She and her fellow quest members manage to escape, but Zoë is poisoned by Ladon. Zoë Nightshade, a former Hesperide, attempts to get past Ladon, and get her and her companions to safety, but Ladon realizes after a few minutes that Zoë is no longer a Hesperide and attacks her. This defeat makes Luke question and resent the gods however. He failed in his quest, but he managed to return with one of Ladon's claws. It does not appear, but it is said by Luke that he was scarred while attempting to pick apples (a quest he was sent on by Hermes) from the tree by the dragon Ladon. Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief There are many variations of this myth but the most commonly accepted one is that Perseus eventually left after realising he couldn't best Atlas. Atlas, after picking up the apples realised that he had a chance to escape but Hercules managed to trick Atlas into holding up the sky again while he made his escape. After Hercules arrives at the Garden, he realises he could not best the dragon Ladon so he convinces Atlas to pick the apples for him while Hercules held up the sky. Hercules is sent to steal one of the apples in the garden as one of his labours. In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Gaea's wedding gift to Hera was described as a 'young apple tree bearing solid gold fruit'. In fact, if it were not for the dragon coiled around the tree, he wanted to step right up and pluck an apple. Percy also stated that he could not describe the reason for the appeal of the apples, but as soon as he smelled their fragrance, he knew that a single bite from one of them would be the most delicious thing that he had ever tasted. Stepping stones of polished black marble led round either side of a five-storey-tall apple tree, every bough glittering with golden apples of immortality. The grass shimmered with silvery evening light, and the flowers were such brilliant colors they almost glowed in the dark. In The Titan's Curse, Percy described the Garden of the Hesperides as the most beautiful place he had ever seen. Then he found Atlas and convinced him to give him the sky for a little so Atlas went to see his daughters and they gave him a golden apple. First, he flattered the Hesperides, but they didn't give him the apples. Hercules' 11th labor was to retrieve the Golden Apples from The Garden of the Hesperides. Hercules retrieved one of the Golden Apples. The golden apples were called the 'Apples of Immortality', and it was believed that whoever ate of them will become immortal. Not trusting them, Hera also placed in the garden a never-sleeping, hundred-headed dragon named Ladon as an additional safeguard. The Hesperides were given the task of tending to the grove, but occasionally plucked from it themselves. The apples were planted from the fruit branches that Gaea gave to her as a wedding gift when Hera accepted Zeus.

Hesperides apple