Editing Tree of life (section)

===Europe===
In Greek mythology, [[Hera]] is gifted a branch growing [[golden apple]]s by her grandmother [[Gaia]], which are then planted in Hera's [[Hesperides#The Garden of the Hesperides|Garden of the Hesperides]]. The dragon [[Ladon (mythology)|Ladon]] guards the tree(s) from all who would take the apples. The three golden apples that [[Aphrodite]] gave to [[Hippomenes]] to distract [[Atalanta]] three times during their footrace allowed him to win Atalanta's hand in marriage. Though it is not specified in ancient myth, many assume that Aphrodite gathered those apples from Hera's tree(s). Eris stole one of these apples and carved the words ΤΗΙ ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤΗΙ, "to the fairest", upon it to create the [[Apple of Discord]]. [[Heracles]] retrieved three of the apples as the eleventh of his [[Twelve Labors]]. The Garden of the Hesperides is often compared to [[Garden of Eden|Eden]], the golden apples are compared to [[tree of the knowledge of good and evil|the forbidden fruit of the tree]] in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]], and Ladon is often compared to the [[serpents in the Bible#Eden|snake in Eden]], all of which is part of why the forbidden fruit of Eden is usually represented as an apple in European art, even though Genesis does not specifically name nor describe ''any'' characteristics of the fruit.

[[File:Husaby Church 2013 11th century Tree of Life sculpture.jpg|thumb|upright|11th century tree of life sculpture at an ancient [[Sweden|Swedish]] church]]
In ''Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermetique'' (Paris, 1737), [[Antoine-Joseph Pernety]], a famous [[alchemy|alchemist]], identified the tree of life with the [[Elixir of life]] and the [[Philosopher's Stone]].

In ''[[Stephen Oppenheimer#Eden in the East|Eden in the East]]'' (1998), [[Stephen Oppenheimer]] suggests that a tree-worshipping culture arose in [[Indonesia]] and was diffused by the so-called "Younger Dryas" event of c. 10,900 BCE or 12,900 BP, after which the sea level rose. This culture reached China ([[Sichuan]]), then [[India]] and the [[Middle East]]. Finally the Finno-Ugric strand of this diffusion spread through [[Russia]] to [[Finland]] where the Norse myth of [[Yggdrasil]] took root.