Once upon a time, when the Ancient Roman Goddess, Hera, married the equally Ancient Roman God, Zeus, she was given a beautiful apple tree. What made this apple tree so beautiful was that the fruit it produced was made of solid gold! Hera was quite pleased with her gift but knew that she would have to protect it from prying eyes and hands.
So Hera planted her tree in the lands ruled by Atlas. She set Atlas' daughters, the Hesperides, as guardians for the apple tree and charged them with the grave duty of letting no one steal the precious fruit.
Unfortunately Hera's choice of labor was not a wise one because no sooner had she left, than the Hesperides began to eat their fill of the sweet golden apples. Hera was furious, but blamed herself for placing such an important task in the hands of such unworthy women. She dismissed the Hesperides and replaced them with a mighty dragon named, Ladon.
Ladon was a magnificent beast. He was a giant, over 300 meters from tip to tail with a wingspan of nearly 500 meters. His scales gleamed a bright green that reflected the golden shine of the apples in the tree above him. His teeth and talons were sharp as razors and hard as diamonds. And to look into his eyes was to peer into the depths of the Heavens and the ends of the Earth. Clearly, Hera had chosen her guardian well this time. Ladon curled up around the base of the apple tree and would let no one, save Hera herself, pass.
But alas, Ladon's reign as guardian did not last long. For soon the mighty Hercules came to the tree seeking an apple as one of his twelve labors. He saw Ladon laying by the tree and knew that it would be quite a challenge to get past such a creature. But Hercules was cunning, and a demi-god, and he had a plan. He brazenly walked up to the tree and called out, "Mighty Serpent! I have come for an apple. Will you let me by or must we fight?"
Well of course, Ladon was not just going to give up his job for some nobody like Hercules. "Hah!" He replied, "Who are you to think I would let you by? And if you wish to fight, forget it. I could burn you to a crisp before you blinked and eye."
Hercules heard the dragon's response and smiled to himself. He knew he could take advantadge of such pride and so he said, "I don't know. You're not so large, or so magnificient as the other monsters I have bested."
This enraged Ladon and he reared back on his hind legs, puffed out his chest and prepared to let loose a stream of flames that would destroy Hercules where he stood. But Hercules was ready for this and quickly drew his bow, nocked a posioned arrow and let the shaft fly. The shot proved true and struck Ladon in his only vulnerable spot, the joint between his armored body and scaly forearm. Pierced and posioned the dragon hung midair for a minute before collapsing forward and hitting the ground with a tremendous crash.
The jolt of the giant body travelled all the way to Mount Olympus where Hera was residing. She raced to the site of her beloved tree and it's guardian but she was too late and Hercules had already stolen the fruit and escaped. Hera wept for the slain dragon and carefully took him into her arms. She reached up, past the apple-bearing branches and gently laid Ladon in the sky where his bright scales would shine forever more as the constellation, "Draco".