0559ANCIENTHeraclesApples

0559ANCIENTHeraclesApples_AraMaxima

Hercules holds symbols of his first and last (earthly) labors, as in the Farnese Hercules and other representations. (Eurystheus did not reckon the cleaning of Augeus' stables as an accomplished labor; so this is no. 12 in some countings).

The Hesperides were daughters of Atlas who kept safe in their garden at the world's edge the appletree given by Gaia to Hera as a wedding gift. Sent by Eurystheus, Heracles engaged the complex labor — either picking the apples himself (Euripides) or conning Atlas to pick them for him (Apollodorus) shifting the vault of heaven back and forth. Securing the sacred apples as symbols of immortality, Heracles is shown on the brink between mortality and immortality.

Cf. Farnese Hercules and Commodus as Hercules

Ovid has Perseus behold these apples: "arboreae frondes auro radiante nitentes / ex auro ramos, ex auro poma tegebant." Met. 6.637-8