When not serving her parents, Hebe was also connected to Aphrodite. Stories of the feasts of the gods often feature Hebe in her role as cup bearer, refilling glasses of ambrosia for her fellow gods and goddesses while they enjoyed their famous banquets. Serving in this position was how the young learned the etiquette of feasts among the upper classes and were introduced to the politics and interpersonal relationships of their society. They were in service to their elders, but in a position that put them in the center of dinners and feasts. This was an honorable role for a young person in Greek society. One of Hebe’s primary jobs as the youngest of the gods was to serve as their cup bearer. One story, for example, showed Hera holding a competition to determine which god could give the best gift to the infant Hebe in honor of her first week of life. She was rarely far from her mother’s side, and Hera seemed to have doted on her youngest daughter. Hebe served as Hera’s chief handmaiden, both performing services to help her and being a constant companion. They were meant to train high-ranking young women to someday run their own husband’s households. These domestic tasks were seen as more than necessary chores. As a maiden goddess, Hebe is often described in reference to the services she performed for older gods and goddesses. For example, she filled the bathtub for her older brother and helped her mother in and out of her chariot. Many myths describe her fulfilling the normal duties of an unmarried young woman in the Greek world. Hebe was the youngest of the Olympian gods and the daughter of Hera and Zeus. She transitioned into the role of a married woman and the divine wife of Heracles, and with that change in circumstance came a change in duties.īelieve it or not, the goddess often depicted as a handmaiden had one of the most important jobs on Olympus! Hebe the Handmaiden Hebe’s role as a young girl would not last forever, though. In her humble job as the cup bearer at the feasts of the gods, she delivered the ambrosia that kept her fellow gods young and beautiful. But her great power was to restore and extend youth. Hebe was the daughter of Hera and Zeus and in many ways exemplified the duties of a young, unmarried woman of the upper classes. They owed this to the youngest among them, the goddess Hebe. The Greek gods were known to be not only immortal, but also ageless.
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