The first reason for the choice of Esperide comes from the greek mythology, where the Hesperides were guardians of golden apples. It was a gift from Hera, protected by a thousand-headed dragon. Herakles had to steal these apples for its antepenultian challenge, and managed to have Atlas do that on his behalf.
Note that one can find golden apples in the norsk mythology too, where theses apples, kept by Isdunn and distributed to the scandinavian pantheon of Asgard (Thor, Odinn, Balder, etc.) are supposed to extend the life of their eater.
Some Hesperides links:
In spoken French, one can hardly distinguish between Esperide and Hesperides.
Just for the story, there used to be, a long long time ago, a video game named Starcommand, when PC's top resolution was CGA. This awesome game let the player wander in the deep space, thanks to the crew he trained and the ship he bought, while trying to fullfill the mission that the Federation's headquarters assigned to him. There were roleplay elements, exploration ones, tactical combat maps in space (between starships), in ships (when boarding to capture), confrontation on planet surface, mazes and even a space bar with drunken lizzards.
This game was really fun, and one of the classes a character of the crew could choose, among pilot, astro-gunner and scout, was Esper. The esper had psychic powers, a bit like a wizard, and could help a lot.
In French and in some other languages, the etymological root esper is linked with the notion of hope. What could be more beautiful than that?
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