her on the battlefield, grabbed her, and ripped her in half. Her sacrifice allowed his sons and others to defeat him. However, Hera was greatly traumatized by these events, and it took her many years to recover.
Hera is also known as Queen of the Gods because of her matriarchal role in Greek mythology. Together, Zeus and Hera had three children: Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus.
Zeus was known in his time as much more than the father of the gods. He was also a womanizer, and as such, he fathered many, many offspring!
Persephone's jealousy suggests she might have loved Hades
In Ovid's famous text Metamorphosis, Hades has an affair with a young Nymph named Minthe. Persephone, now in her later years, was so incensed with jealousy that she turned Minthe into a mint plant.
Zeus and Metis
His first and favorite lover was Metis, a Titan goddess and mother of Athena.
II.
Aphrodite later and of her own volition had an affair with Zeus, but his jealous wife Hera laid her hands upon the belly of the goddess and cursed their offspring with malformity. Their child was the ugly god Priapos.
Zeus slept with his own daughter, Persephone, because she was there.
The Relationship Between Zeus and Hera
The goddess Hera was initially uninterested in Zeus, so he turned himself into a cuckoo bird and seduced her. After falling in love, the godly couple had two key children. These were: Ares, the god of war.