![]() In other stories the dragon survives and, together with the nymphs, continues to look after the tree of life.īecause I can not resist, here are links to a very short and delightful comic strip consisting of a first, second, and third panel. For example, in the story of Jason and the golden fleece, Ladon’s corpse is spotted by the Argonauts-the creature’s body is still heaving and trembling years after death while the heartbroken nymphs sob. In some versions Hercules kills him for good measure. Once Atlas was holding the heavens again, Hercules picked up the apples and took them back to Eurystheus (who was rightly afraid of them, and gave them to Athena). When Atlas betrayed Hercules and left the strongman holding the heavens, Hercules pretended to accept his fate–but he asked to adjust his lionskin first. Hercules assumed the burden of the heavens while immortal Atlas collected the apples. In order to obtain the apples, Hercules solicited the aid of the titan Atlas, who holds up the firmament. It was during his search for the Garden of the Hesperides that he slew the Caucasian Eagle and freed Prometheus (who, in gratitude, told him what to expect at the garden of the Hesperides). Hercules traveled through the Greek world having adventures, killing giants, and seeking the garden’s location. Hercules and the Hesperides (Rubert Bunny, 1864 - 1947) He is sometimes shown as a great python, other times as a more traditional dragon, and occasionally as a hundred-headed uber-dragon. As you might imagine, Ladon was one of Echidna’s offspring. Plucking the apples from the tree would bring instant death to any mortal, but the biggest problem of all was the garden’s true guardian, the dragon Ladon who was coiled around the apple tree. The tree was in the private garden of Hera herself and the apple tree was a wedding gift from Mother Earth to the queen of the gods. This was the penultimate labor of Hercules: to bring back three of the apples of the Hesperides. The golden fruit of the tree would confer immortality upon anyone who ate one. The garden was inhabited by three nymphs of peerless beauty whose special task was to tend an apple tree in the middle of the garden. In the Greek view of the world, there was a tranquil garden of perpetual rosy twilight which was found at the sunset edge of all lands–so far west that the west came to an end. The Garden of the Hesperides (Sir Frederic Leighton, 1892)
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