Stolen Hebe

Hebe is the daughter of Zeus and Hera and was seen in myth as a diligent daughter performing domestic tasks that were typical of high ranking, unmarried girls in ancient Greece. In the Iliad, she performed tasks around the household such as drawing baths for her brother Ares and helping Hera enter her chariot. Pindar in Nemean Ode 10 refers to her as the most beautiful of the goddesses, and being by her mother’s side in Olympus forever. Although she was not as strongly associated with her father, Hebe was occasionally referred to with the epithet Dia (see Cult), which can be translated to “Daughter of Zeus” or “Heavenly”. In some traditions, her father Zeus gifted her two doves with human voices, and one flew to where the Oracle of Dodona would be established.Additionally, Hebe was often connected to Aphrodite, whom she was described dancing with and acting as her herald or attendant, linking the Classical association between beauty and "the bloom of youth". In Euripedes' play Orestes, Helen is said to sit on a throne beside Hera and Hebe upon obtaining immortality.

One of her roles was to be the cupbearer to the gods, serving them ambrosia and nectar. In Classical sources, Hebe’s departure from this role was due to her marriage to the deified hero Herakles. Despite this, Cicero seems to imply that Hebe or Ganymede, who is typically seen as her successor, could serve in the role of cupbearer at the heavenly feast. The reasoning for Hebe’s dismissal was transformed into a moralizing story in the 1500s by the Church of England, where it was stated in a note in an English-Latin dictionary that Hebe fell while in attendance to the gods, causing her dress to become undone, exposing her naked body publicly. Although there is no Classical literary or artistic source for this account, the story was modified to function as a warning to women to stay modestly covered at all times, as naked women in particular were seen as shameful by the Church.