Do we like Hera?
A character from Greek mythology (the Iliad and the Olympian myths) (c. 8th century BCE o)
Our score: 4 out of 10. A fierce, loyal guardian of marriage with a real grievance, but she punishes the wrong people. We'd back her cause and not her methods.
Hera is the queen of Olympus. She is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and both sister and wife to Zeus, king of the gods. She is the goddess of marriage, women and family. Worshippers asked her to protect brides and mothers in childbirth. In the myths she is regal, proud and austere, and she is the only truly married goddess of the Olympians.
The trouble is that Zeus is a serial cheat. Hera is the offended wife in story after story. Britannica notes that she tended to torment the "other women" and their children, Heracles among them, rather than Zeus himself. That is where the score drops. Her anger is understandable, but she aims it at people who often had no say in the matter, and some never even wanted Zeus's attention.
Her grudges go beyond Zeus's affairs. When Paris chose Aphrodite as the fairest goddess, Hera took it as an insult. She then backed the Greeks against Troy. She is proud and vain, and she holds a grudge. She does have a loyal, protective side, and she can be a fierce patron to the mortals she favours.
Her best-known victims include Io, a priestess turned into a cow and chased across the world, and the hero Heracles, whom she pursues from infancy and who suffers badly for it. Her persecution of him is the clearest case of a wronged wife turning into a bully. She is never really punished, and Zeus mostly shrugs it off.