Hyginus in his preface to the Fabulae names them as Aigle, Hesperie and Aerica. Pseudo-Apollodorus gives the number of the Hesperides as four, named: Aigle, Hesperia (or Hesperie), Are-thusa and Erytheia. įulgentius gives four Hesperides, named: Aigle, Hesperie, Arethusa and Me-dusa. Their names were: Aigle, Erythea, Arethusa, Hespereia, Hestia, Hespera, and Hesperusa.

He believed that they were the seven Hesperides, nymph daughters of the Atlas. Petrus Apianus attributed to these stars a mythical connection of their own. Nevertheless, among the names given to them, though never all at once, there were either three, four, or seven Hesperides. They are sometimes portrayed as the evening daughters of Night ( Nyx) either alone, or with Darkness ( Erebus), in accord with the way Eos in the farthermost east, in Colchis, is the daughter of the titan Hyperion. They are listed as the daughters of Atlas, or of Zeus, and either Hesperius or Themis, or Phorcys and Ceto. The one shown presents the Olympian gods feasting around a tripod table holding the golden Apple of the Hesperides. This circular Pyxis or box depicts two scenes. Their abstract, interchangeable names are a symptom of their impersonality,' Evelyn Harrison has observed. 'Since the Hesperides themselves are mere symbols of the gifts the apples embody, they cannot be actors in a human drama. Ordinarily the Hesperides number three, like the other Greek triads (the Three Graces and the Moirai).

Hesperides definicion