Hesperides
The Hesperides tended golden apple trees at the western edge of the world.
The Myth of Hesperides
The Hesperides, nymphs of the evening, tended a garden at the western edge of the world where golden apples grew — a wedding gift from Gaia to Hera. Atlas stood nearby bearing the sky. Heracles, as his eleventh labour, was sent to steal the apples. He either tricked Atlas into fetching them or slew the dragon Ladon that guarded the tree. Hera had placed Ladon there after distrusting the Hesperides themselves. The golden apples appeared again when Eris threw one marked "to the fairest" among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite — Paris's judgment ignited the Trojan War. The garden represented the boundary between the mortal world and the realm of the gods.
Symbols
Fun Fact
Hesperus, the evening star, shares their root.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Nymphs of the Hesperides
🐉 creaturenymphs,garden
The evening nymphs who tended the garden at the western edge of the world where the golden apple tree grew, daughters of Atlas or Hesperus and Hesperis.
Garden of the Hesperides
🏛 placeParadise garden at the western edge
The Garden of the Hesperides was a paradise at the far western edge of the world where golden apples grew on trees tended by nymphs and guarded by a dragon.
Aegle
🌿 nymphlight, healing
A nymph whose name means "radiance" — identified variously as a Hesperid, a daughter of Asclepius, or the most beautiful of the Naiads.
Ladon
🐉 creatureHundred-headed dragon of the Hesperides
Ladon was the serpent-dragon with a hundred heads who guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides, never sleeping, each head speaking in a different voice.
Ladon
🐉 creatureguardian, treasure
The hundred-headed serpent-dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides, slain or tricked by Heracles during his eleventh labour.
Dryads
🌿 nymphTree nymphs
Dryads were nymphs bound to individual trees — when the tree died, so did its dryad.
Lotis
🌿 nymphtrees, escape
A nymph who fled the god Priapus and was transformed into the lotus tree to escape his assault.
Thetis
🌿 nymphSea nymph mother of Achilles
Thetis was a sea nymph so powerful that both Zeus and Poseidon desired her — until a prophecy warned her son would surpass his father.
Minthe
🌿 nymphthe underworld, plants
A Naiad nymph of the Underworld river Cocytus who was trampled into the mint plant by a jealous Persephone.
Chloris
🌿 nymphGoddess of flowers, wife of Zephyrus
Chloris was a nymph whom Zephyrus (the west wind) abducted and married, making her the goddess of flowers — the Romans called her Flora.
Hyades
🌿 nymphRain-bringing star nymphs
The Hyades were nymphs who nursed the infant Dionysus and were placed among the stars as a cluster whose rising brought the autumn rains.
Telphusa
🌿 nymphsprings, prophecy
A spring nymph of Boeotia who tricked Apollo into building his oracle at Delphi instead of at her spring.