I. Name

The name Hēra (the form of her name in Mycenaean Greek is Era), perhaps a feminine form of the Greek noun hērōs (‘hero’, meaning ‘master’), or hōra (‘season’, see Pausanias 2.13.3), was genealogically linked with other Greek deities as the daughter of Kronos and Rhea (Hesiod, Th. 454), and sister of Zeus. While the name Hera itself does not occur in either the Bible or the Apocrypha, nevertheless the theophoric name Herakles (Heracles) does occur in 2 Macc. 2.19–20. This name is composed of two elements, ‘Hera’ and ‘-…