Page 268

[Alexandr Korol]

“By their mother — 7 daughters of Hesperis and Atlas, who together with their mother were pursued by Orion. According to another version — daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. They lived on the blessed islands, next to the Gorgons. In the garden where they lived, which was guarded by the dragon Ladon, grew golden apples — a wedding gift presented by Gaia to Hera. To obtain these apples was one of the labors of Heracles. Later writers transferred the Hesperides to the land of the Hyperboreans; the tale of the apples points to the eastern origin of the myth.

According to Hesiod, they were born of Nyx. They live beyond Oceanus, next to the Gorgons, and Hesiod calls them “singers.” They are also Atlanteans, since they live “by Atlas, where the Hyperboreans dwell.” Atlas is sometimes called the father of the Hesperides. The story of the apples of the Hesperides was already in the “Titanomachy” (a poem of the 8th century BC), and the Hesperides were mentioned by Stesichorus. According to Pherecydes, when Hera married Zeus, Gaia gave her golden apples as a gift. Hera planted them in the garden of the gods by Atlas, and since the daughters of Atlas were stealing them, she set the serpent named Ladon to guard them. He had a hundred heads, and two hundred eyes constantly watched over the apples. There were three apples.” Well, it is clear, clear. These apples — he guards them with eyes. This is my matrix, there are these golden apples. Well, fine. They were given to Hera for her wedding with Zeus... Who is Zeus for us? The God of Heaven. Well, of course also of thunder and lightning, but the God of Heaven. “The main and most powerful of the Olympian gods, the third son of the Titan Cronus and the Titaness Rhea; brother of Hades, Hera, Hestia, Demeter, and Poseidon. The wife of Zeus is the goddess Hera. In Roman mythology he was identified with Jupiter.” Interesting, interesting. “The attributes of Zeus were the shield and the double axe (labrys), sometimes the eagle; his dwelling place was considered to be Olympus (Zeus Olympios). Zeus was conceived as ‘fire,’ a ‘hot substance,’ dwelling in the ether, ruling the sky, the organizing center of cosmic and social life. In addition, Zeus distributed good and evil on earth, instilled in people shame and conscience. Zeus is a formidable punishing force, sometimes associated with fate, sometimes himself appearing as a being subject to the goddesses the Moirai — fate, destiny. Zeus possesses the ability to foresee the future; he proclaims the decrees of fate through dreams, and also by means