What I Really Want to Know

No wonder Hera is afraid of me—or at least not very nice to me. She—and my mother—didn’t really think through the consequences of setting me up to subdue Hades’ wrath.

If—as the imaginative creature that I am—I can triumph over Hades—or at least keep him calmed down so that he does not endanger everyone and everything—that makes me more powerful than all of the other Gods.

But what I really want to know is whether I am more powerful than Zeus. Could Zeus have subdued Hades without me? Or was I a wuenschmaedchen for Zeus—his veritable Brunnhilde? Was I the pure instrument of his will?

I decided that I really needed to know the answers to questions like these. And I still wanted to know why Hera had never had children.