Labor XI

Abstract

The Apples of the Hesperides is the most complex and fascinating Labor of Heracles. Because it is well attested in both literary and visual sources, we can follow its evolution and transformations through the centuries from a narrative to a more symbolic representation of the myth. Heracles had to fetch the golden apples from the divine garden of the Hesperides, situated beyond the limits of the known world and assimilated in popular belief with Elysion and the Isles of the Blessed. There are two main versions of how Heracles managed to obtain the apples, equally well attested in literature and art, and apparently running parallel to each other: he either picked them himself after slaying the guarding serpent; or he was helped by the sky-bearing Titan Atlas, who fetched them for him while Heracles relieved him from the burden of heavens. In other variants, known through the iconographic tradition, Heracles either deceives or is helped by the Hesperides. Even though no sources specify that the golden apples conferred immortality or youth, their divine associations and location in the paradise-like garden of the gods relate to Heracles’ attainment of immortality and the pleasures of a blessed afterlife.