Hesperides
(Ἑσπερίδες). the famens guaidians of the golden apples which Ge had given to Hera at her marriage with Zeus. Their names are Aegle, Erytheia, Hestia, and Arethusa, but their descent is not the same in the different traditions ; sometimes they are called the daughters of Night or Erebus (Hes. Th. 215; Hygin. Fab. init.), sometimes of Phorcys and Ceto (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 4.1399), sometimes of Atlas and Hesperis, whence their names Atlantides or Hesperides (Diod. 4.27), and sometimes of Hesperus, or of Zeus and Themis. (Serv. ad Aen. 4.484; Schol. ad Eurip. Hipp. 742.) Instead of the four Hesperides mentioned above, some traditions know only of three, viz. Hespere, Erytheis, and Aegle, or Aegle, Arethusa, and Hesperusa or Hesperia (Apollon. 4.1427; Serv. l.c.; Stat. Theb. 2.281); whereas others mention seven. (Diod. l.c.; Hygin. Fab. init.) The poets describe themas possessed of the power of sweet song. (Hes. Th. 518; Orph. Fragm. 17; Eur. Her. 394; Apollon. 4.1399.) In the earliest legends, these nymphs are described as living on the river Oceanus, in the extreme west (Hes. Th. 334, &c., 518; Eur. Hipp. 742); but the later attempts to fix their abodes, and the geographical position of their gardens, have led poets and geographers to different parts of Libya, as in the neighbourhood of Cyrene, Mount Atlas, or the islands on the western coast of Libya (Plin. Nat. 6.31, 36; Verg. A. 4.480; Pomp. Mela, 3.10), or even to the northern extremity of the earth, beyond the wind Boreas, among the Hyperboreans. In their watch over the golden apples they were assisted or superintended by the dragon Ladon. [L.S]
HESPE´RIDES or HE´SPERIS (Ἑσπερίδες, Ἑσπερίς), afterwards BERENI´CE (Βερενίκη : Ben Ghazi, Ru.), the westernmost city of the Cyrenaic Pentapolis, stood just outside the E. extremity of the Great Syrtis, on a promontory called Pseudopenias, and near the river Lathon. It seems to have derived its name from the fancy which found the fabled Gardens of the Hesperides in the fertile terraces of Cyrenaica; and Scylax distinctly mentions the gardens and the lake of the Hesperides in this neighbourhood, where we also find a people called Hesperidae, or, as Herodotus names them, Euesperidae. Its historical importance dates from the reign of the Ptolemies and it was then named Berenice after the wife of Ptolemy III. Euergetes. It had a large population of Jews. (Strab. 17. p. 836; Mela, 1.8; Plin. Nat. 5.5; Solin. 27, 54; Ammian. Marc. 22.16; Steph. B. s. v. Ἑσπερίς; Hierocles, p. 733, where the name is Βερονίκη; Stadiasm. p. 446, Βερνικίς; Itin. Ant. p. 67, Beronice; Tab. Peut., Bernicide; Ptol. 4.4.4, 8.15.3.) Having been greatly reduced by that decline of commercial importance and those ravages of the barbarians which were so severely felt by all the cities of the Pentapolis [CYRENAICA], it was fortified anew by Justinian, who also adorned it with baths. (Procop. de Aedif. 6.12.) Its name is sometimes as an epithet for Cyrenaica, in the form of the adjective Berenicis. (Sil. Ital.; Lucan (Luc. 9.524: Beechey, Della Cella, Pacho, Barth.)
[P.S](Ἑσπερίδες). “The Western Maidens,” three celebrated nymphs, whose genealogy is differently given by various writers. According to Hesiod (Theog. 215), they were the daughters of Night, without a father. Diodorus, on the other hand, makes them to have had for their parents Atlas and Hesperis, daughter of Hesperus (Diod. Sic.iv. 27), an account which is followed by Milton in his Comus (981). Others, however, to assimilate them to their neighbours the Graiae and Gorgons, call the Hesperides the offspring of Phorcys and Ceto. Apollonius gives their names as Aeglé, Hespera, and Erytheïs (iv. 1427); while Apollodorus, who increases the number to four, calls them Aeglé, Erythea, Hestia, and Arethusa (ii. 5, 11). Hesiod makes them to have dwelt “beyond the bright ocean,” opposite to where Atlas stood supporting the heavens (Theog. 518); and when Atlas had been fixed as a mountain in the extremity of Libya, the dwelling of the Hesperides was usually placed in his vicinity, though some set it in the country of the Hyperboreans (Apollod., l. c.).
According to the legend, when the bridal of Zeus and Heré took place, the different deities came with nuptial presents for the latter, and among them the goddess of Earth, with branches having golden apples growing on them ( Poet. Astron. ii. 3). Heré, greatly admiring these, begged of Earth to plant them in her gardens, which extended as far as Mount Atlas. The Hesperides, or daughters of Atlas, were directed to watch these trees; but, as they were somewhat remiss in discharging this duty, and frequently plucked off the apples themselves, Heré sent thither a large serpent to guard the precious fruit. This monster was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and had a hundred heads, so that it never slept. According to Pisander, the name of the reptile was Ladon. One of the tasks imposed upon Heracles by Eurystheus was to bring him some of this golden fruit. For the legend, see Heracles, p. 791.
- Paus. 5.17.2, Paus. 6.19.8, 12
- picture of: Paus. 5.11.6
- keep the apples: 5.11.6
- their apple-tree with serpent coiled round it: Paus. 6.19.8
- the golden apples of the, on Atlas, among the Hyperboreans, guarded by a dragon: Apollod. 2.5.10, Apollod. 2.5.11
- given by Atlas to Herakles, who brings them to Eurystheus: Apollod. 1.3.51, Paus. 2.13.8, Paus. 5.18.4
- carried back by Athena: Apollod. 1.3.51