Misplaced Pages

#262737

59-439: These were nymphs of the laurel trees. The Maliades, Meliades or Epimelides were nymphs of apple and other fruit trees and the protectors of sheep. The Greek word melas , from which their name derives, means both apple and sheep. The Hesperides , the guardians of the golden apples, were regarded as this type of dryad. Dryads, like all nymphs , were supernaturally long-lived and, like many, were tied to their homes, but some were

118-546: A crucial role in the climax of David Mitchell's sixth novel The Bone Clocks , published by Random House in 2014. The contemporary religion Discordianism draws upon the Golden Apple of the goddess Eris , also known as the "Apple of Discord", which Eris used to set off the conflict among the goddesses of Olympus that led to the Trojan War because she was not invited to a party (the so-called "Original Snub"). Emblazoned upon

177-504: A decision that caused the Trojan war , and ultimately the destruction of both Paris and his city, Troy. Hera 's sacred tree , given to her as gift from Zeus , grows apples made entirely of gold. The dragon Ladon was sent to guard it from anyone who might try to steal the apples. The role of the Golden Apple is far more minor and less specific in Irish lore , mostly because it is an element of

236-631: A fruit unknown to Europe and the Mediterranean before the Middle Ages . Under this assumption, the Greek botanical name chosen for all citrus species was Hesperidoeidē (Ἑσπεριδοειδῆ, "hesperidoids"). It was also used by Carl Linnaeus , who gave the name Hesperides to an order containing the genus Citrus, in allusion to the golden apples of the Hesperides, and is preserved in the term Hesperidium for

295-539: A hero (for example Hercules or Făt-Frumos ) retrieving the golden apples hidden or stolen by a monstrous antagonist . Gold apples also appear on the Silver Branch of the Otherworld in Irish mythology . Golden apples appear in three Greek myths : A huntress named Atalanta who raced against a suitor named Melanion , also known as Hippomenes . Melanion used golden apples to distract Atalanta so that he could win

354-432: A man most fell in wanton violence, most grim in form; and his eyes flashed beneath his scowling brow; a ruthless wretch; and he was clad in the skin of a monstrous lion of raw hide, untanned; and he bare a sturdy bow of olive, and a bow, wherewith he shot and killed this monster here. So he too came, as one traversing the land on foot, parched with thirst; and he rushed wildly through this spot, searching for water, but nowhere

413-490: A spring created by Heracles who likewise longing for a draught while wandering the land, smote a rock near Lake Triton after which the water gushed out. The following passage recounts this meeting of the Argonauts and the nymphs: Then, like raging hounds, they [i.e. Argonauts] rushed to search for a spring; for besides their suffering and anguish, a parching thirst lay upon them, and not in vain did they wander; but they came to

472-458: A step beyond most nymphs. These were the hamadryads , who were an integral part of their trees, such that if the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it also died. For these reasons, dryads and the Greek gods punished any mortal who harmed trees without first propitiating the tree-nymphs. (associated with Oak trees) The dryads of the ash tree were called the Meliae . The Meliae sisters tended

531-435: A willow's sacred trunk. And forth from these trees their forms looked out, as clear as they were before, a marvel exceeding great, and Aegle spake with gentle words answering their longing looks: "Surely there has come hither a mighty succour to your toils, that most accursed man, who robbed our guardian serpent of life and plucked the golden apples of the goddesses and is gone; and has left bitter grief for us. For yesterday came

590-602: Is called Erythia, by Timæus and Silenus Aphrodisias, and by the natives the Isle of Juno . The island was the home of Geryon , who was overcome by Heracles . Hespera or The Hesperides tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in North Africa at the edge of the encircling Oceanus the world ocean . According to Pliny the Elder, the garden

649-570: Is depicted sitting in bliss in the Gardens of the Hesperides, attended by the maidens. After the hero Heracles killed Ladon and stole the golden apples, the Argonauts during their journey, came to the Hesperian plain the next day. The band of heroes asked for the mercy of the Hesperides to guide them to a source of water in order to replenish their thirst. The goddesses pitying the young men, directed them to

SECTION 10

#1732837533263

708-433: Is one of the Hesperides. The name was applied to an island close to the coast of southern Hispania , which was the site of the original Punic colony of Gades (modern Cadiz). Pliny's Natural History (VI.36) records of the island of Gades: On the side which looks towards Spain, at about 100 paces distance, is another long island, three miles wide, on which the original city of Gades stood. By Ephorus and Philistides it

767-667: The Old Man of the Sea , the shape-shifting sea god, to learn where the Garden of the Hesperides was located. In some versions of the tale, Heracles went to the Caucasus , where Prometheus was confined. The Titan directed him concerning his course through the land of the peoples in the farthest north and the perils to be encountered on his homeward march after slaying Geryon in the farthest west. Follow this straight road; and, first of all, thou shalt come to

826-507: The Silver Branch , or Silver Bough , symbol that is connected to the Celtic Otherworld . The silver branch with golden apples is owned by the Irish sea deity and Otherworld guardian Manannán mac Lir in the tale Echtra Cormaic . But these "apples" are actually "balls of red gold " hanging on a musical branch according to variant texts, and hardly fruits at all. The Dictionary of

885-479: The island of Crete , was also called one of the Hesperides. They are sometimes called the "Western Maidens", the "Daughters of Evening", or Erythrai , and the "Sunset Goddesses", designations all apparently tied to their imagined location in the distant west. Hesperis is appropriately the personification of the evening (as Eos is of the dawn) and the Evening Star is Hesperus . In addition to their tending of

944-616: The nymphs of evening and golden light of sunsets , who were the "Daughters of the Evening" or "Nymphs of the West". They were also called the Atlantides ( Ancient Greek : Ἀτλαντίδες , romanized :  Atlantídes ) from their reputed father, Atlas . The name means originating from Hesperos (evening). Hesperos , or Vesper in Latin, is the origin of the name Hesperus , the evening star (i.e.

1003-467: The "west". Nevertheless, among the names given to them, though never all at once, there were either three, four, or seven Hesperides . Apollonius of Rhodes gives the number of three with their names as Aigle , Erytheis , and Hespere (or Hespera). Hyginus in his preface to the Fabulae names them as Aegle, Hesperie, and Aerica. In another source, they are named Aegle , Arethusa , and Hesperethusa,

1062-524: The Boreades, where do thou beware the roaring hurricane, lest unawares it twist thee up and snatch thee away in wintry whirlwind. As payment, Heracles freed Prometheus from his daily torture. This tale is more usually found in the position of the Erymanthian Boar , since it is associated with Chiron choosing to forgo immortality and taking Prometheus' place. Another story recounts how Heracles, either at

1121-520: The Garden of the Hesperides grew. After Heracles completed his first ten Labours , Eurystheus gave him two more claiming that neither the Hydra counted (because Iolaus helped Heracles) nor the Augean stables (either because he received payment for the job or because the rivers did the work). The first of these two additional Labours was to steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides. Heracles first caught

1180-526: The Golden Apples). Many European fairy tales begin when golden apples are stolen from a king, usually by a bird: The William Butler Yeats poem "The Song of the Wandering Aengus", has the lines: I will find out where she has gone And kiss her lips and take her hands; And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of

1239-509: The Hesperides is Hera 's orchard in the west, where either a single apple tree or a grove grows, producing golden apples . According to the legend, when the marriage of Zeus and Hera took place, the different deities came with nuptial presents for the latter, and among them the goddess Gaia , with branches having golden apples growing on them as a wedding gift. Hera, greatly admiring these, begged of Gaia to plant them in her gardens, which extended as far as Mount Atlas. The Hesperides were given

SECTION 20

#1732837533263

1298-673: The Irish Language concurs, by defining the "apples" in this instance as "musical balls", not "fruits". There has been offered for comparison "silver branch of the sacred apple-tree bearing blossoms" encountered by Bran mac Febail in the narrative The Voyage of Bran , though golden apple fruits are not evident in this telling. This branch came from "Emain", construed to mean Emain Ablach associated with Manannán mac Lir by later commentators, though not recognized as anything other than Emain Macha of

1357-718: The Ulstermen in Eleanor Hull 's monograph on the silver branch. In the Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann version of the quest of Tuirenn's sons ( Brian , Iuchar and Iucharba), the éric items demanded by Lugh Lamhfada included the Golden Apples of Hesperides. It is said to taste of honey, have curative powers, and not diminish though they are eaten. They could also be cast and perform tasks at will, and return to their owners. In Richard Wagner 's Der Ring des Nibelungen ,

1416-600: The apple is the word " Kallisti " ("to the fairest"). The golden apple can be seen as a metaphor for a practical joke meant to cause cognitive dissonance in the target. Michael Hübner has suggested that the fruit of the Argan tree , endemic to the Sous Valley in present-day Morocco , may be the golden apples of the Hesperides . Arguing that the location matches most closely the description given in classical texts of Atlantis and

1475-441: The apple, they each stripped off their own clothing and appeared naked before Paris . Each of the goddesses also offered Paris a gift as a bribe in return for the apple; Hera offered to make him the king of Europe and Asia Minor, Athena offered him wisdom and skill in battle, and Aphrodite offered to give to him the love of the world's most beautiful woman, Helen of Sparta, who was already married to King Menelaus. Paris chose Helen,

1534-403: The apples himself, but Heracles tricked him again by agreeing to take his place on condition that Atlas relieve him temporarily so that Heracles could make his cloak more comfortable. Atlas agreed, but Heracles reneged and walked away, carrying the apples. According to an alternative version, Heracles slew Ladon instead and stole the apples. There is another variation to the story where Heracles

1593-563: The arrows had left in his blood the bitter gall of the Lernaean hydra, flies withered and died over the festering wounds. And close at hand the Hesperides, their white arms flung over their golden heads, lamented shrilly; and the heroes drew near suddenly; but the maidens, at their quick approach, at once became dust and earth where they stood. Orpheus marked the divine portent, and for his comrades addressed them in prayer: "O divine ones, fair and kind, be gracious, O queens, whether ye be numbered among

1652-667: The comically insistent rhyme "is not Love a Hercules, Still climbing trees in the Hesperides" in Love's Labours Lost (iv.iii) and John Milton mentioned the "ladies of the Hesperides" in Paradise Regained (ii.357). Hesperides (published 1647) was the title of a collection of pastoral and religious verse by the Royalist poet Robert Herrick . Golden apple The golden apple is an element that appears in various national and ethnic folk legends or fairy tales . Recurring themes depict

1711-563: The condition that her suitor was obligated to beat her in a footrace. Competitors who failed to beat her would be put to death. As Atalanta could run extremely fast, all her suitors died. Realizing that Atalanta could not be defeated in a fair race, Melanion prayed to Aphrodite for help. The goddess gave him three golden apples and told him to drop them one at a time to distract Atalanta. Sure enough, she quit running long enough to retrieve each golden apple. It took all three apples and all of his speed, but Melanion finally succeeded, winning

1770-478: The evening daughters of Night ( Nyx ), either alone, or with Darkness ( Erebus ), in accord with the way Eos in the farthermost east, in Colchis , is the daughter of the titan Hyperion . The Hesperides are also listed as the daughters of Atlas and Hesperis , or of Phorcys and Ceto , or of Zeus and Themis . In a Roman literary source, the nymphs are simply said to be the daughters of Hesperus , embodiment of

1829-435: The first of goddesses with willing hearts will we bring countless gifts, libations and banquets. So he spake, beseeching them with plaintive voice; and they from their station near pitied their pain; and lo! First of all they caused grass to spring from the earth; and above the grass rose up tall shoots, and then flourishing saplings grew standing upright far above the earth. Hespere became a poplar and Eretheis an elm, and Aegle

Dryad - Misplaced Pages Continue

1888-576: The following names as four: Asterope , Chrysothemis , Hygieia, and Lipara ; on another seven names as Aiopis , Antheia, Donakis , Calypso , Mermesa , Nelisa , and Tara . A pyxis has Hippolyte , Mapsaura, and Thetis . Petrus Apianus attributed to these stars a mythical connection of their own. He believed that they were the seven Hesperides, nymph daughters of Atlas and Hesperis . Their names were: Aegle, Erythea, Arethusa, Hestia, Hespera, Hesperusa, and Hespereia. A certain Crete , possible eponym of

1947-783: The fruits of citrus and some other plants. One reason why oranges might be considered to be "magical" in so many stories is because they bear flowers and fruit at the same time, unlike other fruit. Frequently , the term "golden apple" is used to refer to the quince , a fruit originating in the Middle East . The tomato , unknown to the ancient world of the Greeks, is known as the pomodoro in Italian , meaning "golden apple" (from pomo d'oro ). Golden apples are also items that are featured in video games such as Minecraft , Pokémon Mystery Dungeon , Assassin's Creed , and Hello Neighbor . In

2006-405: The garden of the Hesperides, he notes that the ripe fruits look like small golden apples and have an aroma like baked apples. He equates the fruit, the seeds of which produce Argan oil , with Plato 's account of Atlantean fruits "which afford liquid and solid food and unguents", and proposes that the trees' almost reptilian-scale like bark and thorns may have inspired the mythical guardian dragon of

2065-482: The garden, they have taken great pleasure in singing. Euripides calls them "minstrel maids" as they possess the power of sweet song. The Hesperides could be hamadryad nymphs or epimeliads as suggested by a passage in which they change into trees: "... Hespere became a poplar and Eretheis an elm, and Aegle a willow's sacred trunk ..." and in the same account, they are described figuratively or literally to have white arms and golden heads. Erytheia ("the red one")

2124-445: The goddess of discord, was not invited due to her troublesome nature, and upon turning up uninvited, she threw a golden apple into the ceremony, with an inscription that read: "ΤΗΙ ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤΗΙ" ( Ancient Greek : τῇ καλλίστῃ , romanized :  tē(i) kallistē(i) , Modern Greek : τη καλλίστη ti kallisti ; "for/to the most beautiful" – cf. Callisto ). Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera , Athena , and Aphrodite . They brought

2183-455: The golden apples for him, by offering to hold up the heavens for a little while (Atlas was able to take them as, in this version, he was the father or otherwise related to the Hesperides). This would have made this task – like the Hydra and Augean stables – void because he had received help. Upon his return, Atlas decided that he did not want to take the heavens back, and instead offered to deliver

2242-478: The golden apples have their own leitmotif . It is first sung by Fafner , when he explains to his brother Fasolt why they must take Freia away from the gods. In Stravinsky 's ballet The Firebird (1910) which is based upon an amalgam of Russian folk-legends, the hero Prince Ivan enters a garden where he witnesses 13 young Princesses' playing with Golden Apples which grow there. (Tableaux VII Scherzo. Jeux des princesses avec les pommes d'or / The Princesses' Game with

2301-502: The golden apples, Ladon . In many languages, the orange is referred to as a "golden apple". For example, the Latin pomum aurantium literally describes oranges as "golden apples". Other languages, like German , Finnish , Hebrew , and Russian , have more complex etymologies for the word "orange" that can be traced back to the same idea. In later years it was thought that the "golden apples" of myth might have actually been oranges ,

2360-509: The heavenly goddesses, or those beneath the earth, or be called the Solitary nymphs; come, O nymphs, sacred race of Oceanus, appear manifest to our longing eyes and show us some spring of water from the rock or some sacred flow gushing from the earth, goddesses, wherewith we may quench the thirst that burns us unceasingly. And if ever again we return in our voyaging to the Achaean land, then to you among

2419-540: The infant Zeus in Rhea 's Cretan cave. In Hesiod 's Theogony , Gaia gave birth to the Meliae after being made fertile by the blood of the castrated Uranus . Some of the individual dryads or hamadryads are: Citations Bibliography Hesperides In Greek mythology , the Hesperides ( / h ɛ ˈ s p ɛr ɪ d iː z / ; Ancient Greek : Ἑσπερίδες , Greek pronunciation: [hesperídes] ) are

Dryad - Misplaced Pages Continue

2478-467: The mainland! According to Diodorus' account, the Hesperides did not have the golden apples. Instead they possessed flocks of sheep which excelled in beauty and were therefore called for their beauty, as the poets might do, "golden apples", just as Aphroditê is called "golden" because of her loveliness. Others also say that it was because the sheep had a peculiar colour like gold that they got this designation. This version further states that Dracon ("dragon")

2537-439: The matter before Zeus. Not wanting to get involved, Zeus assigned the task to Paris of Troy. Paris had demonstrated his exemplary fairness previously when he awarded a prize unhesitatingly to Ares after the god, in bull form, had bested his own prize bull. Zeus gave the apple to Hermes and told him to deliver it to Paris and tell him that the goddesses would accept his decision without argument. As each goddess wanted to receive

2596-635: The planet Venus ) as well as having a shared root with the English word "west". Ordinarily, the Hesperides number three, like the other Greek triads (the Three Graces and the Three Fates ). "Since the Hesperides themselves are mere symbols of the gifts the apples embody, they cannot be actors in a human drama. Their abstract, interchangeable names are a symptom of their impersonality", classicist Evelyn Byrd Harrison has observed. They are sometimes portrayed as

2655-483: The race and Atalanta's hand. Eventually they had a son Parthenopaios , who was one of the Seven against Thebes . Their marriage ended in misfortune when they were transformed into lions (which the Greeks believed were unable to mate with their own species, only with leopards) for offending Zeus by having an affair in one of his shrines. Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis . Eris ,

2714-473: The race. Though abandoned by her father as an infant, Atalanta became a skilled hunter and received acclaim for her role in the hunt for the Calydonian boar. Her father claimed her as his daughter and wished to marry her off. However, Atalanta was reluctant to marry due to a prophecy that marriage would be her downfall. Because of her beauty, she gained a number of suitors and finally agreed to marry, but under

2773-407: The sacred plain where Ladon, the serpent of the land, till yesterday kept watch over the golden apples in the garden of Atlas; and all around the nymphs, the Hesperides, were busied, chanting their lovely song. But at that time, stricken by Heracles, he lay fallen by the trunk of the apple-tree; only the tip of his tail was still writhing; but from his head down his dark spine he lay lifeless; and where

2832-405: The so-called "ox-eyed Hesperethusa". Apollodorus gives the number of the Hesperides also as four, namely: Aigle, Erytheia, Hesperia (or Hesperie), and Arethusa while Fulgentius named them as Aegle, Hesperie, Medusa , and Arethusa. However, the historiographer Diodorus in his account stated that they are seven in number with no information of their names. An ancient vase painting attests

2891-597: The spot where Aegle had pointed out to them the spring, until they reached it. And as when earth-burrowing ants gather in swarms round a narrow cleft, or when flies lighting upon a tiny drop of sweet honey cluster round with insatiate eagerness; so at that time, huddled together, the Minyae thronged about the spring from the rock. And thus with wet lips one cried to another in his delight: "Strange! In very truth Heracles, though far away, has saved his comrades, fordone with thirst. Would that we might find him on his way as we pass through

2950-508: The start or at the end of his task, meets Antaeus , who was immortal as long as he touched his mother, Gaia , the earth. Heracles killed Antaeus by holding him aloft and crushing him in a bearhug. Herodotus claims that Heracles stopped in Egypt , where King Busiris decided to make him the yearly sacrifice, but Heracles burst out of his chains. Finally making his way to the Garden of the Hesperides, Heracles tricked Atlas into retrieving some of

3009-436: The sun. The Augusta, Lady Gregory play called The Golden Apple: A Play for Kiltartan Children is a fable in the invented Kiltartan dialect based on Irish mythology and folklore. The Golden Apples is the name of Southern writer, Eudora Welty's, fourth short story collection, published in 1949. The stories are interrelated and center around the citizens of the fictional town of Morgana, Mississippi. A golden apple plays

SECTION 50

#1732837533263

3068-510: The task of tending to the grove, but occasionally picked apples from it themselves. Not trusting them, Hera also placed in the garden an immortal, never-sleeping, hundred-headed dragon named Ladon as an additional safeguard. In the myth of the Judgement of Paris , it was from the Garden that Eris , Goddess of Discord, obtained the Apple of Discord , which led to the Trojan War . In later years it

3127-473: The three daughters of Hesperus. Hesiod says that these "clear-voiced Hesperides", daughters of Ceto and Phorcys, guarded the golden apples beyond Ocean in the far west of the world, gives the number of the Hesperides as four, and their names as: Aigle (or Aegle, "dazzling light"), Erytheia (or Erytheis), Hesperia ("sunset glow") whose name refers to the colour of the setting sun, red, yellow, or gold; and lastly Arethusa. In addition, Hesperia, and Arethusa,

3186-484: Was he like to see it. Now here stood a rock near the Tritonian lake; and of his own device, or by the prompting of some god, he smote it below with his foot; and the water gushed out in full flow. And he, leaning both his hands and chest upon the ground, drank a huge draught from the rifted rock, until, stooping like a beast of the field, he had satisfied his mighty maw. Thus she spake; and they gladly with joyful steps ran to

3245-640: Was located at Lixus , Morocco , which was also the location where Heracles fought against Antaeus . According to the Sicilian Greek poet Stesichorus , in his poem the "Song of Geryon ", and the Greek geographer Strabo , in his book Geographika (volume III), the garden of the Hesperides is located in Tartessos , a location placed in the south of the Iberian peninsula . Euesperides (in modern-day Benghazi ) which

3304-489: Was probably founded by people from Cyrene or Barca , from both of which it lies to the west, might have mythological associations with the garden of Hesperides. By Ancient Roman times, the garden of the Hesperides had lost its archaic place in religion and had dwindled to a poetic convention, in which form it was revived in Renaissance poetry, to refer both to the garden and to the nymphs that dwelt there. The Garden of

3363-504: Was the name of the shepherd of the sheep, a man who excelled in strength of body and courage, who guarded the sheep and slew any who might dare to carry them off. With the revival of classical allusions in the Renaissance, the Hesperides returned to their prominent position, and the garden itself took on the name of its nymphs: Robert Greene wrote of "The fearful Dragon... that watched the garden called Hesperides". Shakespeare inserted

3422-429: Was the only person to steal the apples, other than Perseus , although Athena later returned the apples to their rightful place in the garden. They are considered by some to be the same "apples of joy" that tempted Atalanta , as opposed to the " apple of discord " used by Eris to start a beauty contest on Olympus (which caused " The Siege of Troy "). On Attic pottery, especially from the late fifth century, Heracles

3481-465: Was thought that the "golden apples" might have actually been oranges , a fruit unknown to Europe and the Mediterranean before the Middle Ages . Under this assumption, the Greek botanical name chosen for all citrus species was Hesperidoeidē (Ἑσπεριδοειδῆ, "hesperidoids") and even today the Greek word for the orange fruit is πορτοκάλι (Portokáli)--after the country of Portugal in Iberia near where

#262737