HESPERIDES, nymphs who possessed a garden, in which grew the golden apples given by Jupiter to Juno on the day of her marriage. They were Ægle, Erythia, Vesta, and Arethusa. The garden was guarded by a dragon called Ladon, and is generally placed near Mount Atlas in Africa. It was one of the labours of Hercules to procure some of these apples. He persuaded Atlas to go in search of them, whilst he sustained the burden of the heavens on his shoulders. On his return with the apples, Hercules expressed a wish to ease his head by placing something on it, and when Atlas assisted him to remove this inconvenience, Hercules artfully left the burden, and seized the apples. According to others, Hercules slew the dragon and gathered the apples himself, without the assistance of Atlas. According to Diodorus, they were the same as the Atlantides, being called Hesperides from their mother Hesperis, the wife of Atlas; and they were the keepers of flocks of sheep, the Greek word μῆλον signifying either a sheep or an apple.