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I believe there is also a credible hypothesis that Hera could be a feminine for of the masculine Eros, although I am having difficultly tracking that down at the moment. (When I find an academic reference I will amend.)

I believe there is also a credible hypothesis that Hera could be a feminine form of the masculine Eros, although I am having difficultly tracking that down at the moment. (When I find an academic reference I will amend.)

Yannis essentially answers the question here, but I'll add a little detail, just for fun, using poetry (since the deepest insights come from great poets) and linguistics.

Yannis essentially answers the question here, but I'll add a little detail, just for fun, using poetry (since the deepest insights come from great poets) and linguistics.

Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
_{Little Gidding}

The previous stanza elucidates further:

The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one dischage from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre-
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
_{Little Gidding}

And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
_{Little Gidding}

The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one dischage from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre-
To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
_{Little Gidding}

And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
_{Little Gidding}

ON THE DOVE: The dove is a symbol that has many connotations, particularly in the wider scope of Eliot's poem. The dove is generally associated with Aphrodite (love) but there is evidence of association with Hera also. (Doves are monogamous during mating season, and monogamy is the domain of Hera.)

“…it is significant that the dove was one of Hera’s sacred birds. Doves were found in association with her temples at Argos and Delos, and related stature even depicts Hera with wings. (O’Brien 1993, 73;178, fig. 22; 227-31) This iconography and Homer’s characterization of her in the Iliad (5.778-9) as one who moved ‘like a quivering dove” suggest that one of Hera’s early epiphanies may have been as a dove.”
_{[Source: The Cult of Divine Birth In Ancient Greece, Rigoglioso, M. 2009, p.129]}

An in-depth discussion on the etymology of Hera may be found in The Transformation of Hera: A Study of Ritual, Hero, and the Goddess in the Iliad by Joan V. O'Brien, Professor of Classics at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. The book references the association of Hera with the dove including pp.48, 114, 195, 228, 230, and most notably on page 207: “In the search for submerged images of God, those of the early Hera offer some interesting possibilities: a Soaring Dove bringing birth and death…” On pp.186-187 O'Brien also links Hera and Aphrodite.

I believe there is also a credible hypothesis that Hera could be a feminine for of the masculine Eros, although I am having difficultly tracking that down at the moment. (When I find an academic reference I will amend.)