Ladon (mythology)

Heracles and Ladon, late Roman relief plate , State Collections of Antiquities (SL89)

Ladon ( Greek  Λάδων ) is a multi-headed dragon in Greek mythology who guards the golden apples of the Hesperides on the orders of Hera .

According to different sources, he has two, often three and once a hundred heads. Accordingly, he speaks in many voices. He never sleeps, but is defeated by Heracles when he has to fetch the apples from the Hesperides. There are also different versions here: Ladon is slain by Heracles, gives the apples voluntarily or helps him - or Atlas - to get the apples. As the constellation Dragon , he was finally transferred to heaven by Zeus.

According to Hesiod Phorkys and Keto , according to the library of Apollodorus and Hyginus, his parents are Echidna and Typhon . In the first case he is the brother of Echidna, the Gorgons and the Graien .

According to Pausanias, the third treasure house in Olympia contained a cedar relief showing Heracles, the apple tree and Ladon, which was curled around the trunk. It was the work of Theocles, son of Hegylos.

According to Karl Kerényi , Ladon is mentioned more often as a snake than a dragon. Real dragons are rare in Greek mythology and are mostly depicted as snakes.

literature

• Otto Höfer : Ladon 2 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, column 1786 ( digitized version ).

swell

• Apollonius Rhodius , Argonautica 4, 1390 ff.
• Aratus , Phaenomena 45 ff.
• Aristophanes , frogs .
• Hesiod , Theogony .
• Pausanias , Description of Greece 6, 19, 8.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.13
2. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 333.
3. ↑ Libraries of Apollodorus 2, 113.
4. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 151.
5. ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 19. 8

Web links

• Theoi Greek Mythology, English

Commons : Ladon  - collection of images, videos and audio files