by iakul

Created on: November 17, 2009   Last Updated: November 18, 2009

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides were nymphs who tended Hera's orchard, where immortality giving golden apples were grown.

Depending on the stories, the Hesperides either number three or four, although quite a number of names have been ascribed to them. These include Aegle, Arethusa, Erytheria, Hesperia, Lipara, Asterope, and Chrysothemis. Collectively, they are also known as the Western Maidens, the Daughters of Evening, the Sunset Goddesses or The African Sisters.

The garden they tend, known as The Garden of The Hesperides, is believed to be located in the far western corner of the world. Since the Greeks believed that the world was flat and the sun set in the west, this was the reason they were called the Sunset Goddesses or the Daughters of Evening. Depending on the stories, there was either a single tree or a grove in the orchard, and in the stories featuring a single tree, the never-sleeping hundred-headed dragon Ladon was coiled around it, guarding against any potential thieves.

The stories also vary on who fathered the Hesperides. They have been variously portrayed as the daughters of Erebus, personification of darkness, and Nyx, goddess of the night, the daughters of Atlas, the daughters of Zeus and either Hesperius or Themis, or Phorcrys and Ceto.

Perhaps the most famous story which featured the Hesperides is the one about the Twelve Labours of Hercules. In this story, Hercules had to perform ten labours or tasks for Eurystheus as penance for Hercules' murder of his own family. Two of the first ten labours Hercules performed were discounted by Eurystheus, leading to the additional of another two tasks, and the task of obtaining the golden apples from The Garden of The Hesperides was assigned to Hercules for the eleventh labour.

Not knowing where the Garden of The Hesperides was, Hercules approached Atlas, the giant who bore the sky on his shoulders, and offered to support the sky for him while Atlas went to obtain the apples. Atlas, being related to the Hesperides (in some stories their father), was able to obtain them with ease, although he refused to take the sky back upon his return. Hercules tricked him into taking it back by claiming that he wanted to use his cloak to pad his shoulders, to make himself more comfortable, and asking Atlas to hold it for him while he did so. After Atlas took over the sky, Hercules revealed that it had been a trick to get Atlas to take it back and walked away with the apples. In other variations of the story, Hercules was the one who went into The Garden of The Hesperides, slewing Ladon in his attempt to get the apples.

The Hesperides also offered assistance to Perseus, the slayer of Medusa and Hercules' great-grandfather. They were the ones who gave Perseus directions to the Graeae, who in turn gave Perseus directions to Medusa.

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