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by the Greeks, golden apples, whether on account of their colour, their exquisite taste, or their high reputation. This opinion had, at least, as many partisans, as the former; and was even supposed, in process of time, to be the prevailing one; especially among the moderns. So, that some have understood, by the apples of the Hesperides, pomegranates, oranges, and citrons.

Diodorus Siculus seems to waver between the two

opinions, which have been mentioned, because, says he, the Greek word, "Mλa," may signify indifferently, either flocks or apples. It is to be observed, that the admirable Milton, who, to his other excellencies, joined the possession of profound learning, seenis to countenance the opinion, that these golden apples were really fruit.

"Hesperian fables true,

"If true, here only, and of delicious taste."

Diodorus enters into some details, respecting the history of the Hesperides.-According to him, "Hesperus "and Atlas were two brothers, who possessed great riches, in the western part of Africa. The former had a daughter, called Hesperia, who gave her name to the whole country. She espoused her uncle, Atlas, and from this marriage sprang seven daughters, who were sometimes called Hesperides, from their mother and grandfather, sometimes Atlantides, from their father.These ladies turned to the best account, their flocks, or their gardens, whichever they were; and drew from them large revenues. As they were not less beautiful than prudent, their fame was very generally diffused. Busiris, king of Egypt, became enamoured of them by report, and judging, naturally enough, that his own cruelty and savage manners, for he was a most ferocious tyrant, would impress an unfavourable idea, and prove

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such obstacles to his wishes, that he could not hope to succeed in a regular courtship. He sent certain pirates, with instructions, to carry off the nymphs. These

freebooters chose the time, for their attempt, when the Hesperides were enjoying themselves, in a garden; and executed the orders of their tyrant. It so happened, that Hercules, who was then on his return, from one of his expeditions, met with those pirates, and their captives, on the shore, where they had disembarked, to refresh themselves. The hero learned from those amiable virgins, the story of their adventures; he fell upon the pirates, and killed them. He set the Hesperides at liberty; and conducted them to their father. Atlas delighted to see his daughters again, and full of gratitude towards their deliverer, presented him with those flocks, or fruits, whichever they were. He also initiated his guest in the mysteries of astronomy, as a further mark of his gratitude. Hercules, well pleased with his reception, returned to Greece, with the treasures, and the knowledge, by which he had been thus doubly enriched.

Pliny embraces the opinion of those, who were disposed to attribute to these nymphs, fruits, and not flocks. And it seems, that he was disposed to place the gardens of the Hesperides, at Lixa, a city of Mauritania.—“ An arm of the sea (says he) winds in a serpentine man

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ner, round this city; and it is precisely this arm of "the sea, which has suggested to the poets their fic❝tion of an enormous and frightful dragon."

If one looks into the other historians, who have mentioned this subject, it will appear, that all that is incontestable, respecting the Hesperides, may be reduced to three or four points-that they possest some sort of wealth, for which they were indebted, partly to their own cares, partly to the bounty of nature, and goodness of the soil, which they cultivated—that they were

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sisters-that their place of residence was well guarded, that Hercules visited them, and, in the end, possessed himself of those fruits or flocks, which constituted the chief source of their revenue, either by force, or with the consent of the owners.

We may perceive, then, how much the poets have made of a small matter, and what a romantic form they have contrived to give it.They have changed the place, where the Hesperides lived, into a delicious and magnificent garden, where gold glittered on every side

-So Ovid

where the fruits, the leaves, the very branches of the trees, were all of this precious metal.assures us, Metam. Lib. IV.

"Arboreæ frondes auro radiante nitentes

"Ex auro ramos, ex auro poma ferebant."

All these riches were guarded by an horrible dragon, with an hundred heads, who filled the air, with all possible kinds of cries and hisses. He kept his eyes ever open, and fixed upon those golden apples, which charmed the eye with their beauty, and made an impression, of longing desire, on every heart, which it was impossible to resist. -It is fabled, that, when Jupiter married Juno, she brought him these precious apples, as a marriage portion.It was with one of those apples, that the goddess of discord raised a contention among the three chief goddesses of heaven; and threw all Olympus into confusion. It was with three of these apples, that Hippomenes contrived to subdue the proud and coy Atalanta; and to win the adored prize in the race of love. -Ovid, Metam. Lib. X.

"Hinc tria forte meâ veniens decerpta ferebam "Aurea poma manu nullique videnda nisi ipsi

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Hippomenem adii;, docuique quis usus in illis.”

While

While the poets converted these gardens of the Hesperides, into ravishing abodes of delight and enchantment; they represented their owners, as enchantresses. Their voices are heavenly-they soothe their toils, by concerts of celestial harmony-they love to change themselves into all sorts of figures, and astonish the eyes of the spectators, by transformations equally sudden and marvellous.

To make the Hesperides respectable at all points, it only remained for the poets, to mark them with the stamp of religion.-They assigned them a temple-they gave them a priestess, formidable, by the sovereign empire, which she exercised over nature. -It is this priestess, who, in person, guards the golden bough, and who feeds the dragon, the protector of the sacred precincts, with honey and poppies. Such is the description given by Virgil, in the fourth Æneid.

"Hesperidum templi custos, epulosque draconi, "Quæ dabat, et sacros servabat in arbore ramos, "Spargens humida mella soporiferumque papaver.— "Hæc se carminibus promittit solvere mentes Quas velit, ast aliis duras immittere curas.

"Sistere aquam fluviis, et sidera vertere retro," &c.

Though the poets were agreed, as to the particulars, which have already been mentioned; they are divided on almost every other particular. They do not agree, as to the parentage and birth of these nymphs-as to their number as to the genealogy of the dragon-as to the place, where the gardens of the Hesperides were situated—or, in fine, as to the manner, in which Hercules became possessed of the golden fruit.-Hesiod, for instance, will have it, that the Hesperides were the daughters of night. Perhaps, because they lived so far to the west, in which quarter night was supposed to

commence.

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commence.-Cherecrates, on the contrary, makes them the daughters of Phorcus and Ceto, two deities of the This last fiction displeases us, because it is an inexplicable enigma.-Some other accounts, of the pedigree of the Hesperides, have been already mentioned.

sea.

As to the number of these nymphs, the most received opinions, among the poets, made it amount to three nymphs, whose names were Egle, Arethusa, and Hesperathusa. To these some added a fourth-Hespera.— Others a fifth, named Erytheis; and others a sixth, called Vesta.- -Diodorus Siculus makes their number

amount to seven.

Some have imagined, that they could perceive, in these fables, a shadow of events and circumstances, recorded in holy writ-that the apples, or the flocks, of the Hesperides, are borrowed from the fruits, which were brought by Joshua and his companions, from the land of Canaan.-" And they came unto the brook of "Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch, with "one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two, "on a staff, and they brought of the pomegranates "and the figs."-Others will have it, that the gardens of the Hesperides, the fruit, and the dragon, all refer to the fall of man. But these are, surely, the dreams of mystics.

Citizen Dupuis, in his memoir on the Pelasgi, (see Liter. et Beaux Arts, Tom. III. p. 86. Trans. Inst. Nat.) wishes to trace the origin of these fables to upper Egypt, or Ethiopia, whence he would derive the Pelasgi." The famous Atlas, (says he,) brother of that "Prometheus, who, according to the Egyptians, in their "sacred fable, respecting Osiris, was made to figure, "with Antaus, Hercules, and Pan, the garden of the "Hesperides, and the terrible dragon, the son of Ty

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phon-of that Typhon, the brother and rival of Osiris,

and

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