The Garden of the Hesperides — Frederic Leighton
Analyzing one of the great paintings of the English painter.
Greek mythology tells us that nymphs were girls with divine genetics, often mixed with human genes, whose homes were in specific places such as mountaintops, trees, or riverbanks. In the celestial hierarchy, they were one step below the gods, but the Greeks also revered them.
This is the case of the Hesperides, whom the Greek poet and philosopher Hesiod baptized as the Nymphs of Dusk. They lived in a magical garden on the edge of the world, near the island of the Blessed. There they guarded several magic apple trees owned by the goddess Hera.
In one of his most recognized works, Frederic Leighton painted a scene of the myth that curiously was not the most represented by the artists. In it, we can see in detail the apples of Hera (the same ones that Hercules would steal).
According to the myth, these apples could provide eternal life to whoever ate them. They were probably also a source of wisdom. They were gifts from the goddess Gaea (Earth) to Hera for her marriage to Zeus.
