Galaxy/The codex of Erytheia

One of the four Hesperides whom Apollodorus names beside Ladon at the golden-apple tree — in his text Erythia, the radiant 'Red One' of sunset — not to be confused with Erytheia the island home of Geryon's cattle in the western labour.1

I

Apollodorus, recounting Heracles' eleventh labour, lists the nymphs who guarded the apples with the hundred-headed dragon offspring of Typhon and Echidna: Aegle, Erythia, Hesperia, and Arethusa. The Perseus translation prints 'Erythia'; the standard Greek form Erytheia names the evening nymph of the western garden, distinct from the far western cattle-land of Geryon.2

II

Apollonius' Argonautica preserves a shorter roll of three names at the same garden — Hespere, Erytheis, and Aegle — and shows Erytheis changed into an elm when the sisters took tree-form after Ladon's death. The atlas treats Erytheis and Apollodorus' Erythia as the same evening nymph under the id `erytheia-hesperid`, while the collective `hesperides` node still carries Hesiod's fatherless brood of Night.3

the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story

BEYOND THE POETS

How the centuries since have seen Erytheia — art, artifacts and echoes.

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