The gate of the year

Metope from the Temple E of Selinunte (470-460 B.C.), representing the marriage between Zeus and Hera, now in the Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Regionale “Antonio Salinas”), Palermo, Italy. Zeus was at the same time Hera’s brother and husband, and both were born from the union of Cronus with Rhea. According to some versions, the first sexual intercourse between Zeus and Hera occurred on the Kokkygion Mount (the “Mountain of the Cuckoo”), in Argolis, where Zeus had taken the aspect of a cuckoo bird. This bird, which was regarded by the Greeks as a herald of springtime, was sacred to Hera and appears sometimes on the scepter of the goddess. The region of Argolis was particularly sacred to the goddess, and here were located her main centers of worship. The intercourse between the Ruler of the gods, whose attributes are associated with the sky powers, and his wife, who assumes some of the aspects of the earth goddess, takes the form of a sacred marriage (hieros gamos), between the two main cosmic powers. The temples of Zeus and Hera at Olympia, indeed, bend one towards the other, as to indicate the sacred intercourse between the two deities (Ferguson 1989, p. 39).

[Source: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selinunte]




Female Symbols

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Metope from the Temple E of Selinunte (470-460 B.C.), representing the marriage between Zeus and Hera, now in the Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Regionale “Antonio Salinas”), Palermo, Italy. Zeus was at the same time Hera’s brother and husband, and both were born from the union of Cronus with Rhea. According to some versions, the first sexual intercourse between Zeus and Hera occurred on the Kokkygion Mount (the “Mountain of the Cuckoo”), in Argolis, where Zeus had taken the aspect of a cuckoo bird. This bird, which was regarded by the Greeks as a herald of springtime, was sacred to Hera and appears sometimes on the scepter of the goddess. The region of Argolis was particularly sacred to the goddess, and here were located her main centers of worship. The intercourse between the Ruler of the gods, whose attributes are associated with the sky powers, and his wife, who assumes some of the aspects of the earth goddess, takes the form of a sacred marriage (hieros gamos), between the two main cosmic powers. The temples of Zeus and Hera at Olympia, indeed, bend one towards the other, as to indicate the sacred intercourse between the two deities (Ferguson 1989, p. 39). [Source: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selinunte]