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John R. Salverda writes:
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Hera was NOT "the first mother," and the ancients Greek did not portray her as such. She herself had a mother (Rhea), and even a grandmother named Gaea, of whom we can read in an ancient Greek source known as the Orphic hymn to Gaea (#25), where she, and not Hera, is hailed as "of Gods and men the source" and "all-parent"; "O Goddess, Earth, of Gods and men the source, endued with fertile, all destroying force; All-parent, bounding, whose prolific powers, produce a store of beauteous fruits and flowers, All-various maid, the eternal world's strong base immortal, blessed, crowned with every grace; From whose wide womb, as from an endless root, fruits, many-formed, mature and grateful shoot. Deep bosomed, blessed, pleased with grassy plains, sweet to the smell, and with prolific rains. All flowery demon, centre of the world" If Alcaeus, refers to Hera as “mother of all” this was not the usual Greek understanding of her, perhaps it was a mere allegory (such as Paul said of "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." Galatians 4:26 KJV).
Hera was NOT "the first mother," and the ancients Greek did not portray her as such. She herself had a mother (Rhea), and even a grandmother named Gaea, of whom we can read in an ancient Greek source known as the Orphic hymn to Gaea (#25), where she, and not Hera, is hailed as "of Gods and men the source" and "all-parent"; "O Goddess, Earth, of Gods and men the source, endued with fertile, all destroying force; All-parent, bounding, whose prolific powers, produce a store of beauteous fruits and flowers, All-various maid, the eternal world's strong base immortal, blessed, crowned with every grace; From whose wide womb, as from an endless root, fruits, many-formed, mature and grateful shoot. Deep bosomed, blessed, pleased with grassy plains, sweet to the smell, and with prolific rains. All flowery demon, centre of the world" If Alcaeus, refers to Hera as “mother of all” this was not the usual Greek understanding of her, perhaps it was a mere allegory (such as Paul said of "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." Galatians 4:26 KJV).
"Before she was known as Hera, the wife of Zeus had the name Dione. The name relates to the creation of Eve out of Adam, for Dione is the feminine form of Dios or Zeus. This suggests that the two, like Adam and Eve, were once a single entity."
Dione was never known as Hera; I believe that you know this, because of the way that you worded the statement, see how you have intimated it, but did not say it outright (presenting the assertion in a way that makes it seem to fit your theory). Dione was a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys (Hesiod. Theog. 353) the cousin of Hera, and, according to others, of Gaea by either Uranus or Aether. (Hygin. Fab. Praef.; Apollod. i. 1. § 3.) in which cases she would have been Hera's aunt. Dione was a rival of Hera's for Zeus' love. She was never identified, or even confused, with Hera. Her name is probably a corruption of "Zion" in my view. Zeus, who was cheating on his wife Hera, is said by some, to have fathered Aphrodite with Dione (Apollod. i. 3. sec; i.; Hom. Il. v. 370, &c.). Hera was not Dione and so, even if we consider her name to be "the feminine form of Dios," it has no bearing on your contention that Zeus and Hera "like Adam and Eve, were once a single entity."
"In his Works and Days, the poet Hesiod wrote of “how the gods and mortal men sprang from one source.”3 The first couple, Zeus and Hera, were that source."
If one reads Hesiod, he will find that "Zeus and Hera" are not the "one source" that he is referring to (neither were they the first couple). "Or if you will, I will sum you up another tale well and skilfully -- and do you lay it up in your heart, -- how the gods and mortal men sprang from one source." (Hesiod, "Works and Days" ll. 106-108). As you can see this was the introductory statement of "another tale" about the origins of history. Before this statement Hesiod had described the creation of mankind (out of clay) by Prometheus, and how the first woman had a secondary creation, how she then proceeded to disobey a rule that she had been given and introduced all evils into the world. Surely Pandora is more Eve-like than is Hera. Hesiod then goes on to tell his other tale, but it says nothing about how the gods and mortal men sprang from Zeus and Hera, because they didn't. The tale that Hesiod then tells is the one about the 5 ages of mankind, beginning with the Golden Age, over which Kronos and Rhea (the father and mother of Zeus and Hera) presided. In the Golden Age of Kronos mankind lived in a pristine state, with lifespans of a thousand years, the Earth gave up it's produce without toil, and humans could talk with animals; much more like the Edenic account than anything connected with the stories of Zeus and Hera
"Hera is the single mother of all humanity"
As far as I can tell, in any of the ancient Greek sources that I have ever seen, Hera was not the mother of one single human.
"The term “father Zeus” is a description of the king of the gods which appears over 100 times in the ancient writings of Homer."
Although Adam was "created in the image of God" (the father), we do not say "father Adam" we do say "God the Father." Just because the Greeks worshiped Zeus as "god the father," is no evidence that they thought of Zeus as some type of Adam figure.
"The Greek tradition insists that Zeus and Hera were the first couple"
Greek tradition does not even suggest that Zeus and Hera were the first couple, let alone "insist" upon it. The Greek myths note plenty of couples that were supposed to predate Zeus and Hera; there were Ouranos and Gaea, Okeanos and Tethys, Hyperion and Theia, Krios and Eurybia, Koios and Phoibe, Kronos and Rhea, Iapetus and Clymene, and etc. These were all brother/sister and husband/wife pairs. (Hesiod, Theogony 334 - 515)
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