Hebe was the goddess of youth and the cupbearer of the gods — the eternally young daughter of Zeus and Hera, who poured the nectar and ambrosia at the feasts of Olympus and who, as the personification of youthful bloom, became the bride of the deified hero Heracles. She was the divine embodiment of the prime of life, the freshness of youth made into a goddess.
The Cupbearer of Olympus
A daughter of Zeus and Hera, Hebe held one of the most intimate offices in the divine household: she was the cupbearer who served the nectar and ambrosia — the food and drink of immortality — to the gods at their feasts. To pour for the gods was a position of high honour, and Hebe filled it as the bright, youthful daughter of the royal couple, the very image of grace and bloom moving among the immortals. She also drew baths for the war-god Ares and helped her mother Hera yoke her chariot.
Goddess of Youth
Hebe was the personification of youth itself (hebe in Greek means the bloom of young adulthood, the prime of life). She had the power to restore youth and vigour — in one tale she gave back their lost youth to others as a divine favour. She represented everything fresh, vigorous and unspent: the season of life before age and care, the brief and beautiful prime that mortals lose and the gods keep forever.
Bride of Heracles
When Heracles completed his labours, died his fiery death and was raised to Olympus as a god, he was reconciled with Hera at last and given her daughter Hebe as his immortal bride. The pairing was deeply fitting: the greatest of heroes, who had suffered and toiled all his life, was rewarded in heaven with eternal youth made flesh. By Heracles, Hebe bore two sons, Alexiares and Anicetus. Her marriage marked the hero's final passage from mortal struggle to divine, ageless bliss.
The Bloom of Youth
Hebe endures as the goddess of youth and the cupbearer of the gods — her name a byword for the bloom of young life. She embodies the Greek tenderness toward youth's brief season, and the lovely idea that the reward for a life of heroic toil is to be young forever, pouring the wine of immortality in the halls of heaven.
To the gods who never age, Hebe was their youngest joy; to the hero who had aged through every trial, she was eternity's reward.