Ladon
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.
The Myth of Ladon
Ladon was a serpentine dragon with a hundred heads, each speaking in a different voice, coiled around the tree of golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides at the western edge of the world. He was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, or in other versions of Phorcys and Ceto, placing him among the ancient sea monsters. The golden apples had been a wedding gift from Gaia to Hera when she married Zeus, and the Hesperides tended them with Ladon as their guardian. For his eleventh labour, Heracles was sent to retrieve the apples. In one version, he shot Ladon with arrows dipped in the Hydra's venom. In another, he sent Atlas to fetch the apples while he held up the sky. Hera placed the slain Ladon among the stars as the constellation Draco, eternally coiling around the celestial north pole.
Symbols
Fun Fact
The constellation Draco, identified with Ladon, coils around the north celestial pole. Around 3000 BC, the star Thuban in Draco was the Pole Star — the Great Pyramid of Giza's descending passage was aligned to it. The dragon guarding golden treasure became the archetype for Fafnir in Norse myth, Smaug in The Hobbit, and every treasure-hoarding dragon in fantasy literature. Ladon is the original.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
Griffin
🐉 creatureGuardian of treasures
A legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, the griffin combined the king of beasts with the king of birds.
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.
Ophiotaurus
🐉 creaturehybrid creatures
A creature half bull and half serpent whose entrails, if burned, could grant power to overthrow the gods
Hesperides
🌿 nymphNymphs of the golden apples
The Hesperides tended golden apple trees at the western edge of the world.