Male and female power

The tree that the Hesperides kept watch over was originally a gift from the earth goddess Gaia to her granddaughter,

Hera, on Hera’s marriage to Zeus, the ruler of the Olympians. Hera set her own dragon, the serpent Ladon, to guard it, before giving the magic tree to Zeus. Some scholars believe the story of the tree—originally possessed by Mother Earth, then by the Queen of Heaven, before finally passing to the chief Olympian god—reflects a transition in the Greek pantheon from female, mother-centered power to male-dominated, patriarchal rule.

In two famous myths involving the golden apples, bribery or trickery enables a man to win a wife. In the first myth, Eris, the goddess of discord, rolled one of the apples across the floor at the wedding of the mortal Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis. The apple was inscribed “To the Fairest,” and three goddesses claimed the apple and the title:

Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Zeus appointed Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy, as judge, and each goddess tried her best to bribe him. Paris chose Aphrodite, who promised him the most beautiful woman in the world for his wife—Helen, who was married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Paris abducted Helen to Troy, which led directly to the Trojan War.

In the second myth, the virgin princess Atalanta, a renowned runner, refused to marry anyone she could defeat in a footrace. However, her most determined suitor, Melanion (or Hippomenes), obtained three golden apples from the sympathetic Aphrodite before his race. As they ran, he tossed one of the apples ahead of Atalanta. The princess was unable to ignore the beautiful apple and stooped to pick it up, allowing Melanion to gain on her.

He repeated the trick with the second and third apples, thus winning the race and her hand in marriage.