Greek · Hesperid
Aegle
Aegle is one of the Hesperides, the nymphs of evening who guard the golden apples in a garden at the world's western edge.
Story shape
Gold at the edge of daylight
Ancient writers do not agree on every name or parent in the Hesperides' family. Aegle belongs to a tradition that gives these evening nymphs individual identities, her name suggesting radiance.
Their garden holds the golden apples sought by Heracles. In Apollonius' Argonautica, the sisters also encounter the exhausted Argonauts after the hero has passed through. The remote orchard becomes a place where another company of travellers finds help.
Aegle brings together two kinds of abundance: fruit that belongs to the gods, and water that sustains a mortal journey. Her brightness belongs to evening rather than noon.
Ancient accounts
Tradition boundary
Greek nymphs are minor divinities tied to animate landscape: groves, springs, caves, mountains, and sea foam.