Juno (mythology)

Juno (Roman name) or Hera (Greek) in Greek and Roman mythology was the unhappy wife (and sister) of Zeus, angry at her husband's numerous affairs with other goddesses and human women, and who played a prominent role in the Aeneid by Virgil by causing numerous troubles for the hero Aeneas. Juno was particularly angry at Trojans since some of the Trojan royalty were descended from her husband Zeus through extra-marital affairs, and it didn't help that the Trojan Paris chose her rival Aphrodite over her in a beauty contest. Juno had promised Paris control over cities, while Athena had promised him success in battle, but Aphrodite had promised Paris the "most beautiful woman in the world", namely Helen of Troy. So Juno lined up with other gods against Troy in the epic struggle lasting ten years between the Greek expeditionary force led by Agamemnon who besieged the city of Troy, as described in numerous plays and tragedies as well as epic poems such as the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. After the city fell, Juno harried the fleeing Trojan warrior Aeneas who had numerous adventures around the Mediterranean Sea while searching to found the city of Rome. Juno preferred Rome's future rival city, Carthage, according to Virgil writing around the time of Augustus Caesar.

Juno did not have lots of successful offspring with her marriage to Zeus. She conceived Haephestus by herself, but he was dour, with an ill-temper, and became the god of smithing.