Hera as nurse, mother and employer of monsters

Hera is connected with quite a few monsters in Greek mythology, especially with serpents and serpentine creatures. This aspect of her doesn't seem to get much attention, but it is certainly interesting.

She was nurse to the Lernaean Hydra, the many-headed, venomous water snake which Herakles had to subdue: "Her [Echidna's] third child was the loathsome Hydra of Lerna, and she was nurtured by white-armed Hera whose wrath at mighty Herakles was implacable." (Hesiod, Theogony)

She raised the Nemean Lion, apparently for no reason other than causing trouble for mortals: "the Lion of Nemea, who was reared by Hera, the glorious wife of Zeus, and settled on the hills of Nemea as a scourge to mankind." (Hesiod, Theogony)

She gave birth to Typhon, father of most monsters, in an attempt to produce a child more powerful than Zeus: "And once from golden-throned Hera she received and reared dreadful and baneful Typhaon, a scourge to mortals. Hera gave birth to him in anger at father Zeus, when the son of Kronos gave birth to glorious Athena from his head;" (Homeric Hymn 3. To Apollon)

Hera sent the Sphinx to terrorise the Thebans: "While he [Kreon] was king, quite a scourge held Thebes in suppression, for Hera sent upon them the Sphinx, whose parents were Echidna and Typhon. (Apollodoros, Bibliotheke)

She appointed the hundred-headed serpent son of Typhon as guardian over her tree of golden apples: "This is the large serpent, the one that lies between the two Bears. They say that it is the one that guarded the golden apples and was killed by Heracles; it was placed among the constellations by Hera, who had appointed it to guard the apples in the land of the Hesperides. For according to Pherecydes, ... because the daughters of Atlas constantly stole the fruit, she stationed this enormous snake there as a guard." (Hyginus, Astronomy)

She sent two serpents to attack Herakles: "... then sent the wily Hera two dire monsters of serpents, bridling and bristling and with azure coils, to go upon the broad threshold of the hollow doorway of the house, with intent they should devour the child Heracles." (Theokritos, Idyll 24).