| Greek deities series |
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| Nymphs |
InGreek mythology, theHesperides (/hɛˈspɛrɪdiːz/;Ancient Greek:Ἑσπερίδες,Ancient Greek pronunciation:[hesperídes]) are thenymphs ofevening and golden light ofsunsets, who were the "Daughters of the Evening" or "Nymphs of the West". They were also called theAtlantides (Ancient Greek:Ἀτλαντίδες,romanized: Atlantídes) from their reputed father,Atlas.[1]
The name meansoriginating from Hesperos (evening).Hesperos, orVesper in Latin, is the origin of the nameHesperus, the evening star (i.e. the planetVenus) as well as having a shared root with the English word "west".
Ordinarily, the Hesperides number three, like the other Greek triads (theThree Graces and theThree Fates). "Since the Hesperides themselves are mere symbols of the gifts the apples embody, they cannot be actors in a human drama. Their abstract, interchangeable names are a symptom of their impersonality", classicistEvelyn Byrd Harrison has observed.[2]
They are sometimes portrayed as the evening daughters of Night (Nyx), either alone,[3] or with Darkness (Erebus),[4] in accord with the way Eos in the farthermost east, inColchis, is the daughter of the titanHyperion. The Hesperides are also listed as the daughters ofAtlas[5] andHesperis,[6] or ofPhorcys andCeto,[7] or ofZeus andThemis.[8] In a Roman literary source, the nymphs are simply said to be the daughters ofHesperus, embodiment of the "west".[9]
Nevertheless, among the names given to them, though never all at once, there were either three, four, or sevenHesperides.Apollonius of Rhodes gives the number of three with their names asAigle,Erytheis, and Hespere (or Hespera).[10]Hyginus in his preface to theFabulae names them as Aegle, Hesperie, and Aerica.[11][12][13][a] In another source, they are namedAegle,Arethusa, and Hesperethusa, the three daughters of Hesperus.[14][15]
Hesiod says that these "clear-voiced Hesperides",[16] daughters of Ceto and Phorcys, guarded thegolden apples beyond Ocean in the far west of the world, gives the number of the Hesperides as four, and their names as: Aigle (or Aegle, "dazzling light"), Erytheia (or Erytheis), Hesperia ("sunset glow") whose name refers to the colour of the setting sun, red, yellow, or gold; and lastly Arethusa.[17] In addition, Hesperia, and Arethusa, the so-called "ox-eyed Hesperethusa".[18]Apollodorus gives the number of the Hesperides also as four, namely: Aigle, Erytheia, Hesperia (or Hesperie), and Arethusa[19] whileFulgentius named them as Aegle, Hesperie,Medusa, and Arethusa.[20][21] However, the historiographerDiodorus in his account stated that they are seven in number with no information of their names.[6] An ancientvase painting attests the following names as four:Asterope,Chrysothemis, Hygieia, andLipara; on another seven names asAiopis, Antheia,Donakis,Calypso,Mermesa,Nelisa, andTara.[22] Apyxis hasHippolyte, Mapsaura, andThetis.[23]Petrus Apianus attributed to these stars a mythical connection of their own. He believed that they were the seven Hesperides, nymph daughters ofAtlas andHesperis. Their names were: Aegle, Erythea, Arethusa, Hestia, Hespera, Hesperusa, and Hespereia.[24] A certainCrete, possible eponym of theisland of Crete, was also called one of the Hesperides.[25]
They are sometimes called the "Western Maidens", the "Daughters of Evening", orErythrai, and the "Sunset Goddesses", designations all apparently tied to their imagined location in the distant west.Hesperis is appropriately the personification of the evening (asEos is of the dawn) and the Evening Star isHesperus.
In addition to their tending of the garden, they have taken great pleasure in singing.[26]Euripides calls them "minstrel maids" as they possess the power of sweet song.[27] The Hesperides could behamadryad nymphs orepimeliads as suggested by a passage in which they change into trees:"... Hespere became a poplar and Eretheis an elm, and Aegle a willow's sacred trunk ..." and in the same account, they are described figuratively or literally to have white arms and golden heads.[28]
Erytheia ("the red one") is one of the Hesperides. The name was applied to an island close to the coast of southernHispania, which was the site of the original Punic colony ofGades (modern Cadiz).Pliny's Natural History (VI.36) records of the island of Gades:
On the side which looks towards Spain, at about 100 paces distance, is another long island, three miles wide, on which the original city of Gades stood. By Ephorus and Philistides it is called Erythia, by Timæus and Silenus Aphrodisias, and by the natives theIsle of Juno.
The island was the home ofGeryon, who was overcome byHeracles.
| Variables | Item | Sources | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hesiod | Euripides | Apollonius | Cic. | Apollod. | Hyg. | Serv. | Fulg. | Apianus | Vase Paintings | |||||
| Theo. | Sch. Hipp. | Argo | Sch. | Fab. | Aen. | |||||||||
| Parents | Nyx |  | ||||||||||||
| Nyx and Erebus | | | ||||||||||||
| Zeus and Themis | | |||||||||||||
| Phorcys and Ceto | | |||||||||||||
| Atlas and Hesperis | | |||||||||||||
| Hesperus | | |||||||||||||
| Number | 3 | | | | ||||||||||
| 4 | | | | | | |||||||||
| 7 | | | ||||||||||||
| Names | Aegle | | | | | | | | ||||||
| Erythea or | | |||||||||||||
| Erytheis / Eretheis or | | |||||||||||||
| Erythia | | | | |||||||||||
| Hesperia or | | | | | ||||||||||
| Hespere / Hespera or | | | | | ||||||||||
| Hesperusa | | |||||||||||||
| Arethusa | | | | | | |||||||||
| Hestia | | |||||||||||||
| Medusa | | |||||||||||||
| Aerica[a] | | |||||||||||||
| Hippolyte | | |||||||||||||
| Mapsaura | | |||||||||||||
| Thetis | | |||||||||||||
| Asterope | | |||||||||||||
| Chrysothemis | | |||||||||||||
| Hygieia | | |||||||||||||
| Lipara | | |||||||||||||
| Aiopis | | |||||||||||||
| Antheia | | |||||||||||||
| Donakis | | |||||||||||||
| Calypso | | |||||||||||||
| Mermesa | | |||||||||||||
| Nelisa | | |||||||||||||
| Tara | | |||||||||||||
The Hesperides tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, located near theAtlas mountains inNorth Africa at the edge of the encirclingOceanus theworld ocean.[30]
According to the Sicilian Greek poetStesichorus, in his poem the "Song ofGeryon", and the Greek geographerStrabo, in his bookGeographika (volume III), the garden of the Hesperides is located inTartessos, a location placed in the south of theIberian peninsula. The 1st-century AD Roman authorPliny the Elder, in the fifth book of hisNatural History, places the garden inLixus (in modern-dayMorocco), which he describes as the location of the combat betweenAntaeus andHercules;[31] later, in the sixth book of the work, he states that the Hesperides live on two islands in theAtlantic.[32]
Euesperides (in modern-dayBenghazi) which was probably founded by people fromCyrene orBarca, from both of which it lies to the west, might have mythological associations with the garden of Hesperides.[33]
ByAncient Roman times, the garden of the Hesperides had lost its archaic place in religion and had dwindled to a poetic convention, in which form it was revived inRenaissance poetry, to refer both to the garden and to the nymphs that dwelt there.
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The Garden of the Hesperides isHera's orchard in the west, where either a single apple tree or a grove grows, producinggolden apples. According to the legend, when the marriage of Zeus and Hera took place, the different deities came with nuptial presents for the latter, and among them the goddessGaia, with branches having golden apples growing on them as a wedding gift.[34] Hera, greatly admiring these, begged of Gaia to plant them in her gardens, which extended as far as Mount Atlas.
The Hesperides were given the task of tending to the grove, but occasionally picked apples from it themselves. Not trusting them, Hera also placed in the garden an immortal, never-sleeping, hundred-headeddragon namedLadon as an additional safeguard.[35] In the myth of theJudgement of Paris, it was from the Garden thatEris, Goddess of Discord, obtained theApple of Discord, which led to theTrojan War.[36]
In later years it was thought that the "golden apples" might have actually beenoranges, a fruit unknown toEurope and theMediterranean before theMiddle Ages.[37] Under this assumption, theGreekbotanical name chosen for allcitrus species wasHesperidoeidē (Ἑσπεριδοειδῆ, "hesperidoids") and even today the Greek word for the orange fruit is πορτοκάλι (Portokáli)--after the country ofPortugal in Iberia near where the Garden of the Hesperides grew.
After Heracles completed his first tenLabours,Eurystheus gave him two more claiming that neither the Hydra counted (becauseIolaus helped Heracles) nor the Augean stables (either because he received payment for the job or because the rivers did the work). The first of these two additional Labours was to steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides. Heracles first caught theOld Man of the Sea,[38] the shape-shifting sea god, to learn where the Garden of the Hesperides was located. In some versions of the tale, Heracles went to theCaucasus, wherePrometheus was confined. TheTitan directed him concerning his course through the land of the peoples in the farthest north and the perils to be encountered on his homeward march after slaying Geryon in the farthest west.
Follow this straight road; and, first of all, thou shalt come to the Boreades, where do thou beware the roaring hurricane, lest unawares it twist thee up and snatch thee away in wintry whirlwind.
As payment, Heracles freed Prometheus from his daily torture.[39] This tale is more usually found in the position of theErymanthian Boar, since it is associated withChiron choosing to forgo immortality and taking Prometheus' place.
Another story recounts how Heracles, either at the start or at the end of his task, meetsAntaeus, who was immortal as long as he touched his mother,Gaia, the earth. Heracles killed Antaeus by holding him aloft and crushing him in a bearhug.[40]Herodotus claims that Heracles stopped inEgypt, whereKing Busiris decided to make him the yearly sacrifice, but Heracles burst out of his chains.
Finally making his way to the Garden of the Hesperides, Heracles trickedAtlas into retrieving some of the golden apples for him, by offering to hold up the heavens for a little while (Atlas was able to take them as, in this version, he was the father or otherwise related to the Hesperides). This would have made this task – like the Hydra and Augean stables – void because he had received help. Upon his return, Atlas decided that he did not want to take the heavens back, and instead offered to deliver the apples himself, but Heracles tricked him again by agreeing to take his place on condition that Atlas relieve him temporarily so that Heracles could make his cloak more comfortable. Atlas agreed, but Heracles reneged and walked away, carrying the apples. According to an alternative version, Heracles slewLadon instead and stole the apples.
There is another variation to the story where Heracles was the only person to steal the apples, other thanPerseus, althoughAthena later returned the apples to their rightful place in the garden. They are considered by some to be the same "apples of joy" that temptedAtalanta, as opposed to the "apple of discord" used byEris to start a beauty contest on Olympus (which caused "The Siege of Troy").
OnAttic pottery, especially from the late fifth century, Heracles is depicted sitting in bliss in the Gardens of the Hesperides, attended by the maidens.
After the hero Heracles killed Ladon and stole the golden apples, theArgonauts during their journey, came to the Hesperian plain the next day. The band of heroes asked for the mercy of the Hesperides to guide them to a source of water in order to replenish their thirst. The goddesses pitying the young men, directed them to a spring created by Heracles who likewise longing for a draught while wandering the land, smote a rock nearLake Triton after which the water gushed out. The following passage recounts this meeting of the Argonauts and the nymphs:[41]
Then, like raging hounds, they [i.e. Argonauts] rushed to search for a spring; for besides their suffering and anguish, a parching thirst lay upon them, and not in vain did they wander; but they came to the sacred plain where Ladon, the serpent of the land, till yesterday kept watch over the golden apples in the garden of Atlas; and all around the nymphs, the Hesperides, were busied, chanting their lovely song. But at that time, stricken by Heracles, he lay fallen by the trunk of the apple-tree; only the tip of his tail was still writhing; but from his head down his dark spine he lay lifeless; and where the arrows had left in his blood the bitter gall of the Lernaean hydra, flies withered and died over the festering wounds. And close at hand the Hesperides, their white arms flung over their golden heads, lamented shrilly; and the heroes drew near suddenly; but the maidens, at their quick approach, at once became dust and earth where they stood. Orpheus marked the divine portent, and for his comrades addressed them in prayer: "O divine ones, fair and kind, be gracious, O queens, whether ye be numbered among the heavenly goddesses, or those beneath the earth, or be called the Solitary nymphs; come, O nymphs, sacred race of Oceanus, appear manifest to our longing eyes and show us some spring of water from the rock or some sacred flow gushing from the earth, goddesses, wherewith we may quench the thirst that burns us unceasingly. And if ever again we return in our voyaging to the Achaean land, then to you among the first of goddesses with willing hearts will we bring countless gifts, libations and banquets.
So he spake, beseeching them with plaintive voice; and they from their station near pitied their pain; and lo! First of all they caused grass to spring from the earth; and above the grass rose up tall shoots, and then flourishing saplings grew standing upright far above the earth. Hespere became a poplar and Eretheis an elm, and Aegle a willow's sacred trunk. And forth from these trees their forms looked out, as clear as they were before, a marvel exceeding great, and Aegle spake with gentle words answering their longing looks: "Surely there has come hither a mighty succour to your toils, that most accursed man, who robbed our guardian serpent of life and plucked the golden apples of the goddesses and is gone; and has left bitter grief for us. For yesterday came a man most fell in wanton violence, most grim in form; and his eyes flashed beneath his scowling brow; a ruthless wretch; and he was clad in the skin of a monstrous lion of raw hide, untanned; and he bare a sturdy bow of olive, and a bow, wherewith he shot and killed this monster here. So he too came, as one traversing the land on foot, parched with thirst; and he rushed wildly through this spot, searching for water, but nowhere was he like to see it. Now here stood a rock near the Tritonian lake; and of his own device, or by the prompting of some god, he smote it below with his foot; and the water gushed out in full flow. And he, leaning both his hands and chest upon the ground, drank a huge draught from the rifted rock, until, stooping like a beast of the field, he had satisfied his mighty maw.
Thus she spake; and they gladly with joyful steps ran to the spot where Aegle had pointed out to them the spring, until they reached it. And as when earth-burrowing ants gather in swarms round a narrow cleft, or when flies lighting upon a tiny drop of sweet honey cluster round with insatiate eagerness; so at that time, huddled together, the Minyae thronged about the spring from the rock. And thus with wet lips one cried to another in his delight: "Strange! In very truth Heracles, though far away, has saved his comrades, fordone with thirst. Would that we might find him on his way as we pass through the mainland!
According to Diodorus' account, the Hesperides did not have the golden apples. Instead they possessed flocks of sheep which excelled in beauty and were therefore called for their beauty, as the poets might do, "golden apples",[42] just as Aphroditê is called "golden" because of her loveliness. Others also say that it was because the sheep had a peculiar colour like gold that they got this designation. This version further states that Dracon ("dragon") was the name of the shepherd of the sheep, a man who excelled in strength of body and courage, who guarded the sheep and slew any who might dare to carry them off.[43]
With the revival of classicalallusions in the Renaissance, the Hesperides returned to their prominent position, and the garden itself took on the name of its nymphs:Robert Greene wrote of "The fearful Dragon... that watched the garden called Hesperides".[44] Shakespeare inserted the comically insistent rhyme "is not Love a Hercules, Still climbing trees in the Hesperides" inLove's Labours Lost (iv.iii) andJohn Milton mentioned the "ladies of the Hesperides" inParadise Regained (ii.357).Hesperides (published 1647) was the title of a collection of pastoral and religious verse by the Royalist poetRobert Herrick.
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Thirty-two miles distant from Julia Constantia is Lixos, which was made a Roman colony by Claudius Cæsar, and which has been the subject of such wondrous fables, related by the writers of antiquity. At this place, according to the story, was the palace of Antaeus; this was the scene of his combat with Hercules, and here were the gardens of the Hesperides. An arm of the sea flows into the land here, with a serpentine channel, and, from the nature of the locality, this is interpreted at the present day as having been what was really represented by the story of the dragon keeping guard there.
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