Ladon

Ladon was the dragon or serpent in Greek mythology that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides at the western edge of the world. Heracles killed or got past him during his eleventh labour, and in one tradition the goddess Hera set the dead dragon among the stars as the constellation Draco.

Parents and Appearance

Ancient authors disagree about Ladon’s parents. Hesiod does not name him but says that Ceto bore to Phorcys a dreadful snake that, in the hidden places of dark earth at its great limits, guards the all-golden apples (Hesiod, Theogony 333–336). Apollodorus calls the guardian an immortal dragon with a hundred heads, offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which spoke with many different kinds of voices (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11). Apollonius of Rhodes gives him his name and calls him “the serpent of the land” (Argonautica 4.1396–1398). Hyginus likewise makes the dragon a son of Typhon (Fabulae 30). Hesiod says that Echidna and Typhaon were the parents of Orthus, Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra (Theogony 304–314), so on the tradition that Apollodorus follows Ladon was their brother; Apollodorus also names Typhon and Echidna as parents of the Chimaera (Library 2.3.1).

The Garden and the Apples

Hesiod places the Hesperides, daughters of Night, beyond glorious Ocean, where they tend the golden apples and the fruit-bearing trees (Theogony 215–216). Apollodorus says that the apples were a gift of Earth to Zeus at his marriage to Hera, and that Ladon guarded them together with the four Hesperides, Aegle, Erytheia, Hesperia and Arethusa. He places the apples not in Libya but on Atlas, among the Hyperboreans (Library 2.5.11). In the account attributed to Pherecydes by Hyginus, Earth brought the apples as a wedding gift to Hera, who planted them in her garden near Mount Atlas; when the daughters of Atlas kept stealing the fruit, Hera set the serpent to guard it (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.3).

Heracles and Ladon

Eurystheus ordered Heracles to fetch golden apples from the Hesperides as his eleventh labour. Apollodorus tells how Heracles forced the sea-god Nereus to tell him where the apples were, crossed Libya, where he wrestled Antaeus, and travelled on to the outer sea, where he received a goblet from Helios, the Sun. At the advice of Prometheus he did not go after the apples himself but sent Atlas, taking the sky on his shoulders while Atlas fetched three apples from the Hesperides. Atlas then wanted to carry the apples to Eurystheus himself and leave the sky with Heracles, but Heracles tricked him into taking it back and left with the apples. Apollodorus adds that some said Heracles did not get the apples from Atlas but plucked them himself after killing the guardian snake (Library 2.5.11).

The Argonautica supports this second version. When the Argonauts reached the sacred plain where Ladon had until the day before guarded the golden apples in the garden of Atlas, they found him lying by the trunk of the apple tree, struck down by Heracles, with only the tip of his tail still moving. The arrows had left the poison of the Lernaean Hydra in his wounds, and flies that touched them died. The Hesperides, lamenting with their arms over their heads, turned to dust and earth at the sight of the heroes (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.1396–1407). Hyginus too says that Hercules killed the huge dragon that guarded the golden apples at Mount Atlas and brought the apples to Eurystheus (Fabulae 30).

Ladon in the Stars

Hyginus says that the constellation Serpens or Draco, set between the two Bears, is the dragon that guarded the apples of the Hesperides: killed by Hercules, it was placed among the stars by Juno because Hercules had gone to it on her account (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.3). In another account in the same work, the dragon never closed its eyes in sleep and Zeus set the fight of Heracles and the dragon among the stars (Astronomica 2.6).

Ladon Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 215–216, 304–336; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11, 2.3.1; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.1396–1407; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.3, 2.6, and Fabulae 30.

See Also: Heracles, Labours of Heracles, Hesperides, Atlas, Typhon, Echidna, Hera, Gaea, Chimaera, Cerberus, Lernaean Hydra