Hera the Faithful, and Jealous Hera is often associated with faithfulness, while ironically her husband is known for his infidelity and scores of mistresses. This may have been why Hera was opposed to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who was responsible for Zeus’ many love affairs. Hera’s jealousy led to her persecuting the consorts of her husband and his illegitimate children, such as Artemis’ mother Leto who had been hounded by Hera, making it difficult for her to find a place to give birth. The most famous persecution was that of Zeus’ favorite illegitimate son, Heracles. Hera cursed the heroa to be consumed by madness. In his state of insanity, Heracles ended up murdering his wife and children. The hero regained his sanity, but he needed to face twelve trials to atone for his sins, each trial being more difficult than the last. Heracles was haunted throughout his life for having murdered his family, and when the trials finally ended he tried to burn himself. By this point Zeus had seen his son suffer enough and so he brought Heracles up to Olympus and made him a deity.