I'll get a lot of hate for this, ik
So, everyone hates Hera. But this is my argument on why we should cut her some slack
So, she's married to Zeus. And a lot of people say that Hera punishing Zeus's mortal lovers, (read: victims) and their children. But, I mean think about it. You wouldn't be happy either if your legal partner constantly cheated on you. You probably wouldn't care that it's not their fault. I mean, you would probably be extremely mad, and if you had godly powers, there's a good chance that most people on earth would do what Hera did. I'm not saying it's right, but remember, the ancient greeks didn't have much of a concept of good and evil, or morality in general.
Now you might be asking "well, why doesn't Hera just punish Zeus?" Now... you have to remember, she tried. Remember when she formed the Olympian rebellion? That failed, and Hera was tied up above the abyss of Chaos, and Zeus forced her to swear to never rebel again. So she can't punish Zeus, and she's stuck with him since they can't divorce either. So yeah. It's complicated
Then there is Hephaestus. I have to admit, I can't really justify this. Throwing out your child because he's less than perfect is horrible. Of course, the other gods did terrible things to their children too, so I suppose this is kind of normal for them.
Then there is the Jason-Percy exchange rate program, which obviously isn't in mythology. But anyways. She had to do it. She had to wipe their memories. It was the only way. And if she informed the separate camps what was going on, The Romans would have certainly killed Percy, just because he's Greek, and CHB might have killed Jason, probably not though, since Chiron knew he was Roman and didn't kill Jason. If it weren't for Hera bringing the two camps together, Gaea would've won. Sometimes you have to do the wrong things for the right reasons.
Hera has done a lot of good things too. She helped Jason, and the Greek heroes in the Trojan War, although idk if that last thing is good or not. Hera also made Heracles who he is, and yes, he went through a lot of suffering, but if it weren't for that, he wouldn't have become a hero. Besides, I heard somewhere, and idk if this is true, myth nerds, correct me if I'm wrong, but when Heracles was younger, he was offered two choices; One, to live a short, hard life of suffering, but become the greatest hero ever, or Two, a long easy, life, with no suffering, but he wouldn't be remembered. Heracles, being a hero, of course, chose option one. I read this somewhere, don't know if it's true. If it is, then Heracles chose his life of hardship, and really, it was Hera who helped him become so famous.
And finally, I know you might throw the "cows following Annabeth and leaving her presents" thing, but come on. The punishment could've been a lot worse
Anyway, that's my argument, you can debate back, just be respectful, please. Just remember who Hera is married to. The real villain.
ZEUS
Edit: I don't love Hera, I don't hate her either. I just think she's over hated, and since no one's gonna say it, I made a post about it
