Ladon
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.
The Myth of Ladon
Ladon was the serpent that coiled around the tree of golden apples at the western edge of the world, placed there by Hera to ensure no one — not even the Hesperides nymphs who tended the garden — could take the fruit. The dragon had a hundred heads (according to Hesiod) and never slept, his many voices filling the garden with sound. For his eleventh labour, Heracles sought the apples. In one version he slew Ladon outright; in another, he sent Atlas to fetch the fruit while he held up the sky. Athena guided Heracles, and Nereus revealed the garden's location. Hera placed Ladon among the stars as the constellation Draco, mourning her guardian. The golden apples themselves appeared elsewhere in myth — Eris used one to spark the Trojan War.
Symbols
Fun Fact
The constellation Draco is said to be Ladon — still guarding the celestial pole as he once guarded the golden apples.
Explore Further
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.
Drakon Hesperios
🐉 creatureserpents,guardian
The immortal serpent that never slept, coiled around the tree of golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides at the western edge of the world.
Drakon Kholkikos
🐉 creaturedragons
The ever-wakeful dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece in the sacred grove of Ares at Colchis
Drakon Ismenios
🐉 creaturedragons
A sacred dragon of Ares that guarded the spring of Ismene near Thebes
Colchian Dragon
🐉 creatureSleepless guardian of the Golden Fleece
The Colchian Dragon was an enormous, ever-wakeful serpent that guarded the Golden Fleece in the sacred grove of Ares in Colchis.
Hesperides
🌿 nymphNymphs of the golden apples
The Hesperides tended golden apple trees at the western edge of the world.
Echidna
🐉 creatureMother of all monsters
Echidna was half woman, half serpent — called the Mother of All Monsters for bearing the most fearsome creatures of Greek mythology.
Sybaris
🐉 creaturemonsters
A monstrous serpent-dragon that terrorised the region around Delphi until slain by a young hero
Delphyne
🐉 creaturedragons
A she-dragon who guarded Zeus's severed sinews in the Corycian Cave
Python
🐉 creatureSerpent of Delphi slain by Apollo
Python was the enormous serpent that guarded the oracle at Delphi before Apollo arrived, slew it, and claimed the site for his own.
Hydra
🐉 creatureMulti-headed serpent of Lerna
A monstrous water serpent with multiple heads that grew two more whenever one was cut off. Slaying the Hydra was Heracles's second labor.
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.