Festival of Hera
The Heraia, is a celebration held in honour of Hera. Like all the occassions mentioned by the Labydae, the festival includes a banquet. In some regions, the Heraia featured women's footraces, suggesting it may have been a festival for the initiation of young women. Notable stories associated with Hera include the tale of Kleobis and Biton, two brothers known for their strength, who were commemorated with statues at Delphi for pulling their mother's cart to the Sanctuary of Hera.
Apart from being in the month of Heraios the exact date of the festival is uncertain. It is speculated as the 10th based on a sacrifice to Hera at **Kos.**
The festival of Hera, the Heraia, fell in the fourth month at Delphi, Heraios (the third month, Boathoos, perhaps corresponding to Athenian Boedromion, was thus skipped); virtually nothing is known about these rites (but see below line D9 on the Telchinia).
– A Collection of Greek Ritual Norms (CGRN) – Two excerpts from the dossier of regulations of the Labyadai at Delphi $^{5}$
On the 10th: to Hera Argeia Eleia Basileia a selected heifer. Let it be selected having been purchased for no less than 50 drachmae. The priest sacrifices and provides the (supplementary) sacred offerings. He obtains as perquisites the skin and a leg. Take-away (is allowed) from this (heifer). The wrapped offerings are wrapped and they are sacrificed on the hearth in the temple, along with a cake made from a half-hekteus of (10) wheat. No take-away from these, away from the temple.
– A Collection of Greek Ritual Norms (CGRN) – Sacrificial calendar of the city of Kos
On the 13th: to Hera Antheia, a white female sheep, pregnant, mated by a white (ram); a chous is given to the priestess; and of wood [...] a half-hekteus; to the (house?) of the priest is given a chous, wood; and on the altar, an amphora of wine.
– A Collection of Greek Ritual Norms (CGRN) – Civic sacrificial calendar of Miletos $^{87}$
The Heraia includes a banquet$^{5}$ and in some regions, women's footraces are held, suggesting it may have been a festival for the initiation of young women. The Heraia festival in Elis takes place every fourth year. As well ass footrafes for girls, the women weave a robe for this festival, and dress Hera.
One notable story associated with Hera is that of Cleobis and Biton, two brothers who pulled their mother's cart to the Sanctuary of Hera and died on arrival. Their story was commemorated with statues at Delphi, gifted from the region of Argos. Plutarch, who served as a priest of Apollon at Delphi, references the relationship between Hera and Leto, and concludes that they may be the same god. In Plutarch’s time there also seemed to be a common separation of Dionysus and Hera in their respective rites.
https://classical-inquiries.chs.harvard.edu/on-the-festival-of-the-goddess-hera-at-the-heraion-overlooking-the-plain-of-argos/
but when they get into some angry disagreement repose apart; they ought, instead, at that time especially to invoke Aphrodite, who is the best physician for such disorders. Such no doubt is the teaching of the poet when he represents Hera as saying,
*I will settle their uncomposed quarrels, Sending them back to their bed to a union of loving enjoyment.
–* Plutarch*, Moralia, Advice to Bride and Groom*
First I shall relate for you the tale of Cleobis and Biton, the Argive youths. They say that their mother was priestess of Hera, and when the time had come for her to go up to the temple, and the mules that always drew her wagon were late in arriving, and the hour was pressing, these young men put themselves to the wagon and drew their mother to the temple; and she, overjoyed at the devotion of her sons, prayed that the best boon that man can receive be given them by the goddess. They then lay down to sleep and never arose again, the goddess granting them death as a reward for their devotion.
– Plutarch, Moralia, Letter to Apollonius