Hera is the stepmother and enemy of Heracles. The name Heracles means "Glory of Hera". There are three alternative stories about the birth of Heracles and Hera's role in preventing it. In Homer's "Iliad", when Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Zeus announced to all the gods that on that day a child by Zeus himself, would be born and rule all those around him. Hera, after requesting Zeus to swear an oath to that effect, descended from Olympus to Argos and made the wife of Sthenelus (son of Perseus) give birth to Eurystheus after only seven months, while at the same time preventing Alcmene from delivering Heracles. This resulted in the fulfilment of Zeus's oath in that it was Eurystheus rather than Heracles. In an alternative version mentioned in Ovid's "Metamorphoses", when Alcmene was pregnant with Zeus' child, Hera tried to prevent the birth from occurring by having Eileithyia (the Greek equivalent of Lucina) tie Alcmene's legs in knots. Her attempt was foiled when Galanthis frightened Eileithyia while she was tying Alcmene's legs and Heracles was born. Hera thus punishes Galanthis by turning her into a weasel. In Pausanias' recounting, Hera sent witches (as they were called by the Thebans) to hinder Alcmene's delivery of Heracles. The witches were successful in preventing the birth until Historis, daughter of Tiresias, thought of a trick to deceive the witches. Like Galanthis, Historis announced that Alcmene had delivered her child; having been deceived, the witches went away, allowing Alcmene to give birth.