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From Pre - Christian Goddesses of Light to Saints of Light
In earliest Greco - Roman antiquity, the supreme deity, the bright, celestial light, possessed a feminine principle, Hera or Juno, as well as a masculine principle, Zeus or Jupiter. In ancient Greece, at the shrine of Dodona, Zeus (the bright, shining One) was worshipped jointly with a goddess whose name also meant "brilliantly shining," Dione, his feminine counterpart. There are obvious links to be made between Dione and Hera, Zeus's wife in later myth. Hera's name is related to the Sanskrit svar, "the sky."
Later in historical times, Zeus became for the Greeks the major celestial light, "the bright, shining One." Zeus was the bright sky, and so was Roman Jupiter (same etymology di, div, "brilliant, celestial light," from the Sanskrit Dyauspitar). The name of the German God Tiw or Ziu similarly meant: "the shining One," as did the name of the powerful Irish and Welsh God Lugh.
Notwithstanding these male examples, the adjectives used for god and goddess alike favoured our first examples of twin cosmic deities, female and male. For instance, when the pre - Christian Celts prayed to their most powerful goddess, they addressed her as Belisama, meaning "the most brilliant One." And Celtic Apollo was called Belenus "the bright or brilliant One." (There was a famous shrine to Apollo Belenus in the Vosges mountains of eastern France where Constantine had visions of light and of his future.) Celtic celestial light was both male and female.
However, if we choose to agree with Robert Graves (and not Moses Finley), the goddess was worshipped at a far earlier time than was the god. Therefore, before the triumph of patriarchy and with it of the male gods, the "bright, shining One" was a goddess. As we have noted, Hera was originally the queen of the sky, ruling over the cosmos, an independent virgin and totally unrelated to Zeus. When her cult later fused with and became subordinate to the cult of Zeus, a hasty marriage between the two was arranged. The unhappy union of Hera and Zeus may reflect the resistance of her followers to the takeover of Hera's cult. Nevertheless, at Stymphalos, three temples were erected to Hera: one to the child...