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The Hellenic model of sovereignty changes. During the age of kings, documented in Linear B, Poseidon embodies the archaic sovereignty of the lord of horses. With the rise of the polis, Zeus provides the new model, together with his equal queen, Hera, and his executive, Athena.
A big part of this shift can be attributed to Hera. In Linear B, Poseidon has a feminine counterpart, Poseidaija, as Zeus has Dione. These may be compared to consort Goddesses like Amunet for Amun in Egypt. *But*, Amun has also Mut, as Zeus has Hera.
Mut has her own mythos and intense devotional cultus, as we are learning from recently-assembled fragmentary papyri. She is a wandering Goddess and her partnering with Amun demonstrates a distinct broadening and deepening of the latter's cult.
Hera is very similar. Her name is not linked to Zeus', and doesn't even have a clear Greek etymology. She is a bovine Goddess, not unlike Hathor, and her name suggests a link to Horus and to the institution of the "hero", with Herakles as the ideal initiate.
Like Mut and Hathor, Hera is a "wandering Goddess". She absents herself from Zeus periodically, even being regarded at these times as a "widow", then restores her status as a maiden to choose him anew.
Hera seems to bring with her new marriage customs of some kind. She is associated with a floral-print dress which is seemingly at first worn by priestesses, but which becomes a traditional wedding gown. With changes in the institution of marriage come changes in sovereignty.
Hera is also the cause of a frenzy taxonomically identical with Bacchic mania, but independent of Dionysos (perhaps having to do with the traditional association of cannabis with her cult in the Argolid?).
In any event, this frenzy is also a key element of the new model of sovereignty, as we can see from Dionysos being designated as Zeus' successor. (Zeus is also associated with the reception of laws in dreams, a related phenomenon.)
Zeus has to *win* his bride, though this is somewhat obscured in the mythos. But Hera's association with the male peacock, who creates a dazzling display to win his mate, is telling. Zeus' talent is that of the magpie, who brings shiny objects to the nest.
This is the sense of Zeus' "promiscuity", and explains the rapid adoption of new ideas which is a trait of classical Hellenic civilization. Hera's role is to test these new elements rigorously, and ultimately sanction them (the paradigm being her adoption of Herakles).
All in all, we see a remarkable adaptation in Greece to the crisis of the Mycenaean monarchies, a theological-cultic revolution which established new institutions and laid a foundation for the achievements of the classical era.
