Hesperides
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Hesperides. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
hes-per'ides, the maidens who guarded the golden apples given by Gaea (Earth) to Hera on her marriage. The accounts of these maidens vary. Some mention three of them, others give four, and still others seven. Hesiod speaks of them as the daughters of Night. Other accounts name Atlas as their father and Hesperis as their mother. Again they are said to be the daughters of Hesperus. The garden where the golden apples grew was believed to be at the extreme western limit of the world. The maidens were aided by the hundred-headed dragon, Ladon. While fifty of his heads watched, the other fifty slept. Hercules was assigned the task of obtaining these apples as his twelfth labor.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
Three Nymphs, daughters of Hesperus. Apollodorus mentions four, Aegle, Erythia, Vesta , and Arethusa . They were appointed to guard the golden apples which Juno gave to Jupiter on the day of their marriage. The place where the Hesperides lived was a celebrated garden, abounding with delicious fruit, and was guarded by a dragon which never slept. It was one of the labors of Hercules to procure some of the golden apples, which he succeeded in doing after slaying the dragon. Hesperus (The Evening Star). Son of Astraeus and Eos ( Aurora ), of Cephalus and Eos or of Atlas. He was also regarded as the same as the morning star.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in Greek mythology the name of the famous sisters (Ægle, Erythia, Hestia, Arethusa) who, assisted by the dragon Ladon, guarded the golden apples which Hera had received, on her marriage with Zeus, from Ge. With the assistance of Atlas the apples were stolen by Hercules, who killed the dragon.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Nothing has happened to the Hesperides since 1921 except in the reading of the texts. The disagreements the 1910 Aiton's notes — three sisters, or four, or seven; daughters of Night in Hesiod, of Atlas or Hesperus elsewhere — are still exactly where they were, because they are disagreements among the ancient sources themselves and no new evidence has settled them. One small correction: the fourth sister called "Vesta" in 1900 and "Hestia" in 1921 appears in modern editions of Apollodorus as Hesperia, alongside Aegle, Erytheia and Arethusa. The myth's most durable modern trace is botanical: the fleshy, rind-covered fruit of the orange and lemon is still technically called a hesperidium, after the golden apples.
Written for this edition, 2026.