Aegle
Aegle is one of the Hesperides, the nymphs associated with the garden of the golden apples at the western edge of the mythical world.
Explore Aegle →At the edge of the mythical world
The Hesperides and the Golden Apples
The Hesperides were nymphs of the distant west, guardians or attendants of the garden containing the famous golden apples of Greek mythology.
Who were the Hesperides?
The Hesperides were a group of nymphs associated with evening and the far west. Their mythology centres on an extraordinary garden containing golden apples.
Ancient sources do not preserve one fixed list of their names or even one universally agreed genealogy. Figures including Aegle, Erytheia, Hesperia and Arethusa appear in different surviving traditions.
The garden was protected in association with Ladon, the great serpent or dragon, while Atlas becomes central to an important version of the story in which Heracles must obtain the apples.
The Hesperid Nymphs
The names of the Hesperides vary between ancient traditions. Mythos Kosmos currently includes several individual Hesperids preserved in those traditions.
Arethusa (Hesperid)
Arethusa is one of the Hesperides, the western nymphs connected with the garden of the golden apples and the Labour of Heracles.
Explore Arethusa (Hesperid) →Erytheia
Erytheia is one of the Hesperides, the nymphs of the far western garden where the golden apples were guarded.
Explore Erytheia →Hesperia
Hesperia is a Hesperid nymph whose name reflects the association of the Hesperides with evening, the west and the garden of the golden apples.
Explore Hesperia →Where was the Garden of the Hesperides?
Greek myth places the garden in the distant west, beyond the ordinary geography of the Greek world. Its location belongs more to mythic geography than to one reliably identifiable historical place.
The western setting fits the Hesperides' association with evening and sunset. Their garden marks a boundary between the familiar human world and a more remote divine landscape.
The garden is guarded in association with Ladon , the great serpent or dragon traditionally connected with the tree bearing the golden fruit.
What were the Golden Apples?
The golden apples were divine fruit kept within the garden of the Hesperides. Ancient traditions connect them with the divine order surrounding Hera and with the guarded garden at the western edge of the world.
Their fame comes especially from the Labours of Heracles, when the hero is ordered to obtain apples from a place beyond the normal reach of mortals.
The episode brings together several otherwise separate mythological figures: the Hesperides themselves, Ladon, Atlas and Heracles.
How did Heracles obtain the Golden Apples?
The surviving traditions do not preserve only one version of the Labour. In one famous account, Heracles approaches Atlas and temporarily takes the burden of the heavens while Atlas retrieves the apples.
Other traditions place greater emphasis on Heracles himself confronting Ladon or obtaining the fruit more directly.
Related Myths
Heracles and the Apples of the Hesperides
Heracles seeks the golden apples of the Hesperides and becomes entangled with Atlas in one of the most famous of his later Labours.
Read the myth →Atalanta and the Golden Apples
Atalanta challenges her suitors to a footrace until Hippomenes defeats her with the help of Aphrodite and three golden apples.
Read the myth →