Hebe was the attendant to the gods, serving them cups of ambrosia and nectar on Mount Olympus. She was the goddess of youth and the patron goddess to young brides.

Her duties included helping Hera hitch her horses to her chariot, and she would help bathe and dress her brother, Ares. She also served as an attendant to Aphrodite.

Mythology

Sister to Ares and Eileithyia, Hebe was a daughter of the union of Zeus and Hera. While Zeus sat in council on Mount Olympus, Hebe would be among them, serving golden cups of nectar and ambrosia as if serving wine, while they looked down from their aerie upon the city of the Trojans.

As the cup-bearer of the gods and as the goddess of youth, the responsibility for immortality was seen as hers, giving her an important position among the gods of Olympus. The gods realized it was to Hebe they owed their gratitude for everlasting youth.

Hebe carried out her duties as handmaiden to the gods, and as an attendant to Hera, until Heracles ascended to Mount Olympus as a god. Once Hebe was married, the young Trojan Ganymede assumed her responsibilities serving the gods. Ganymede became distraught over the circumstances in his country during the Trojan War, so Hebe returned briefly to the council of Zeus to serve the gods once again in Ganymede’s absence.

After becoming the wife of Heracles, Hebe bore two children with him, Alexiares and Aniketos.

Hebe was viewed as the fairest goddess on Mount Olympus after her mother, Hera. She was a companion of the Graces, Harmonia, goddess of marital harmony, Aphrodite, and Hera. There are stories of Hebe dancing with Aphrodite, the Graces, and Harmonia to the music of Apollo’s lyre.

Hebe in Popular Culture

• In general, Hebe does not play prominently in popular culture. She is not nearly as well known or oft-immortalized as the likes of her Mount Olympus counterparts.

• A character in the production HMS Pinafore bears the name of Hebe. She marries her first cousin.

• A fragrant Damask Rose, blush white with crimson tips, bears the name Hebe’s Lip.

• The barmaid in Folies Bergere, full of youth and sexual prowess, is described as a “modern Hebe.”

• A 1986 Baroque dance production in New York was called, “Les Fetes d’Hebe.” Gods were used to portray themes of human violence, which were portrayed from a distance and wrapped in beauty to refine man’s baseness into something more graceful and symmetrical.

• A statue of Hebe was erected in Roseburg, Oregon in 2004 by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. It was a replacement for a statue of Hebe that stood in the town’s center, atop a fountain, from 1908-1912. The original statue had been destroyed when it was toppled by horses. Some of the townspeople saw the image of Hebe as impure, describing her as the supplier of intoxicants, and 150 of them signed a petition to protest the statue’s presence.

• A spa in California touting treatments to restore youth bears the name of Hebe.

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