And this is
confirmed by the fact that part of them were called Atlantids, offspring
of Atlantis. The Hesperides were also "daughters of Atlas;" their mother
was Hesperis, a personification of "the region of the West." Their home
was "an island in the ocean," Off the north or west coast of Africa.
And here we find a tradition which not only points to Atlantis, but also
shows some kinship to the legend in Genesis of the tree and the serpent.
Titaea, "a goddess of the earth," gave Zeus a tree bearing golden apples
on it. This tree was put in the care of the Hesperides, but they could
not resist the temptation to pluck and eat its fruit; thereupon a
serpent named Ladon was put to watch the tree. Hercules slew the
serpent, and gave the apples to the Hesperides.
Heracles (Hercules), we have seen, was a son of Zeus, king of Atlantis.
One of his twelve labors (the tenth) was the carrying off the cattle of
Geryon. The meaning of Geryon is "the red glow of the sunset." He dwelt
on the island of "Erythea, in the remote west, beyond the Pillars of
Hercules." Hercules took a ship, and after encountering a storm, reached
the island and placed himself on Mount Abas.
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