The Garden History Blog

Hercules and the  3 Hesperides.  The frontispiece of Ferrari’s Hesperides, 1646
Giovanni Battista Ferrari

Greek myths are eternally popular, so after a recent post on the story behind aquilegias today I’m turning my attention to another garden-related classical legend , that of the Garden of the Hesperides.

The garden  belonged to the queen of the gods – Hera in Greek [Juno in the later Roman version], and lay somewhere at the western edge of the known Mediterranean world.   In it grew a tree [or maybe an orchard of trees] which bore golden apples said to give immortality to those who ate them.

The golden glow from these apples was also thought to be the source of sunsets. The job of looking after the garden was given to the Hesperides who were the nymphs of the sunset, but because Hera didn’t entirely trust them she installed another guardian as well – Ladon, the multi-headed dragon who somehow never needed to sleep.

The Garden of the Hesperides is the setting for several well known myths, before,  in the 17thc  it was picked up and reinvented by  artists and garden writers writing about “golden apples” of a different sort.

The Hesperides, the tree bearing the golden apples and Ladon the dragon,                                             detail from The Meidias Hydria or water jug, British Museum

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