The Myth of the Hesperides and Their Golden Apples

The Garden at the Edge of the World

The Hesperides ("Nymphs of the Evening") were daughters of Atlas or Erebus who tended a sacred, bliss-filled garden situated on the westernmost rim of the earth, near the Atlas Mountains. The garden centered around a tree bearing Golden Apples—a wedding gift given to Hera by Gaia (Mother Earth) upon her marriage to Zeus.

Ladon and the Eleventh Labor of Heracles

To prevent anyone from stealing the divine fruit, Hera posted Ladon, a hundred-headed immortal dragon that never slept, to coil around the tree trunk.

For his Eleventh Labor, Heracles was tasked with retrieving three golden apples. According to the most famous account, Heracles sought out Atlas and offered to hold up the celestial heavens if Atlas would fetch the apples from his daughters' garden. Atlas agreed, but upon returning tried to trick Heracles into holding the sky forever. Heracles outsmarted the Titan by asking him to briefly hold the sky while he adjusted a shoulder pad, then grabbed the apples and fled.