Ladon

Name: Ladon

Features: Multi-headed snake-like dragon

Source: Greek Mythology

Habitat: The Garden of the Hesperides



Ladon was a never-sleeping snake-like dragon with numerous heads. It guarded and lay coiled around the apple tree in the garden of the Hesperides that produced the sought after golden apples.

These golden apples were said to give immortality to who ever would consume them.

The garden of the Hesperides was sacred to the goddess Hera. It had been a wedding gift given by the earth goddess Gaia to the king of gods, Zeus and Hera.

Greek strong man Hercules killed this multi-headed dragon to steal the golden apples from the tree that this mythical beast guarded so fiercely. It was one of his twelve labors imposed upon him by Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns.

This dragon has many possible parents. Perhaps he was one of the many monstrous children born from the coupling of Echnida and Typhon , or the child conceived from the union of Ceto and Phorcys.