HESPERIDES SERIES

To every poet, every City, the necessity of this story. Inconsolable after the loss of the fruit, the Hesperides had heavy hearts and turned themselves into trees for eternity. One thing for sure: it was Hercules who completed the eleventh of his twelve labours by slaying Ladon and seizing the golden apples by tricking Atlas. Or isnвЂ™t it Aegle, Arethusa and Hesperethusa? Are there four, seven or eleven of them? Who knows, but the buzz continues. And how many Hesperides were there? Most often there were three: Aegle, Erytheia, Hesperis. Mythologists say that Zeus or Phorcys were possible putative fathers. Some big fellow may have been involvedвЂ¦ But whom? Probably Atlas, the owner of this garden on its mountains sides. These sisters were perhaps not the daughters of the original Night alone. As they could not be trusted to guard the apples on their own, Hera, the wife of Zeus, queen of the heavens and Olympus, dispatched Ladon, a hundred-headed dragon whose eyes never closed and whose heads all spoke a different language, to guard them and to prevent the residents of the garden from eating its fruit. The sisterhood of nymphs are its first guardians. The garden of the Hesperides is therefore under guard. This fruit is sacred because their magical power represents great danger.

In this dark place, golden apples twinkle in an orchard. He lived there with his brother Vesper, the origin of the word вЂњvespersвЂќ and the adjective вЂњvesperalвЂќ, meaning of the evening. Punished, Atlas is a titan petrified by Jupiter or Perseus according to the stories. Hesperia was part of Italy, then Syrtes in Libya, Spain and MauritaniaвЂ¦ In the western extremity the snowy peaks merged with the sky and the land plunged into the ocean: this was Mount Atlas, from whence we still owe the name given to the Atlantic Ocean. It represented the fringes of the known world and its actual location varies depending on the narrative and on maritime advances. These sisters kept the name of their country, Hesperia, the western land for the ancient Greeks where the sun set and the empire of night arose.

HESPERIDES SERIES

Before marrying her brother Erebus she gave birth to a series of conditions that would be the lot of mortals: Destiny, Death, Sleep, Old Age, Discord, dark spirits, the Fates and the HesperidesвЂ¦ From this sprang Nyx, the Goddess of darkness. Right at the start there was Chaos or eternal primordial confusion. Beautiful and wise, their voices are enchantingly musicalвЂ¦ And how clever these nymphs are at escaping being seen by quickly transforming into other objects! But how many of them are there actually? Who is their father? And whereвЂ™s this garden that they inhabit? Maidens of the Evening, the Hesperides are the nymphs of sunset.