Chapter 1: The Early Gods
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♠ Od 24.12 – Homer, Odyssey
Past the streams of Oceanus they went, past the rock Leucas, past the gates of the sun and the land of dreams. Greek Text
♠ Il 2.5-6 – Homer, Iliad
And this plan seemed to his mind the best, to send to Agamemnon, son of Atreus, a baneful dream. Greek Text
♠ Paus 5.17.2 – Pausanias, Description of Greece
The Hesperides, five in number, were made by Theocles, who like Dorycleidas was a Lacedaemonian, the son of Hegylus; he too, they say, was a student under Scyllis and Dipoenus. Greek Text
♠ Th 275 – Hesiod, Theogony
… in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides. Greek Text
♠ Th 517-18 – Hesiod, Theogony
And Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides. Greek Text
♠ Th 333-35 – Hesiod, Theogony
And Ceto was joined in love to Phorcys and bore her youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in the secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds. Greek Text
♠ Hipp 742 – Euripides, Hippolitos
To the apple-bearing shore of the Hesperides, famous singers, would I go my way. Greek Text
♠ HF 394-99 – Euripides, Herakles Mainomenos (Hercules Furens)
And he [Herakles] came to those minstrel maids, to their orchard in the west, to pluck from golden leaves the apple-bearing fruit, when he had slain the tawny dragon, whose terrible coils were twined all round to guard it. Greek Text
♠ Paus 6.19.8 – Pausanias, Description of Greece
The third of the treasuries, and the fourth as well, were dedicated by the Epidamnians…. It shows the heavens upheld by Atlas, and also Heracles and the apple-tree of the Hesperides, with the snake coiled round the apple-tree. These too are of cedar-wood, and are works of Theocles, son of Hegylus. The inscription on the heavens says that his son helped him to make it. The Hesperides they were removed by the Eleans）were even in my time in the Heraeum; the treasury was made for the Epidamnians by Pyrrhus and his sons Lacrates and Hermon. Greek Text
♠ Paus 5.17.2 – Pausanias, Description of Greece
The Hesperides, five in number, were made by Theocles, who like Dorycleidas was a Lacedaemonian, the son of Hegylus; he too, they say, was a student under Scyllis and Dipoenus. Greek Text
♠ Paus 5.11.6 – Pausanias, Description of Greece
Two Hesperides are carrying the apples, the keeping of which, legend says, had been entrusted to them. Greek Text
♠ AR 4.1396-98 – Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautica
But they came to 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. Greek Text
♠ Pherekydes FGrH 3F16 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 65, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Σ Hipp 742 – Scholia at Euripides, Hippolitos – Scholia in Euripidem, ed. E. Schwartz 2, p. 92. Berlin 1887.
Pherekydes says that they are daughters of Zeus and Themis. (Transl. E. Bianchelli) Greek Text
Same as
♠ Pherekydes FGrH 3F16d – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 65, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
For translation, see above. Greek Text
♠ Akousilaos FGrH 2F10 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 51, ed. F. Jacoby. 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
PHILODEM. p. Euseb. 92. 24 p.43 G: and Akousilaos says that the Harpuiai are the guardians of the apples. Epimenides (68 B 9 Diels) says the same thing and that they are the same as the Hesperides. The author of the Titanomachia says that the the apples are guarded by… (Transl. E. Bianchelli) Greek Text
♠ Epimenides, Theogony 3B9 – Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 1, p. 34, ed. H. Diels and W. Kranz. 6th ed. Berlin 1951.
[7a K.] Philod. De piet. 92, 24 p. 43 G. and Akousilaos says that the Harpuiai guard the apples. [9 B 5], Epimenides says the same thing and that they are the same as the Hesperides. (Transl. E. Bianchelli) Greek Text
♠ Tithanomachia fr 9 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 15, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig, 1987.
PHILODEM. De piet. (P. Hercul. 1088 VII 24, p. 43 Gomperz) and Akousilaos says that the Harpuiai are the guardians of the apples (FGrHist 2 F 10). Epimenides (3 B 9 D.–K) says the same and that they are the same as the Hesperides. The author of the Titanomachia says that the the apples are guarded by… (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Mimnermos 12.8 W – Iambi et Elegi Graeci 2, p. 87, ed. M. L. West. Oxford 1972
as he pleasantly sleeps from the land of the Hesperides to the region of the Ethiopians (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Stesichoros 8 SLG – Recently discovered fragments of the Greek lyric poets according to D. L. Page, Supplementum Lyricis Graecis, p. 6. Oxford 1974.
♠ AR 4 1396-1449 – Apollonios of Rhodes, Argonautica
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 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 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 the first of goddesses with willing hearts will we bring countless gifts, libations and banquets.”
[1422] 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 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 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 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.” Greek Text
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Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, University of Georgia, June 2020
