Hera, Mother of All

Hera, Lady of Heaven, Goddess of Olympus. My name is Iphigenia.

My father, Agamemnon, killed me today. Mother of all, Queen of the Universe, I beg of you-

Why did you let it happen?

Please tell my mother, my mom, Clytemnestra, that I love her. My mother always hated my father, but she loved me. She protected me from his rage, which he inflicted to her without mercy.

Who am I to question you, though? You who knows suffering like no other. You who knows the will of mankind and has been used for their pleasure.

Who heard your cries as Zeus forced himself upon you? Sneaking into your chambers, slipping up your skirt like a snake. Who heard you?

None answered your cries. Gaia being all too familiar with man's unsavory appetites. Defiling you. Taking you. As a piece of property. As a part of himself.

Does Zeus not know your Power?

When Semelle defiled herself with your husband, you sent her up in smoke. When the Olympians came together under your orders. you chained the Great God to his bed.

Alas!

Who forsook you? Who freed the Great Olympian God? You, oh Lady of the Heavens, deserve the throne on high. If only you were the Lady of Heaven, rather than the Lord who rules it today.

You know the reality of women. You understand our torment and turmoil.

Hera, Mother of all, do not forsake us. Do not forget my mother in her pain, as my spirit departs. I do not want her to feel pain, so please hear me!

Never have I told you, but my mother often called me lamb. Her light. Her guide. Her comfort.

Comfort my mother. From Mother of all to my Earthy mother, do not let her suffer!

Hera who hears. Hera who knows. Hera who gives us all our hope.

Hear me

Hear her

Guide my soul to her heart

Torment my father,

If he win the war,

Let your Furies befall him!

Mother, remember me, Iphigenia.

The prayer of Iphigenia

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I first read Aeschylus' Clytemnestra when I was 15. I felt my heart go out to the poor woman, and applauded her courage in the face of her tyrannical husband.

Iphigenia is believed to be a cultural recollection of child sacrifice. The Greeks often reflected on the benefits they reaped from their social and political system. These stories were told and remembered to help remind them all how close they all were to the chaos of the universe which humans would give anything to control.

I wrote this hymn to give voice to the tormented women of the past. A harsh world where child sacrifice was a reality. Hera, often mocked today as an evil and jealous goddess, was the ultimate mother. The only mother. The Queen of Heaven and Goddess who guarded and avenged the human mothers of Earth.

I personally love Hera.