The state of Knowledge which is symbolised by the apples is reached when the spirit/matter separation maintained by Atlas ceases. at the Zenith, for the Garden of Hesperides which is near mount Atlas in the Caucasus if we follow Apollodorus’ version, which is the most coherent.The two last ones, The Garden of Hesperides and the capture of Cerberus, have been symbolically located by the elders in the two remaining directions, on the vertical axis: The previous Labours occurred in the four directions: The Cretan Bull to the South, The Mares of Diomedes to the North, The Belt of Hippolyte, the Amazon Queen to the East, and Geryon’s cattle to the West. With those two last Labours, which suppose an advanced stage in «the integral liberation», begins the path of «perfection» which consists of realising an always greater transparency for the action of the divine forces to operate within the body. In another version, Heracles went himself to collect the apples after killing the snake-dragon. The goddess brought them back to The Garden of Hesperides since they could not be anywhere else.

Obviously, he then did not take back the sky onto his shoulders and handed the apples back to Eurystheus.Īccording to Apollodorus, Eurystheus then handed back the apples to Heracles who gave them to Athena. So Heracles had to devise a stratagem: on the pretext of sliding a cushion on his shoulders, he asked the Titan to relieve him for a moment. The hero followed his advice.īut when the Titan returned from the garden with three golden apples, he refused to take his place again. The latter was grateful to the hero and advised him not to get the apples by himself, but to entrust this task to Atlas while he would support the sky. To maintain the sky, he suggested to Zeus that Chiron – who wanted to die because of his wound – take Prometheus’ place. Having reached the Caucasus mountain range, Heracles killed the eagle born of Typhon and Echidna who was devouring Prometheus’ liver and freed the latter. They were guarded by a snake (son of Phorcys and Ceto according to Hesiod) and entrusted to three Nymphs, the Hesperides, who protected them from the lust of Atlas’ daughters. It is said that it was Gaïa’s wedding present to Hera on the occasion of her marriage to Zeus. Heracles in the garden of Hesperides – Louvre Museum The method to navigate in the site is given in the Home tab. This progression follows the spiritual journey. To fully understand this web page, it is recommended to follow the progression given in the tab Greek myths interpretation. These golden apples symbolize the Knowledge whose limits are constantly receding as human evolution progresses. Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring him back the golden apples of the Hesperides, a garden which was located in the Hyperboreans’ land on the Atlas.

Golden apples of hesperides