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Hesperides, the famens guardians 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. Theog. 215; Hygin. Fab. init.), sometimes of Phorcys and Ceto (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1399), sometimes of Atlas and Hesperis, whence their names Atlantides or Hesperides (Diod. iv. 27), and sometimes of Hesperus, or of Zeus and Themis. (Serv. ad Aen. iv. 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. Rhod. iv. 1427; Serv. l. c.; Stat. Theb. ii. 281); whereas others mention seven. (Diod. l. c.; Hygin. Fab. init.) The poets describe themas possessed of the power of sweet song. (Hes. Theog. 518; Orph. Fragm. 17; Eurip. Herc. Fur. 394; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1399.) In the earliest legends, these nymphs are described as living on the river Oceanus, in the extreme west (Hes. Theog. 334, &c., 518; Eurip. 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. H. N. vi. 31, 36; Virg. Aen. iv. 480; Pomp. Mela, iii. 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.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hesperus, (Hesperos). The evening star, son of Astraeus and
Eos (Aurora), of Cephalus and Eos, or of Atlas. He was also regarded as the same
as the morning star.
Lucifer or Phosphorus (Phosphoros, "the bringer of light").
The name of the planet Venus, when seen in the morning before sunrise. The same
planet was called Hesperus, Vesperugo, Vesper, Noctifer, or Nocturnus, when it
appeared in the heavens after sunset. Lucifer as a personification is called a
son of Astraeus and Aurora or Eos, of Cephalus and Eos, or of Atlas By Philonis
he is said to have been the father of Ceyx. He is also called the father of Daedalion
and of the Hesperides. Lucifer is also a surname of several goddesses of light,
as Artemis, Aurora, and Hecate.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Poor Hercules! After eight years and one month, after performing ten
superhuman labors, he was still not off the hook. Eurystheus demanded two more
labors from the hero, since he did not count the hydra or the Augean stables as
properly done. Eurystheus commanded Hercules to bring him golden apples which
belonged to Zeus, king of the gods. Hera had given these apples to Zeus as a wedding
gift, so surely this task was impossible. Hera, who didn't want to see Hercules
succeed, would never permit him to steal one of her prize possessions, would she?
These apples were kept in a garden at the northern edge of the world,
and they were guarded not only by a hundred-headed dragon, named Ladon, but also
by the Hesperides, nymphs who were daughters of Atlas, the titan who held the
sky and the earth upon his shoulders.
Hercules' first problem was that he didn't know where the garden was.
He journeyed through Libya, Egypt, Arabia, and Asia, having adventures along the
way. He was stopped by Kyknos, the son of the war god, Ares, who demanded that
Hercules fight him. After the fight was broken up by a thunderbolt, Hercules continued
on to Illyria, where he seized the sea-god Nereus, who knew the garden's secret
location. Nereus transformed himself into all kinds of shapes,trying to escape,
but Hercules held tight and didn't release Nereus until he got the information
he needed.
Continuing on his quest, Hercules was stopped by Antaeus, the
son of the sea god, Poseidon, who also challenged Hercules to fight. Hercules
defeated him in a wrestling match, lifting him off the ground and crushing him,
because when Antaeus touched the earth he became stronger. After that, Hercules
met up with Busiris, another of Poseidon's sons, was captured, and was led to
an altar to be a human sacrifice. But Hercules escaped, killing Busiris, and journeyed
on.
Hercules came to the rock on Mount Caucasus where Prometheus
was chained. Prometheus, a trickster who made fun of the gods and stole the secret
of fire from them, was sentenced by Zeus to a horrible fate. He was bound to the
mountain, and every day a monstrous eagle came and ate his liver, pecking away
at Prometheus' tortured body. After the eagle flew off, Prometheus' liver grew
back, and the next day he had to endure the eagle's painful visit all over again.
This went on for 30 years, until Hercules showed up and killed the eagle.
In gratitude, Prometheus told Hercules the secret to getting the
apples. He would have to send Atlas after them, instead of going himself. Atlas
hated holding up the sky and the earth so much that he would agree to the task
of fetching the apples, in order to pass his burden over to Hercules. Everything
happened as Prometheus had predicted, and Atlas went to get the apples while Hercules
was stuck in Atlas's place, with the weight of the world literally on his shoulders.
When Atlas returned with the golden apples, he told Hercules he would
take them to Eurystheus himself, and asked Hercules to stay there and hold the
heavy load for the rest of time. Hercules slyly agreed, but asked Atlas whether
he could take it back again, just for a moment, while the hero put some soft padding
on his shoulders to help him bear the weight of the sky and the earth. Atlas put
the apples on the ground, and lifted the burden onto his own shoulders. And so
Hercules picked up the apples and quickly ran off, carrying them back, uneventfully,
to Eurystheus.
There was one final problem: because they belonged to the gods, the
apples could not remain with Eurystheus. After all the trouble Hercules went through
to get them, he had to return them to Athena, who took them back to the garden
at the northern edge of the world.
This text is cited July 2004 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains interesting hyperlinks
When the labours had been performed in eight years and a month,(1)
Eurystheus ordered Hercules, as an eleventh labour, to fetch golden apples from
the Hesperides, for he did not acknowledge the labour of the cattle of Augeas
nor that of the hydra. These apples were not, as some have said, in Libya, but
on Atlas among the Hyperboreans.(2) They were presented < by
Earth> to Zeus after his marriage with Hera, and guarded by an immortal dragon
with a hundred heads, offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which spoke with many and
divers sorts of voices. With it the Hesperides also were on guard, to wit, Aegle,
Erythia, Hesperia, and Arethusa. So journeying he came to the river Echedorus.
And Cycnus, son of Ares and Pyrene, challenged him to single combat. Ares championed
the cause of Cycnus and marshalled the combat, but a thunderbolt was hurled between
the two and parted the combatants.(3) And going on foot through
Illyria and hastening to the river Eridanus he came to the nymphs, the daughters
of Zeus and Themis. They revealed Nereus to him, and Hercules seized him while
he slept, and though the god turned himself into all kinds of shapes, the hero
bound him and did not release him till he had learned from him where were the
apples and the Hesperides.(4) Being informed, he traversed Libya.
That country was then ruled by Antaeus, son of Poseidon,(5) who
used to kill strangers by forcing them to wrestle. Being forced to wrestle with
him, Hercules hugged him, lifted him aloft, broke and killed him; for when he
touched earth so it was that he waxed stronger, wherefore some said that he was
a son of Earth. After Libya he traversed Egypt. That country was then ruled by
Busiris,(6) a son of Poseidon by Lysianassa, daughter of Epaphus.
This Busiris used to sacrifice strangers on an altar of Zeus in accordance with
a certain oracle. For Egypt was visited with dearth for nine years, and Phrasius,
a learned seer who had come from Cyprus, said that the dearth would cease if they
slaughtered a stranger man in honor of Zeus every year. Busiris began by slaughtering
the seer himself and continued to slaughter the strangers who landed. So Hercules
also was seized and haled to the altars, but he burst his bonds and slew both
Busiris and his son Amphidamas. And traversing Asia he put in to Thermydrae, the
harbor of the Lindians. And having loosed one of the bullocks from the cart of
a cowherd, he sacrificed it and feasted. But the cowherd, unable to protect himself,
stood on a certain mountain and cursed. Wherefore to this day, when they sacrifice
to Hercules, they do it with curses. And passing by Arabia he slew Emathion, son
of Tithonus,(7) and journeying through Libya to the outer sea
he received the goblet from the Sun. And having crossed to the opposite mainland
he shot on the Caucasus the eagle, offspring of Echidna and Typhon, that was devouring
the liver of Prometheus, and he released Prometheus, after choosing for himself
the bond of olive,(8) and to Zeus he presented Chiron, who, though
immortal, consented to die in his stead. Now Prometheus had told Hercules not
to go himself after the apples but to send Atlas, first relieving him of the burden
of the sphere; so when he was come to Atlas in the land of the Hyperboreans, he
took the advice and relieved Atlas. But when Atlas had received three apples from
the Hesperides, he came to Hercules, and not wishing to support the sphere < he
said that he would himself carry the apples to Eurystheus, and bade Hercules hold
up the sky in his stead. Hercules promised to do so, but succeeded by craft in
putting it on Atlas instead. For at the advice of Prometheus he begged Atlas to
hold up the sky till he should> (9) put a pad on his head. When
Atlas heard that, he laid the apples down on the ground and took the sphere from
Hercules. And so Hercules picked up the apples and departed. But some say that
he did not get them from Atlas, but that he plucked the apples himself after killing
the guardian snake. And having brought the apples he gave them to Eurystheus.
But he, on receiving them, bestowed them on Hercules, from whom Athena got them
and conveyed them back again; for it was not lawful that they should be laid down
anywhere.
Commentary:
1. This period for the completion of the labours of Herakles
is mentioned also by the Scholiast on Hom. Il. viii.368 and Tzetzes, Chiliades
ii.353ff., both of whom, however, may have had the present passage of Apollodorus
before them. It is possible that the period refers to the eight years' cycle,
which figured prominently in the religious calendar of the ancient Greeks; for
example, the Pythian games were originally held at intervals of eight years. See
Geminus, Element. Astron. viii.25ff., ed. C. Manitius; Censorinus, De die natali
18. It is to be remembered that the period of service performed by Herakles for
Eurystheus was an expiation for the murder of his children (see Apollod. 2.4.12).
Now Cadmus is said to have served Ares for eight years as an expiation for the
slaughter of the dragon, the offspring of Ares (see Apollod. 3.4.2). But in those
days, we are told, the "eternal year" comprised eight common years (Apollod.
3.4.2). Now Apollo served Admetus for a year as an expiation for the slaughter
of the Cyclopes (Apollod. 3.10.4); but according to Serv. Verg. A. 7.761, the
period of Apollo's service was not one but nine years. In making this statement
Servius, or his authority, probably had before him a Greek author, who mentioned
an enneateris as the period of Apollo's service. But though enneateris means literally
"nine years," the period, in consequence of the Greek mode of reckoning,
was actually equivalent to eight years (compare Celsus, De die natali 18.4, "Octaeteris
facta, quae tunc enneateris vocitata, quia primus eius annus nono quoque anno
redibat.") These legends about the servitude of Cadmus, Apollo, and Herakles
for eight years, render it probable that in ancient times Greek homicides were
banished for eight years, and had during that time to do penance by serving a
foreigner. Now this period of eight years was called a "great year"
(Censorinus, De die natali 18.5), and the period of banishment for a homicide
was regularly a year. See Apollod. 2.8.3; Eur. Hipp.34-37, Eur. Or. 1643-1645;
Nicolaus Damascenus, Frag 20 (Fragmenta Historicorum Graccorum, ed. C. Muller,
iii.369); Hesychius, s.v. apeniautismos; Suidas, s.v. apenautisai. Hence it seems
probable that, though in later times the period of a homicide's banishment was
a single ordinary year, it may formerly have been a "great year," or
period of eight ordinary years. It deserves to be noted that any god who had forsworn
himself by the Styx had to expiate his fault by silence and fasting for a full
year, after which he was banished the company of the gods for nine years (Hes.
Th. 793-804ff.); and further that any man who partook of human flesh in the rites
of Lycaean Zeus was supposed to be turned into a wolf for nine years. See Paus.
8.2; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii.81; Augustine, De civitate Dei xviii.17. These notions
point to a nine years' period of expiation, which may have been observed in some
places instead of the eight years' period. In the present passage of Apollodorus,
the addition of a month to the eight years' period creates a difficulty which
I am unable to explain. Ancient mathematicians defined a "great year"
as the period at the end of which the sun, moon, and planets again occupy the
same positions relatively to each other which they occupied at the beginning;
but on the length of the period opinions were much divided. See Cicero, De natura
deorum ii.20.51ff. Different, apparently, from the "great year" was
the "revolving" (vertens) or "mundane" (mundanus) year, which
was the period at the end of which, not only the sun, moon, and planets, but also
the so-called fixed stars again occupy the positions relatively to each other
which they occupied at the beginning; for the ancients recognized that the so-called
fixed stars do move, though their motion is imperceptible to our senses. The length
of a "revolving" or "mundane" year was calculated by ancient
physicists at fifteen thousand years. See Cicero, Somnium Scipionis 7, with the
commentary of Macrobius, ii.11.
2. Here Apollodorus departs from the usual version, which placed
the gardens of the Hesperides in the far west, not the far north. We have seen
that Herakles is said to have gone to the far north to fetch the hind with the
golden horns (see above, Apollod. 2.5.3 note); also he is reported to have brought
from the land of the Hyperboreans the olive spray which was to form the victor's
crown at the Olympic games. See Pind. O. 3.11(20)ff.; Paus. 5.7.7, compare Paus.
5.15.3.
3. Compare Hyginus, Fab. 31, who describes the intervention of
Mars (Ares) on the side of his son Cycnus, and the fall of the thunderbolt which
parted the combatants; yet he says that Herakles killed Cycnus. This combat, which,
according to Apollodorus, ended indecisively, was supposed to have been fought
in Macedonia, for the Echedorus was a Macedonian river (Hdt. 7.124, Hdt. 7.127).
Accordingly we must distinguish this contest from another and more famous fight
which Herakles fought with another son of Ares, also called Cycnus, near Pagasae
in Thessaly. See Apollod. 2.7.7, with the note. Apparently Hyginus confused the
two combats.
4. The meeting of Herakles with the nymphs, and his struggle
with Nereus, are related also by the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396, citing
as his authority Pherecydes, whom Apollodorus also probably follows. The transformations
of the reluctant sea-god Nereus in his encounter with Herakles are like those
of the reluctant sea-god Proteus in his encounter with Menelaus (Hom. Od. 4.354-
570), and those of the reluctant sea-goddess Thetis with her lover Peleus (see
below, Apollod. 3.13.5).
5. As to Herakles and Antaeus, see Pind. I. 4.52(87)ff., with
the Scholiast on Pind. I. 4.52(87) and 54(92); Diod. 4.17.4; Paus. 9.11.6; Philostratus,
Im. ii.21; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.285ff.; Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.363ff.;
Scholiast on Plat. Laws, vii, 796a (whose account agrees almost verbally with
that of Apollodorus); Ovid, Ibis 393-395, with the Scholia; Hyginus, Fab. 31;
Lucan, Pharsal. iv.588-655; Juvenal iii.89; Statius, Theb. vi.893ff.; Lactantius
Placidus on Statius, Theb. vi.869(894); Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed.
Bode, i. pp. 19, 131 (First Vatican Mythographer 55; Second Vatican Mythographer
164). According to Pindar, the truculent giant used to roof the temple of his
sire Poseidon with the skulls of his victims. The fable of his regaining strength
through contact with his mother Earth is dwelt on by Lucan with his usual tedious
prolixity. It is briefly alluded to by Ovid, Juvenal, and Statius. Antaeus is
said to have reigned in western Morocco, on the Atlantic coast. Here a hillock
was pointed out as his tomb, and the natives believed that the removal of soil
from the hillock would be immediately followed by rain, which would not cease
till the earth was replaced. See Mela iii.106. Sertorius is said to have excavated
the supposed tomb and to have found a skeleton sixty cubits long. See Plut. Sertorius
9; Strab. 17.3.8.
6. For Herakles and Busiris, see Diod. 4.18.1, Diod. 4.27.2ff.;
Plut. Parallela 38; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396; Tzetzes, Scholiast
on Lycophron ii.367ff.; Ov. Met. 9.182ff.; Ovid, Ars Am. i.647-652; Scholiast
on Ovid, Ibis 397 (p. 72, ed. R. Ellis); Hyginus, Fab. 31, 56; Serv. Verg. A.
8.300 and Georg. iii.5; Philargyrius on Verg. G. 3.5; Lactantius Placidus on Statius,
Theb. xii.155. Ovid, with his Scholiasts, Hyginus and Philargyrius, like Apollodorus,
allege a nine or eight years' dearth or drought as the cause of the human sacrifices
instituted by Busiris. Their account may be derived from Pherecydes, who is the
authority cited by the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396. Hyginus, Fab. 56
adds that the seer Phrasius, who advised the sacrifice, was a brother of Pygmalion.
Herodotus, without mentioning Busiris, scouts the story on the ground that human
sacrifices were utterly alien to the spirit of Egyptian religion (Hdt. 2.45).
Isocrates also discredited the tradition, in so far as it relates to Herakles,
because Herakles was four generations younger, and Busiris more than two hundred
years older, than Perseus. See Isoc. 11.15. Yet there are grounds for thinking
that the Greek tradition was substantially correct. For Manetho, our highest ancient
authority, definitely affirmed that in the city of Ilithyia it was customary to
burn alive "Typhonian men" and to scatter their ashes by means of winnowing
fans (Plut. Isis et Osiris 73). These "Typhonian men" were red-haired,
because Typhon, the Egyptian embodiment of evil, was also redhaired (Plut. Isis
et Osiris 30, 33). But redhaired men would commonly be foreigners, in contrast
to the black-haired natives of Egypt; and it was just foreigners who, according
to Greek tradition, were chosen as victims. Diodorus Siculus points this out (Diod.
1.88.5) in confirmation of the Greek tradition, and he tells us that the redhaired
men were sacrificed at the grave of Osiris, though this statement may be an inference
from his etymology of the name Busiris, which he explains to mean "grave
of Osiris." The etymology is correct, Busiris being a Greek rendering of
the Egyptian Asir "place of Osiris." See A. Wiedemann, Herodots Zweites
Buch (Leipsic, 1890). Porphyry informs us, on the authority of Manetho, that the
Egyptian custom of sacrificing human beings at the City of the Sun was suppressed
by Amosis (Amasis), who ordered waxen effigies to be substituted for the victims.
He adds that the human victims used to be examined just like calves for the sacrifice,
and that they were sealed in token of their fitness for the altar. See Porphyry,
De abstinentia iii.35. Sextus Empiricus even speaks of human sacrifices in Egypt
as if they were practised down to his own time, which was about 200 A.D. See Sextus
Empiricus, p. 173, ed. Bekker. Seleucus wrote a special treatise on human sacrifices
in Egypt (Athenaeus iv.72, p. 172 D). In view of these facts, the Greek tradition
that the sacrifices were offered in order to restore the fertility of the land
or to procure rain after a long drought, and that on one occasion the king himself
was the victim, may be not without significance. For kings or chiefs have been
often sacrificed under similar circumstances (see Apollod. 3.5.1; Adonis, Attis,
Osiris, 3rd ed. ii.97ff.; The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i.344ff.,
352ff.); and in ancient Egypt the rulers are definitely said to have been held
responsible for the failure of the crops (Ammianus Marcellinus xxviii.5.14); hence
it would not be surprising if in extreme cases they were put to death. Busiris
was the theme of a Satyric play by Euripides. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 452ff.
7. According to Diod. 4.27.3, after Herakles had slain Busiris,
he ascended the Nile to Ethiopia and there slew Emathion, king of Ethiopia.
8. The reference seems to be to the crown of olive which Herakles
brought from the land of the Hyperboreans and instituted as the badge of victory
in the Olympic games. See Pind. O. 3.11(20)ff.; Paus. 5.7.7. The ancients had
a curious notion that the custom of wearing crowns or garlands on the head and
rings on the fingers was a memorial of the shackles once worn for their sake by
their great benefactor Prometheus among the rocks and snows of the Caucasus. In
order that the will of Zeus, who had sworn never to release Prometheus, might
not be frustrated by the entire liberation of his prisoner from his chains, Prometheus
on obtaining his freedom was ordered to wear on his finger a ring made out of
his iron fetters and of the rock to which he had been chained; hence, in memory
of their saviour's sufferings, men have worn rings ever since. The practice of
wearing crowns or garlands was explained by some people in the same way. See Hyginus,
Ast. ii.15; Serv. Verg. Ecl. 6.42; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxvii.2; Isidore, Orig.
xix.32.1. According to one version of the legend, the crown which the sufferer
on regaining his liberty was doomed to wear was a crown of willow; and the Carians,
who used to crown their brows with branches of willow, explained that they did
so in imitation of Prometheus. See Athenaeus xv.11-13. In the present passage
of Apollodorus, if the text is correct, Herakles, as the deliverer of Prometheus,
is obliged to bind himself vicariously for the prisoner whom he has released;
and he chooses to do so with his favourite olive. Similarly he has to find a substitute
to die instead of Prometheus, and he discovers the substitute in Chiron. As to
the substitution of Chiron for Prometheus, see Apollod. 2.5.4. It is remarkable
that, though Prometheus was supposed to have attained to immortality and to be
the great benefactor, and even the creator, of mankind, he appears not to have
been worshipped by the Greeks; Lucian says that nowhere were temples of Prometheus
to be seen (Lucian, Prometheus 14).
9. The passage in angular brackets is wanting in the manuscripts
of Apollodorus, but is restored from the Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1396,
who quotes as his authority Pherecydes, the writer here seemingly followed by
Apollodorus. See the Critical Note. The story of the contest of wits between Herakles
and Atlas is represented in one of the extant metopes of the temple of Zeus at
Olympia, which were seen and described by Paus. 5.10.9. See Frazer, note on Pausanias
(vol. iii. pp. 524ff.).
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Heracles. 11. The golden apples of the Hesperides. This was particularly difficult, since Heracles did not know where to find them. They were the apples which Hera had received at her wedding from Ge, and which she had entrusted to the keeping of the Hesperides and the dragon Ladon, on Mount Atlas, in the country of the Hyperboreans. (Apollod. ii. 5.11.) In other accounts the apples are described as sacred to Aphrodite, Dionysus, or Helios; but the abode of the Hesperides is placed by Hesiod, Apollodorus, and others, in the west, while later writers specify more particularly certain places in Libya, or in the Atlantic Ocean. The mention of the Hyperboreans in this connection renders the matter very difficult, but it is possible that the ancients may have conceived the extreme north (the usual seat of the Hyperboreans), and the extreme west to be contiguous. Heracles, in order to find the gardens of the Hesperides, went to the river Echedorus. in Macedonia, after having killed Termerus in Thessaly. In Macedonia he killed Cycnus, the son of Ares and Pyrene, who had challenged him. He thence passed through Illyria, and arrived on the banks of the river Eridanus, and was informed, by the nymphs in what manner he might compel the prophetic Nereus to instruct him as to what road he should take. On the advice of Nereus he proceeded to Libya. Apollodorus assigns the fight with Antaeus, and the murder of Busiris, to this expedition; both Apollodorus and Diodorus now make IIeracles travel further south and east: thus we find him in Ethiopia, where he kills Emathion, in Arabia, and in Asia he advances as far as Mount Caucasus, where he killed the vulture which consumed the liver of Prometheus, and thus saved the Titan. At length Heracles arrived at Mount Atlas, among the Hyperboreans. Prometheus had advised him not to fetch the apples himself, but to send Atlas, and in the meantime to carry the weight of heaven for him. Atlas accordingly fetched the apples, but on his return he refused to take the burden of heaven on his shoulders again, and declared that he himself would carry the apples to Eurystheus. Heracles, however, contrived by a stratagem to get the apples and hastened away. On his return Eurystheus made him a present of the apples, but Heracles dedicated them to Athena, who, however, did not keep them, but restored them to their former place. Some traditions add to this account that Heracles killed the dragon Ladon. (Apollod. ii. 5.11; Diod. iv. 26, &c.; Hes. Theog. 215, &c.; Plin. H. N. vi. 31, 36; Plut. Thes. 11; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1396, &c.; Hygin. Fab. 31, Poet. Astr. ii. 6; Eratosth. Catast. 3.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A dragon sprung from Typhon and Echidna (or from Phorcys and Ceto). He guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides, but was slain by Heracles.
Ladon : Various WebPages
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