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The Hera of Zeus. Intimate Enemy, Ultimate Spouse. By VINCIANE PIRENNE-DELFORGE AND GABRIELLE PIRONTI. Trans. by RAYMOND GEUSS. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. 348. Hardback, $120.00. ISBN: 9781108888479.
This book is an English translation of the 2016 French original L'Hera de Zeus: Ennemie Intime, Epouse Definitive. It is the first product of a new CUP series dedicated to translating key works in other languages into English. If this is the standard adhered to, the series will be a great addition to Classical scholarship. This is an essential book for anyone interested in researching and understanding (if partially) the multifaceted nature of Greek polytheism.
Rather than providing a general overview or deciphering the teleological development of Hera, the authors stress her versatile character. At the same time, they successfully incorporate the many local characteristics of her cult. They avoid the straight jacket of a "uniform" goddess approach, yet demonstrate how her essential characteristics, such as maintaining sovereignty and organizing the hierarchy of the (divine) household or marriage, emerge at the cult sites from Sybaris to Samos. In the process, they traverse numerous mythological stories to argue that Hera cannot be captured by the monolithic "jealous wife" trope widespread among scholars. In fact, she is the rightful, powerful counterbalance to Zeus in her own right. She does not just exist as Zeus' foil. She is a divine queen atop...