Hera: Queen & goddess of the sky, women & marriage (hera_teleia) wrote in history_dot_com, @ 2012-10-11 17:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | ~hera, ~iris |
Testing the Waters [Gaul, 59 BCE] (tag: Iris)
There were rumblings. Well, when weren’t there? There were always rumblings these days. It had been that way since the Romans had adopted them, combining and in many cases replacing the Etruscan gods with those of the Greek pantheon. New names did not change personalities of those involved, however the way the mortals viewed them did shift a bit and finally her son was being given the recognition he deserved. Even if they were calling him Mars now.
Really, she’d named her son and thought it was a perfectly lovely name. Mortals could be ridiculously stubborn, however, and they felt they needed to put their own personal stamp upon things. So Hera put up with Ares having his name changed, even put up with being renamed herself. It was worth it for the way the Romans understood and appreciated the gifts of her children. Mars was worshipped as he should always have been as Ares. And Enyo with her lovely new name of Bellona seemed to be in her element with her new followers. Eris was as Eris always was, Discordia or not, though Hera suspected that being given a new moniker tickled her to no end. Hebe became Juventas, and her fresh-face and bright visage were utterly adored. Ilithyia was receiving the offerings due to her, left at the altars of Natio. Even Hepahestus seemed to have found new purpose as Vulcan. The Romans did like their armor.
But the rumblings were ever present, and they always sounded the same. They sounded like the drums of war. Ambitious and prideful, the Romans did not sit upon their laurels, as the new saying went. They were constantly seeking the next conquest, the next victory. Hera rarely saw her son these days, and where he went, so went his sisters. She missed him, missed them, and with the rumors of a planned foray into northern territories by that consul they liked so much. The house of Julii did produce some aspiring individuals.
It seemed inevitable that Hera was going to lose her son for months or years at a time, yet again. This time to some northerly chunk of dirt and twigs, no doubt. While she appreciated how well received her son was, and how much the Romans wished to achieve, it was still some pile of rocks and leaves somewhere. What could be so wonderful about it that it needed to tear her children away from her with such regularity?
It was then that Hera determined that she would find out just that. It could do nothing but help Ares and her girls if she went there first and saw what lay ahead. She could give them the information she found, and perhaps convince them that they didn’t need to spend quite so much time so far from home. To that end, she called her most trusted employee, a goddess that was a mother herself.
“Iris, attend me,” she called silently, knowing it would only be moments before her arrival. “And wear something… warm.”