Ladon

Ladon is the serpent-dragon of Greek myth that coiled around the tree of golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides, guarding it until Heracles came for the apples.

The Story

At the far western edge of the world, beyond where the sun sets, the Greeks imagined a garden belonging to the gods. In it grew a tree of golden apples, a wedding gift from Earth to Hera. The nymphs called the Hesperides tended the garden, and a great serpent, Ladon, wrapped itself around the tree and never stopped watching.

The golden apples became the goal of one of the labors of Heracles. Ancient versions disagree on how he got them. In the account in Apollodorus's Library, Heracles asked the Titan Atlas, who held up the sky nearby, to fetch the apples while Heracles took the weight of the heavens on his shoulders. Other versions say Heracles killed the serpent himself. In the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, the Argonauts reach the garden the day after Heracles has been there. They find Ladon lying dead by the tree, its tail still twitching, killed by arrows that Heracles had dipped in the Hydra's poison, while the Hesperides weep over it.

Appearance and Powers

Hesiod's Theogony, about 700 BCE, mentions a terrible snake guarding the golden apples "in the secret places of the dark earth" and makes it a child of the sea deities Phorcys and Ceto. He does not name it. Apollonius gives the name Ladon. Apollodorus describes it as an immortal dragon with a hundred heads, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, that made many different kinds of sounds. Because sources differ so much, the number of heads is uncertain; Greek vase painters usually show a single large serpent coiled around the trunk of the tree, sometimes with two or three heads.

Ladon is not a villain. It is a guardian doing the job the gods gave it, which is why its death is mourned rather than celebrated in Apollonius.

Legacy

Some ancient star-lore said Hera placed the serpent in the sky as the constellation Draco, which winds between the two Bears near the north celestial pole. Ladon is the clearest early example of the dragon guarding treasure, an idea that runs through Greek myth (the dragon of the Golden Fleece) and into the hoard-guarding dragons of later European legend. Writers trying to rationalize the myth sometimes placed the garden in North Africa, near the Atlas Mountains or the city of Lixus in what is now Morocco. More on Ladon appears among the famous dragons.

Related

• Colchian Dragon: The Colchian Dragon is the sleepless serpent of Greek myth that guarded the Golden Fleece in the grove of Ares at Colchis until Medea's magic, or Jason's sword, overcame it.
• Lernaean Hydra: The Lernaean Hydra is a many-headed water serpent of Greek myth that grew new heads when one was cut off, killed by Heracles and Iolaus as his second labor.
• Python: Python is the giant serpent of Greek myth that lived at Delphi until the god Apollo shot it with arrows, took over the site, and founded his famous oracle there.
• Typhon: Typhon is the most fearsome monster of Greek myth, a giant with a hundred serpent heads who challenged Zeus for rule of the cosmos and was struck down by thunderbolts.
• Famous Dragons
• Dragon Species
• Western Dragons

Sources and Further Reading

• Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, trans. M. L. West (Oxford World's Classics, 1988)
• Apollonius of Rhodes, Jason and the Golden Fleece (The Argonautica), trans. Richard Hunter (Oxford World's Classics, 1993)
• Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, trans. Robin Hard (Oxford World's Classics, 1997)
• Daniel Ogden, Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Cite this entry: “Ladon,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ladon.