Hera's Milk

The Greek Milky Way

The ancient Greeks also looked at the pale band crossing the night sky and gave it a story. In one version, preserved by the Roman writer Hyginus, Zeus placed the infant Heracles at the breast of his sleeping wife, Hera. When Hera awoke, she pushed the child away, and the milk that spilled across the heavens became the Milky Way. The Greek word gala means milk, and our word galaxy ultimately comes from the Greek name for the Milky Way.

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Heracles was the son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene, one of Zeus's many affairs that enraged Hera. Zeus wanted the child to receive Hera's divine milk, which could grant him immortality, but Hera had no intention of helping her husband's illegitimate son. Her hostility began early: in another story, she sent two serpents to kill the infant Heracles in his cradle, only for him to strangle them with his bare hands. Yet in the Milky Way myth, Hera unknowingly nursed the child she had tried to destroy.