hesperides means A group of nymphs who tend a blissful garden filled with trees that grew golden apples in a far western corner of the world, located in Libya or the Atlas Mountains in North Africa at the edge of the encircling Oceanus; they are said to be the daughters of Hesperus.
hesperides is pronounced /hɛˈspɛɹɪdiːz/.
Why “hesperides” is a great word
The nymphs who tend a garden of golden apples in a mythical western paradise, or the garden itself, embodying an idyllic realm of eternal abundance. From Latin *Hesperides*, from Ancient Greek Ἑσπερίδες (*Hesperídes*), the plural of Ἑσπερίς (*Hesperís*), a nymph of the evening, from ἕσπερος (*hésperos*, "evening, west"). Unlike "Elysium," a blissful afterlife for heroes, or "Arcadia," a pastoral ideal of rustic harmony, the Hesperides denote a terrestrial but distant garden, exotic and jealously guarded. It is the scent of immortal blossoms in the twilight air, the heavy, metallic coolness of the apples in one's hand, and the watchful gaze of the dragon Ladon coiled around the tree—a perfection so complete it must be defended, a paradise defined by its inaccessibility.
Etymology
From Latin Hesperides, from Ancient Greek Ἑσπερίδες (Hesperídes).
noun
- A group of nymphs who tend a blissful garden filled with trees that grew golden apples in a far western corner of the world, located in Libya or the Atlas Mountains in North Africa at the edge of the encircling Oceanus; they are said to be the daughters of Hesperus.
- The garden of the Hesperides.
- A paradisaical land of plenty, especially one in the far West.“Inclinations no leſs vigorous have of late been obſerved in Europe, but with more ſucceſs; who not being bounded by Herculean Bars, paſt ſo far through (till then) the unmeaſured Atlantick, that they lighted upon a new World, a flouriſhing Heſperides, Regions whoſe Sands were Gold, Earth Plate, and Rivers Silver, a Paradice extended to the Arctick and Antarctick Circles, with ſeveral other Countri”
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