Ladon | |
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Real Name |
Ladon |
First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
Ladon was the serpent-like dragon that twined and twisted around the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides and guarded the golden apples. In pursuance of his eleventh labour, Heracles killed Ladon with a bow and arrow and carried the apples away. The following day, Jason and the Argonauts passed by on their chthonic return journey from Colchis, hearing the lament of "shining" Aegle, one of the four Hesperides, and viewing the still-twitching Ladon. In an alternate version of the myth, Ladon is never slain, and Heracles instead gets the Titan god Atlas to retrieve the apples. At the same time, Heracles takes Atlas’ place, holding up the sky.
According to the Astronomy attributed to Hyginus, Ladon is the constellation Draco which was placed among the stars by Zeus. Ladon is the Greek version of the West Semitic serpent Lotan, or the Hurrian serpent Illuyanka. He might be given multiple heads, a hundred in Aristophanes' The Frogs (a passing remark in line 475), which might speak with different voices.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Ladon from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Theogony
- Frogs
- Ion
- The Library
- The Argonautica
- Phaenomena
- The Library of History
- Description of Greece
- Imagines
- New History
- Fall of Troy
- Fabulae
- Astronomica
- Metamorphoses
- Elegies
- Hercules Furens
- Medea