But Hera is the Queen of Gods. Her position in the divine hierarchy places her at the pinnacle of the cosmic curve. That, to me at least, says that unlike other divinities, her role in the balance between mortality and immortality is one best viewed from a distance. Unlike Zeus, whose strong chthonic aspects require him to have become Herakles, we see in that myth that at no time does Hera lower herself to becoming less than what she is, a powerful divinity.
Hera does not, under any circumstances, seem to become one with the mortal, rather she becomes part of how the mortal world works by imposing order upon it, an order that may require divinity to learn from it's own limitations in understanding. She opens the door between the mortal and the immortal, between the divine and the mundane, and Gods have walked through it to our world, to our level of existence, but she is not one of them.
When I speak of an avatar, I should make it clear that I do not mean epiphanies, but rather true mortal incarnations of a divinity in the mortal world. All Gods have epiphanies present in the world. These are moments in man's experience when we have experienced the Gods directly in some way. The sun as an epiphany of Helios, the moon as an epiphany of Selene, etc., and these are all things that have independent existence. The moon is not literally Selene, but it represents her. An aspect is different as well as it is a representation of a specific aspect of the nature of a deity. Hebe, as an aspect of Hera, represents the virginal and youthful aspect of her nature.
Hera is said to appear as mortals in the world, but unlike other deities, she is never said to bear the child of a mortal. She bears children on her own, and with Zeus, but never with a mortal.
To be continued...
PS: I should point out that I consider any child of a God to be a potential aspect of that God, and any mortal child born of a union between mortal and immortal to be a potential avatar of the divine figure.
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