Category: Essentials

Hera the Goddess of Marriage and Birth

         Hera or Juno (Roman) is the Goddess of Marriage and Birth, the Queen of Heaven and Olympians. Hera was married to Zeus, the King of God and her brother. Before her marriage, she had dominance over the earth, heaven, and all aspect of existence including seasons and weather. Just like other gods, Hera had super strength including, immortality, resistance to injury, and her unique ability to curse or bless the marriage. As the goddess of marriage and birth, she symbolized women’s responsibility as wives, who need to take care of others.

      In most myths, Hera is depicted wearing the diadem,  jeweled in the shape of a half-crown, and holding a pomegranate as a symbol for birth, blood, and death, in her hand. She was known to have the peacock as a symbol, depicting her beauty, luxury, and immortality, and the cow embodies Hera’s watchfulness of human beings, as her sacred animals. Hera has a strong preference for lilies over other flowers. Lilies also symbolized humanity and devotion, and it is the 30th wedding anniversary flowers.

      Hera was the youngest daughter of  Cronus and Rhea. After their marriage, Zeus and Hera went on a 300 years honeymoon where they had three kids together, Ares the God of War, Hebe the cupbearer of the Olympians, and Eileithyia the Goddess of Childbirth. In some myths, Hephaestus was known to be the son of Zeus and Hera. In other myths, it was believed that Hephaestus was created by Hera alone after her anger of Zeus unfaithful action in their marriage. Hera is deeming to prove that she does not need Zeus, by having Hephaestus alone. However, Hephaestus was born with birth defect, which greatly upset Hera as well as Zeus.

      Even though, Hera was the Goddess of Marriage, her marriage, was unsuccessful. Hera was famous for the jealous and vindictive response to her husband’s mistresses and illegitimate children, and her revenge to their mothers and any gods or goddesses who claim to be more superior than she is. Hera had an unstoppable hatred for one of Zeus’ favorite sons, Heracles. To execute him, Hera summoned the storm over the sea to get him out. That incident had inflamed Zeus’ anger towards Hera. Hera was hung in the clouds with the golden chain, and anvils attached to her ankles by Zeus as her punishment. Hephaestus, who tried to help his mother, was thrown from heaven by Zeus, however, in other myths, it was believed that he got thrown away because of his birth defect.

     Hera was also known to be the creator of the Milky Way. The legend stated that Zeus brought his son who was born from a mortal woman, Heracles to suckle Hera’s milk while she was sleeping, in the hope of endowing godlike qualities. Once regaining her consciousness, Hera pushed them away allowing her spurt of milk to drop which resulted in the creation of the Milky Way.  

     There are many temples dedicated to her in various Greek City-states, women often keep the altars of her in their homes. Greek women, who wish to conceive sons, they often offered a vow:  small statues or painting, or apples, any fruit representing birth. According to researchers, one of the earliest Hera’s Temple was made before any of Zeus’ temples.This shows that Hera was worship by the Greek long before Zeus. In addition, entering marriage is considering as their rite of passage, and it is the only way for women to change their social status.

      Despite her vengeful tolerance towards her husband’s mistress and illegitimate children, Hera was faithfully worshipped by the Greece and Roman. The month June was named as an honored for Hera from her goddess named in Roma, Juno. June is the most popular month for weddings.

 

Works Cited

Hera, www.mythweb.com/gods/hera.html.

Campbell, Mike. “Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Juno.” Behind the Name, www.behindthename.com/name/juno.

“Goddess Names and Their Meanings.” Goddess Names, www.goddess-guide.com/goddess-names.html.

“Hera.” Hera ***, www.talesbeyondbelief.com/greek-gods/hera.htm.

“Hera.” Hera ***, www.talesbeyondbelief.com/greek-gods/hera.htm.

“Hera.” Story of Hera ***, www.talesbeyondbelief.com/myth-stories/hera.htm.

“Hera.” Hera, Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth, Queen of the Gods – Greek Gods, www.greek-gods.org/olympian-gods/hera.php.

“Hera • Facts and Information on Greek Goddess Hera.” Greek Gods & Goddesses, greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/hera/.

“Hera, Greek Goddess.” Hera, Greek Goddess of Love and Marriage, www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/greek_goddess_hera.htm.

“Hera, Queen of the Gods.” Myth of Hera, Queen of the Gods ***, www.talesbeyondbelief.com/myth-stories/hera-the-queen-of-the-gods.htm.

“Hera, Queen of the Gods.” Myth of Hera, Queen of the Gods ***, www.talesbeyondbelief.com/myth-stories/hera-the-queen-of-the-gods.htm.

Nguyen, Judy. “Greek Gods Strengths and Weaknesses.” Prezi.com, 18 Sept. 2015, prezi.com/pr6qlopnjw2i/greek-gods-strengths-and-weaknesses/.

The Leftover Women

Ladies, do you know that you come with an expiration date?

In our contemporary society, many women are encouraged to pursue their dreams, higher education, and STEM related careers. Slowly, but surely, women have conquered more and more executive positions. However, these opportunities often affect women’s decisions about motherhood and marriage.

In China, women are 48.6% of the nation’s population. A study from 2017 shows that 40.1% of Chinese women are hesitant to have children, while the 63.4% are worried that having children would significantly impact their career development. Many advantaged women and less-advantaged men remain single due to the cultural beliefs that men should be more highly educated than women.

During Chinese New Year, when family members gather to celebrate, many unmarried women in their late twenties are pressured with questions: How old are you? Are you married? Do you have a boyfriend? When will you have a boyfriend? When will you get married? Why are you still single?

The tradition of arranged marriage has been illegal in China since the 1950s, nonetheless, many parents remain strongly involved in the marriages of their children.

With the rapidly increasing rate of unmarried women, and with parents oppression on their children’s marriage life, the birth of boyfriend renting app, and marriage market, expeditiously emerged into the Chinese society.

In 2005, China started a place called “marriage market,” it is where parents post the profiles of their children including job, income, and property ownership, in the hope of finding the right match. “It is like selling your daughter” stated one of the casts in SK-ll: Marriage Market Takeover.

Furthermore, the demand for fake boyfriend and girlfriend renting have peaked during the Lunar New Year in recent years. As such desire could be found in an online shopping, Taobao, in China. The price of the pretend partner could be up to $250 per day, occasionally, including the overnight stay.

Many young people are turning away from marriage, which causes an alarm to the parents. Parents fear that the children will break family lineage or will be left with no one to care for them. Society has set an expiration date on any women who are not married by the age of 25, and will be called “Sheng Nu” translated to “leftover women.”

Many parents misunderstand their daughters and believe women must rely on men in order to have a “complete” life, that women are bound to rely on men and their life would be insufficient without men, even with a stable job. If a woman doesn’t find her partner at the early age she will be left unwanted, and that was her only chance.

The pressure of women needed to find their suitable partner at an early age, that sometimes would lead to arranged/forced marriage isn’t only the pressing issues in China, it is a problem in places such as; India, Africa, Middle East and Asia. That imprecise ideology was taught from generations after another, however, the beauty of culture is that it can also be untaught.

Do we, women actually have an expiration date on us? Marriage should be a choice at any age for any member of the society, it should never be considered as a “must”. Women who have chosen to pursue their career should be highly encouraged. Lastly, leftover women should be treated with respect and honor.

Source

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/04/05/national/1-4-japanese-men-still-unmarried-age-50-report/#.WmAWvaiWa00

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/05/time-fake-boyfriend-china-leftover-women-160519121232031.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqRt5boELkQ

http://www.jrzny.com

 

We begin this year Literacy class by, writing a narrative essay around the theme of Coming of Age. In this unit, we’ve learned about comma usages, vocabulary development, concision, conjunctions, subordinates, anaphora, and connotation, and denotation. In this project, I wrote about my struggle when I first came to Liger and having a sister called “Fair Share”.

“….everyone devoted their attention to her……I hated my little sister! She was the attention seeker……Those words struck through my fragile heart……her thick eyebrows which look so much like mine……”

Read My Narrative Here!

 

I believe that opportunity doesn’t come from luck. Since I was born until now, I’ve experienced many different opportunities, and some of those opportunities are believed to come from luck. When I was 10, I’ve got a scholarship to study in one of the best school in Cambodia, Liger Learning Center. No one ever heard of the school before, after learning more about the school my parents reluctantly send me here. After my first year in Liger, I’ve learned and experienced so many things that I wouldn’t be able to learn from the government school in the country. At that point, my relative keeps reminding me how lucky I am, and they believe that because of all the good things I did in my past life, that’s what brings me all the good luck for this life. Some people might think that it’s crazy, but I believed them. As I grow older I’ve learned that it not that simple, praying and wishing for luck is not what bring you all the successfulness. Whenever I went back home, my neighbor or relatives that visit me always asked about my school life, and what school I go to. As always I told them about Liger. Their reaction is very similar “You’re a very lucky girl you must’ve done a lot of good things from your past life” or “You are very lucky!”. As always, I nodded, then smile. Deep down inside me, I knew what brings me here. It’s not luck, it’s not a coincidence and it’s not something that was the plan all along. Nonetheless, I believe that everything that I achieved, comes from all the hard work and motivation that I’ve put in, which are the elements that shape me into the person I am today. The social norms, that education is not for girls, and stereotype that girls can’t go any further than the kitchen. That is what motivates me to work harder every day to prove that I can do more than just growing up, getting married, raise my children to be a housewife, and be done with my life. I want to be a famous author, where everyone in the world knows about me. Although I know it’s quite impossible. I want to help those who are in need, I want to help to make changes to my country. All of those are what motivates me to work harder and harder, trying to make the impossible become possible. However, I still say that I’m very lucky to go to a very great school and experienced incredible things that not a lot of children my age does, and I’m very thankful for all of those experienced. I strongly believe that all my hard work bring me luck, and those lucks leads me to the different opportunities in my life.

 

Eliza Identity

     Eliza, from beggar to woman with pride within six months, what has changed? In the play, Pygmalion which was written by George Bernard Shaw, a poor uneducated flower girl, who speaks with a cockney accent, has wanted to learn to become a lady just to make her living. But what to become of her after six months being train by the professor of phonics? Despite her self-confidence identity,  Eliza’s inner characteristics have changed tremendously as well as her external identity.

     At the start of the play, Eliza Doolittle was introduced as a poor and dramatic Flower Girl, who was coming from the street with a cockney accent. Although at first, she was acting immature, later on, her identities transforms throughout the play to be a more mature person. As it clearly states in Act I, Eliza was hysterically screaming in public and started to defend herself unreasonably. It stated: “[still hysterical] I take my Bible oath I never said a word—”. Eliza was very hysterical when one of the standby men says that there’s someone took note of everything she says, without listening to the notetaker she started to scream. This clearly shows that she was acting so immature, even though the notetaker was trying to talk to her, but she wasn’t paying any attention.

     After six months of training, Eliza grows to be more like a lady and a woman with pride. Later on in the play when they meet again, Eliza initially performs a small talk, therefore she overlooks Higgin’s rudeness. It stated: “How do you do, Professor Higgins? Are you quite well?” As its clearly expose in the dialog, Eliza performs a conversation with Higgins as if nothing ever happened before. Moreover, she acknowledged Pickering for six months of training and purposely insulting Higgin that she wouldn’t have such a ladylike manner if Pickering wasn’t there. Eliza new attitude demonstrates that she is a woman with pride, and try to impress herself that she’s stronger that Higgin thinks she was.

     Despite her self-confidence identity,  Eliza inner characteristic has changed considerably as well as her external identity. In conclusion, Eliza internal identity has changed extensively as is has compared in Act I and Act V. Due to her desire to impress how strong she is and being reasonable during her conversation with Higgins, her internal identity has unexpectedly changed over time, as well as her external identity.