![]() ![]() 742) but the later attempts to fix their abodes, and the geographical position of their gardens, have led poets and geographers to different parts of Libya, as in the neighbourhood of Cyrene, Mount Atlas, or the islands on the western coast of Libya ( Plin. In the earliest legends, these nymphs are described as living on the river Oceanus, in the extreme west ( Hes. The poets describe themas possessed of the power of sweet song. ![]() Hespere, Erytheis, and Aegle, or Aegle, Arethusa, and Hesperusa or Hesperia ( Apollon. 742.) Instead of the four Hesperides mentioned above, some traditions know only of three, viz. 4.27), and sometimes of Hesperus, or of Zeus and Themis. 4.1399), sometimes of Atlas and Hesperis, whence their names Atlantides or Hesperides ( Diod. init.), sometimes of Phorcys and Ceto (Schol. Their names are Aegle, Erytheia, Hestia, and Arethusa, but their descent is not the same in the different traditions sometimes they are called the daughters of Night or Erebus ( Hes. the famens guaidians of the golden apples which Ge had given to Hera at her marriage with Zeus. After its death the serpent was immortalised in the sky as the constellation Draco, curling between the Great and Little Bears, and right next to it is Heracles himself, with raised club. In some accounts Heracles himself confronted and killed the serpent before taking the apples with his own hands. After Eurystheus had seen the apples, Athena returned them to the Hesperides’ garden, since no mortal was allowed to possess the sacred fruit. The gullible giant took back his burden, never to set it down again, and Heracles at once seized the fruit and made good his escape. He asked Atlas to take hold of the sky for a moment, while he made himself more comfortable with a padded cushion for his head. He planned never to take up his burden again and said that he would himself deliver the apples to Eurystheus, but Heracles easily tricked the dull-witted Titan. Heracles offered to hold up the sky for him if he would fetch the apples from the Hesperides’ garden, so Atlas happily relinquished his weary load and went off to pick the golden fruit. Having wrestled with the sea-god Nereus to find out the way to the land of the Hesperides, Heracles came at last to the place where Atlas stood, condemned to support the sky for all eternity as a punishment for fighting with the other Titans against Zeus. The eleventh of the labors performed by Herackles was to fetch the golden apples for Eurystheus. Hesiod calls the Hesperides the daughters of Nyx (Night). The Hesperides, helped by the giant serpent Ladon, guarded the tree bearing these apples from the daughters of Atlas, who were in the habit of pilfering the golden fruit. In this garden grew the golden apples which Gaia (Earth) once put forth as a marriage-gift for Zeus and Hera. The Hesperides were singing Nymphs living in a western garden beyond the sunset, on an island at the far ends of the earth where the Titan Atlas held up the rim of the sky. His quiver and club are hung on the background of the scene while the hero upholds the sky represented as a beam, with stars and moon. The giant Atlas brings the golden apples of Hesperids, symbol of eternal youth, to Herakles. ![]()
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