The Star
The woman in this picture is clearly Hera, a figure from greek mythology. She is shown here with two of her enemies behind her, Hercules and Atlas. She is patron of goats (hence the heads above the statues) and also the goddess of the morning and evening star. Among other icons in art associated with her are pomegranites - in the carvings in this card also above the statues.
Hera was the stepmother and enemy of Heracles, who was named "Hera-famous in her honor; When Alcmene was pregnant with Heracles, Hera tried to prevent the birth from occurring by tying Alcmene's legs in knots. She was foiled by Galanthis, her servant, who told Hera that she had already delivered the baby. Hera turned her into a weasel.
While Heracles (hercules) was still an infant, Hera sent two serpents to kill him as he lay in his cot. Two serpents are above the statue in the card. Heracles throttled a single snake in each hand and was found by his nurse playing with their limp bodies as if they were a child's toys.
One account of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day. Also in the card?
Hera assigned Heracles to labor for King Eurystheus at Mycenae. She attempted to make almost each of Heracles' twelve labors more difficult. You need to read his 12 labours to understand more about his relationship with Atlas and why they are here together. It also explains the significance of the stag/deer in the picture.
When he fought the Lernaean Hydra, she sent a crab to bite at his feet in the hopes of distracting him - is that a crab at the base of the statue? When Heracles took the cattle of Geryon, he shot Hera in the right breast with a triple-barbed arrow: the wound was incurable and left her in constant pain which is possibly why it is possibly covered a bit by a robe in the picture.
Concerning Atlas, some say that his punishment to hold up the world was because he tried to steal apples from hera's orchard but the story of the 12 labours does not give this from the source I read. He would be looking distressed anyway because he was tricked by Hercules after trying to trick him to hold up the world forever.
So we have a woman very much alive and images from her past here in stone. I seen this card as a very deep reference to the darker side of femininity. A more destructive side perhaps. Perhaps we are looking at a woman who regrets but is at peace with her actions now. With the parting of her hair, and a masculine looking face I wondered if this woman was hermaphrodite. I say this because of another story associated with her:-
Tiresias was a priest of Zeus, and as a young man he encountered two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of Hera, married and had children, including Manto. After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes, struck them with her staff, and became a man once more. As a result of his experiences, Zeus and Hera asked him to settle the question of which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women; Hera claimed it was men. When Tiresias sided with Zeus, Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy. An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, Chariclo, begged her to undo her curse, but Athena couldn't; she gave him prophecy instead.
Even though her punishments to both these men are severe, I think theres some deep messages here. The world would have collapsed into chaos were it not for the punishment given to Atlas (regardless of who gave it). The labours of hercules were neccessary to rid the world of some evil.
Six were located in the Peloponnese, culminating with the rededication of Olympia. Six others took the hero farther afield. In each case, the pattern was the same: Heracles was sent to kill or subdue, or to fetch back a person, magical animal or plant.
Perhaps the card is about peace culminating out of some horiffic acts. As well as a balance of masculine feminine. Father Mother God.