Hesperides in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Hesperides

12 passages from 9 ancient authors that tell of Hesperides, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. The Hesperides in Greek mythology were the nymphs of the sunset. Different sources name different parents for the Hesperides; they may have been daugh... For the story in one place, read our article on Hesperides.

Hesiod (2)

Hesiod, Theogony 210–264Night's children, Strife's children and the Nereids (210-264)Night bears Doom, Fate and Death, Sleep and the tribe of Dreams, and then Blame, Woe, the Hesperides, the Fates and Nemesis; Strife in turn bears Toil, Forgetfulness, Famine and other sorrows. Pontus begets Nereus, the truthful Old Man of the Sea, and then Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia; Nereus and Doris have fifty daughters, whom the section names.
Hesiod, Fragments 6.1–7.9Fragments of unknown position and of doubtful authorshipThese are short quotations whose place in Hesiod's poems is not known, among them the Three-fold people, and the Muses who make a man wise. A second group is of doubtful authorship and includes the Hesperides, a line about Telamon and the saying that gifts move the gods.

Apollodorus (1)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 2.5.11–12The Labours of Heracles (11-12): the Golden Apples and CerberusBecause the hydra and the stables are not counted, two more labours are added. For the golden apples of the Hesperides Heracles seizes Nereus to learn the way, defeats Antaeus and Busiris, frees Prometheus from the eagle, and gets the apples by tricking Atlas into taking the sky back. He is initiated at Eleusis, goes down to Hades by Taenarum, raises Theseus (but not Pirithous), wrestles Menoetes, and carries Cerberus up to Eurystheus and back.

Apollonius Rhodius (1)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.1393–1536The Hesperides' spring; the deaths of Canthus and MopsusThe heroes search for water and find the Hesperides, who show them the spring that Heracles made. Scouts go out to look for Heracles; Canthus is killed by a shepherd, and Mopsus dies of a snake's bite, and both are buried.

Diodorus Siculus (1)

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 4.25.1–4.27.5Heracles: Hades, Orpheus and the HesperidesHeracles is initiated at Athens in the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the historian digresses briefly on Orpheus. Heracles then descends to Hades, where Persephone welcomes him, and brings back Cerberus. For the last labour, the golden apples of the Hesperides, writers disagree about whether the prize was apples or golden-coloured sheep; the section also gives the story of Atlas and the Atlantides, whom Heracles rescues from pirates sent by Busiris, and Atlas's teaching him astronomy.

Pausanias (2)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.19.1–15Olympia: the treasuries on the terrace of Mount CroniusPausanias describes the terrace north of the Heraeum, where the treasuries stand. He names the treasuries of the Sicyonians, with its two bronze chambers and the offerings kept in it, the Carthaginians, the Epidamnians, the Byzantines, the Sybarites, the Cyrenians, the Selinuntians, the Metapontines, the Megarians and, beside the stadium, the Gelans. He lists their contents: the sword of Pelops, the horn of Amalthea, a boxwood image of Apollo, cedar figures of Atlas and the Hesperides, and the Megarian relief of Hercules fighting Achelous.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.17.1–11Olympia: the Heraeum’s images and the Chest of Cypselus, first fieldPausanias lists the images in the temple of Hera, among them Zeus and Hera, the Seasons, Themis, the Hesperides and works by Praxiteles, and then describes the cedar Chest of Cypselus, in which the infant Cypselus was hidden. He explains the inscriptions in boustrophedon and describes the first field of its reliefs, the chariot race of Pelops and Oenomaus, the house of Amphiaraus and the funeral games of Pelias.

Heraclitus (paradoxographer) (1)

Heraclitus (paradoxographer), On Unbelievable Tales 1–20Monsters and marvels, from Medusa to the golden applesHeraclitus explains away Medusa, Scylla, the Centaurs, the Minotaur, the Harpies, the Sirens, the Chimaera and the Hydra as courtesans, raiders, treacherous queens or mistaken counts of young animals. He turns Atlas into an astronomer, Perseus’ winged sandals into his speed in running, and the dragon of the Hesperides into a man named Drakon. Each marvel is traced to a figure of speech that a later age took literally.

Hyginus (1)

Hyginus, De astronomia 2.0.1–2.3.2Book 2: The two Bears and the DragonAfter a preface listing the constellations to be treated, Hyginus begins with the Great Bear, whom Hesiod and others identify as Callisto, and the Little Bear, nurse of Zeus. The Dragon of the Hesperides follows. The stories turn on Hera's jealousy, Artemis's anger and the quarrel over how the Bears came to be called Wagon and Septentriones.

Palaephatus (1)

Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Tales 15–21Europa, the Horse, Aeolus, Hesperides, Hundred-Handers, Scylla, Daedalus’ StatuesSeven more rationalisations. They run from Europa carried off by a man named Taurus to the Wooden Horse as a siege device, Aeolus the astronomer, the Hesperides’ golden sheep, a city named Hundred-Hands, the trireme Scylla, and Daedalus’ walking statues. The sources of the myths are almost always a pun or an ambiguous name.

Strabo (2)

Strabo, Geography 3.2.12–15Homer, Odysseus and the west of IberiaStrabo argues that Homer knew the far west, deriving Tartarus from Tartessus and linking the Cimmerians and the Planetae to real places. He holds that the voyage of Odysseus (Ulysses) and the Phoenician expeditions lie behind the epics, pointing to Ulyssea and its temple of Athena (Minerva) in Iberia. The plain of Elysium of Rhadamanthus, the oxen of Geryon, the golden apples of the Hesperides and the long-lived king Arganthonius are tied to this region.
Strabo, Geography 17.3.20–23The Great Syrtis and CyreneStrabo describes the Great Syrtis, its dangerous shallows, the Altars of the Philaeni and the Nasamones, then Berenice near lake Tritonis with a temple of Aphrodite (Venus), the lake of the Hesperides and the march of Cato. He goes on to Cyrene, founded from Thera by Battus, and to the silphium district. He lists famous natives of Cyrene such as Aristippus, Callimachus, Eratosthenes and Carneades, and ends at the Catabathmus with the peoples of the interior.