Ooo another priestess of Hera, Callithyia! Specifically, the first ever Argive priestess of Hera :D She invented the four horsed chariot, dedicated it to Hera, and this impressed either Zeus or Hera so much that they added it to the stars. Cal also raised her son to revere Hera, and he was a potential craftsman of the chariot instead of his mother.
[Eusebius quoting Plutarch quoting Callimachus:] “You are not yet the polished work of Scelmis. / But an unchiselled plank, by ancient rule. / Such gods men set up back then.”
Scelmis was a legendary carver of the first ever anthropomorphic representations of Hera at Samos, and thus one of if not The first anthropomorphized image of any Greek god. He turned a board of wood into a statue of Hera.
It is also said that Peiras, the founder of the temple of Hera at Argos, who appointed his own daughter Callithyia to be her priestess, cut down a straight-grained pear tree from among the trees near Tiryns and shaped it into an image of Hera.
Peiras is otherwise instead known as Argus, according to Demetrius’ lost Argolica.
According to Wikipedia (i tried really hard to find the actual scholia):
Scholia on Aratus (Phenomena 161) mention her as the inventor of the chariot and the mother of Trochilus.
Phoronis poem fragment:
Callithoe, keyholder of the Olympian queen, Argive Hera; she who first decorated the Lady’s tall pillar round about with wreaths and tassels.
Hyginus’ Astronomica:
CHARIOTEER [constellation]: In Latin we call him "auriga" — Erichthonius by name, as Eratosthenes shows. [Zeus] seeing that he first among men yoked horses in four-horse chariots, admired the genius of a man who could rival the invention of [Helios], who first among the gods made use of the quadriga. […] Some too, who have written about the stars, have said that the Charioteer was an Argive by birth, named Orsilochus, who first invented the four-horse chariot, and for his invention gained a place among the stars.
Tertullian, De Spectaculis 9
But if Trochilus the Argive is maker of the first chariot, he dedicated that work of his to [Hera].
This mention of the king of Argos making his daughter the priestess of Hera reminds me a lot of what @sarafangirlart said that one time, though I don’t remember the post. Something about all Argive kings instating their daughters as her priestesses, and therefore Perseus’ daughters were probably her priestesses as well.
We see another example of that with Admete, daughter of Eurystheus, as well. She definitely becomes a priestess after landing in Samos, but considering she had access to Hera’s statue and the protection of the goddess, it could be implied that she was already her priestess.
Athenaeus:
He [Menodotus of Samos] claims that when Eurystheus’ daughter Admete, who had been exiled from Argos, arrived on Samos, she had a vision of Hera and wanted to make a thank-offering in return for her successful escape from her homeland, and she therefore took charge of the temple that still exists today and that was originally founded by the Leleges and the nymphs…
Even Io was considered the daughter of Argos’ king sometimes, and was occasionally seen as identical to Callithyia.













