HEBE [Gr. "young maturity," "bloom of youth"], daughter of Zeus and Hera, Odyssey xi. 603. In Homer, this divine prin cess, in accordance with the simple northern manners of the Achaean nobles, does housework, much as the human princess, Nausicaa, does the family washing. Therefore she harnesses her mother's horses (Iliad, v. 722), bathes her brother Ares (ibid., 905 ), and pours the wine at table (iv. 2) . It is in her capacity as cup-bearer to the gods that she is oftenest mentioned, and is sometimes said to have been superseded by Ganymede (q.v.). As goddess of youth, she is generally worshipped along with her mother, of whom indeed she may be regarded as a sort of emanation or specialized form. She is also combined, both in cult and in mythology, with Hercules (q.v.), whose bride she became when he was received into heaven (Odyssey, 1.c.). The most important seats of her worship were Phlius and Secyon, where she was called Ganymeda and Dia (Pausanias, ii. 13,3 ; Strabo, viii., 6,24). (See Preller-Robert, I. 489, and the classical dic tionaries.) A Latin deity with whom she is sometimes identified is Iuventas, whom, however, Dionysus of Halicarnassus iv. calls Neotes, not Hebe. The hellenized cult of Iuventas-Hebe dates from 218 B.C. (Livy, xxi., 62,9).
See Wissowa, Religion and Kultur der Romer, p. 135, and the classical dictionaries.