Hera as Protectress of Marriage, Childbirth and Motherhood in Magna Graecia

This paper is aimed to analyze several different aspects of the cult of Hera in Magna Graecia – from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period – where the goddess was already worshipped since the foundation of most ancient colonies in southern Italy. By examination both of the ancient Greek sources and the archaeological evidences, we tried to outline the features and the duties of the goddess over time, also comparing all the detected data with the Greek world. The result will perhaps help in defining them better than has been done hitherto