Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Greek Mythology The nymphs who together with a dragon watch over a garden in which golden apples grow.
- n. Greek Mythology A garden, situated at the western end of the earth, in which golden apples grow.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In Greek myth, nymphs who guarded, with the aid of a fierce serpent, the golden apples given by Ge (Earth) to Hera (Juno), in delightful gardens at the western extremity of the world, supposed to be in the region of Mount Atlas in Africa. Their origin and number (from three to seven) are variously given.
- In botany, a class of plants founded by Endlicher, including the orders Humiriaceæ, Olacineæ, Aurantiaceæ, Meliaceæ, and Cedrelaceæ. Same as the Hesperideæ of Sachs. These orders, many of which have been changed in name, are included by Bentham and Hooker in their cohorts Geraniales and Olacales.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Class. Myth.) The daughters of Hesperus, or Night (brother of Atlas), and fabled possessors of a garden producing golden apples, in Africa, at the western extremity of the known world. To slay the guarding dragon and get some of these apples was one of the labors of Hercules. Called also
Atlantides . - n. The garden producing the golden apples.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Greek mythology) group of 3 to 7 nymphs who guarded the golden apples that Gaea gave as a wedding gift to Hera
Etymologies
- Greek, from pl. of hesperis, feminine of hesperios, of the evening, western; see Hesperian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The Hesperides were the three daughters of Night, who ruled the guardian dragon.”
“Four maidens called the Hesperides, daughters of Night, were the guardians of this sacred garden, and with them watched the hundred-headed dragon, Ladon, whose father was Phorkys, the parent of many monsters.”
“The Hesperides is a collection of more than a thousand short poems, a few of which you have already read in this chapter.”
“There he was reared by the lily maidens called Hesperides, till he came to his full strength, and commanded the whole army of the Aethiopes.”
“Berenice, also called Hesperides, a town in Libya, 312”
“The 'Hesperides' (named from the golden apples of the classical Garden of the Daughters of the Sun) are twelve hundred little secular pieces, the 'Noble Numbers' a much less extensive series of religious lyrics.”
“In the 'Hesperides' our author, with great judgment, rejects the common fable, which attributes to Hercules the slaying of the dragon and the plunder of the golden fruit.”
“Hesperides," Herrick refers to the Christmas sports of the time, and says: --”
“The "Hesperides" was received with chilling indifference.”
“Among the poets of England the author of the "Hesperides" remains, and is likely to remain, unique.”
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