Editing Hesperides (section)

=== The Garden of the Hesperides ===
[[File:Mosaico Trabajos Hércules (M.A.N. Madrid) 11.jpg|thumb|Detail of a third century AD Roman mosaic of the [[Labours of Hercules]] from [[Llíria]], [[Spain]] showing Heracles stealing the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides|alt=|left]]

The Garden of the Hesperides is [[Hera]]'s orchard in the west, where either a single apple tree or a grove grows, producing [[golden apple]]s. According to the legend, when the marriage of Zeus and Hera took place, the different deities came with nuptial presents for the latter, and among them the goddess [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]], with branches having golden apples growing on them as a wedding gift.<ref>Poet. Astron. ii. 3</ref> Hera, greatly admiring these, begged of Gaia to plant them in her gardens, which extended as far as Mount Atlas.

The Hesperides were given the task of tending to the grove, but occasionally picked apples from it themselves. Not trusting them, Hera also placed in the garden an immortal, never-sleeping, hundred-headed [[European dragon|dragon]] named [[Ladon (mythology)|Ladon]] as an additional safeguard.<ref name=":1">quoting [[Pherecydes of Syros|Pherecydes]], [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]]. [https://topostext.org/work/207 ''Astronomica'' ''ii.3'']</ref> In the myth of the [[Judgement of Paris]], it was from the Garden that [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]], Goddess of Discord, obtained the [[Apple of Discord]], which led to the [[Trojan War]].<ref>[[Coluthus|Colluthus]]. ''[http://www.theoi.com/Text/Colluthus.html#15 Rape of Helen, 59ff].'' Translated by Mair, A. W. Loeb Classical Library Volume 219. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1928</ref>

In later years it was thought that the "golden apples" might have actually been [[Orange (fruit)|oranges]], a fruit unknown to [[Europe]] and the [[Mediterranean]] before the [[Middle Ages]].<ref>[[Athenaeus]]. ''[[Deipnosophistae]], [https://topostext.org/work/218 3.83c]''</ref> Under this assumption, the [[Greek language|Greek]] [[botanical]] name chosen for all [[citrus]] species was ''Hesperidoeidē'' (Ἑσπεριδοειδῆ, "hesperidoids") and even today the Greek word for the orange fruit is πορτοκάλι (Portokáli)--after the country of [[Portugal]] in Iberia near where the Garden of the Hesperides grew.