HESPERIDES The seven daughters of Atlas the Giant, they were entrusted with the care and protection of the golden apples which Titaea, a goddess of the Earth, had caused to grow on a wonderful tree that appeared out of thin air, at her direction, at the marriage feast of Zeus and Hera. The Hesperides and their apples resided in the Garden of the Hesperides, and the apples were so tempting that there had to be a guardian of the tree. This was the serpent Ladon, whom Hercules slew when he fetched three apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, as part of his Twelve Labours.The names of only four of the seven Hesperides are known, these being Aegle, Erytheis, Hespere and Arethusa.