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The golden apples in the Hesperides Islands |
sleeping pills to grab the golden apples
of the tree
The "golden apples of Hesperides" were a wedding gift of Gaia το Hera (in her marriage to Zeus) and it was believed that they gave eternity and immortality. They were so delicious and fragrant that Hera ordered that their seeds be planted in her garden, "on the edge of the ocean, in the far west". The seeds germinated and sprouted trees that made golden apples. Near the Garden was the place where Atlas, the son of Iapetus, was holding on his shoulders the poles that supported the dome of the sky. In the garden were also the Hesperides, the three daughters of the Night (according to Hesiod), Aigle (or Aegle, "dazzling light"), Erytheia ("The red one") and Hesperethusa ("sunset glow"). Other ancient sources report that Esperides were four. On another source (see Petrus Apianus), however, "Esperides were seven and were daughters of Atlas and Esperis."
For no one to steal the apples, Hera put "Ladon" as a guardian, a huge snake that was the birth of Phorcys and Ceto.
Symbolism of the myth
We interpret the "golden apples" as being the fruit of the earth. If they were imitations of apples made of gold, they would not be planted. Nor could the seeds germinate and become trees. Golden apples do not exist. So they were the golden-yellow fine fruits, the citrons, the lemons, the oranges and the tangerines, which thrived in the Islands of Hesperides, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, and named them Citrus. The myth symbolizes the beginning of citrus cultivation but also the desire of prehistoric Greeks to acquire these sweets, tasteful and beneficial fruits, so they called them "golden" ...
The myth also reveals the existence of a cluster of prehistoric islands located in the far west (in relation to Greece) at the edge of the ocean, ie near the coast of Portugal or the southern Spanish coast, called Hesperides. The "Erytheia", which took the name of an Hesperida, was one of them. The myth of "golden apples" is also associated with Heracles' Eleventh Labour.
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