Hera and Ares, based on the painting by Sophie Koner - Maria Wilhelmine Klemperer with her son Otto Ernst Heinrich Klemperer
Ovid, Fasti 5. 229 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"[Flora tells the story of the birth of Mars-Ares :] Mars [Ares] also, you may not know, was formed by my [Flora's] arts. I pray that Jove [Zeus] stays ignorant of this. Holy Juno [Hera], when Minerva [Athene] sprang unmothered, was hurt that Jove did not need her service. She went to complain to Oceanus of her husband's deeds. She stopped at our door, tired from the journey. As soon as I saw her, I asked, āWhat's brought you here, Saturnia [Hera]?ā She reports where she's going, and cites the cause. I consoled her with friendly words : āWords,ā she declares, ācannot relieve my pain. If Jove became a father without using a spouse and possesses both titles by himself, why should I not expect a spouseless motherhood, chaste parturition, untouched by a man? I'll try every drug on the broad earth and empty Oceanus and the hollows of Tartarus.ā
Her speech was mid-course; my face was hesitant. āYou look, Nympha, as thou you can help,ā she says. Three times I wanted to help, three times my tongue stuck : Jupiter's anger caused massive fear. āPlease help me,ā she said, āmy source will be concealed;ā and the divine Styx testifies to this.
āA flower,ā I said, āfrom the fields of Olenus [in the Peloponnesos] will grant your wish. It's unique to my gardens. I was told : "Touch a barren cow; she'll be a mother." I touched. No delay : she was a mother.ā
I quickly plucked the clinging flower with my thumb. Juno feels its touch and at the touch conceives. She bulges, and enters Thrace and west Propontis, and fulfils her wish : Mars [Ares] was created. Recalling my role in his birth, Mars said : āYou, too, should have a place in Romulus' city.ā"
[N.B. The fact that Ovid mentions the Greek city of Olenos in this myth, strongly suggests it was derived it from a Greek source.]
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