Lerna
Lerna is a historical coastal town located in the Peloponnese region of Greece, approximately six miles south of Argos and at the base of Mount Pontinos. The site is notable for its numerous springs, including the significant Amymone spring, which is traditionally viewed as an entrance to the underworld. Lerna has archaeological significance, featuring a Neolithic settlement and remnants of an early Bronze Age palace. In ancient times, it was home to shrines dedicated to various deities, including Demeter, Dionysus, and Poseidon.
Lerna is perhaps best known for its connection to Greek mythology, specifically the second labor of Heracles, where he battles the mythical Hydra. This creature, described as a water serpent with multiple heads, resided at the Amymone spring. The tale recounts how Heracles, with the assistance of his nephew Iolaus, ultimately defeated the Hydra by cauterizing its necks to prevent the regeneration of its heads. The myth adds a rich layer to Lerna's historical identity, making it an important site of cultural and mythological significance in ancient Greece.
Subject Terms
Lerna
(Myli, `the Mills’)
A coastal town six miles south of Argos in the Peloponnese, at the foot of Mount Pontinos which runs out into a foreland. Lerna possessed a dozen springs (surrounded by marshes), including the source of the Pontinos stream, and the Amymone spring feeding the Halcyonian Lake (regarded as an entrance to the underworld), and the spring of Amphiaraus. A hill adjoining the marshland contained a Neolithic settlement and a palatial early Bronze Age residence. In historic times the place was known for its shrines of Demeter Prosymna, Dionysus Saotes (with accompanying Mystery cult), and Poseidon. The foundations of a small Greek temple can be seen on a small hill adjoining the Amphiaraus spring.
But Lerna was chiefly famous for the second of Heracles' mythological Labors, in which he overcame the Hydra, a water serpent with the body of a god and a hundred (or five hundred) heads, of which one was said to be immortal. The monster lived at the Amymone spring beneath a plane tree, and was allied with a giant crab. When Heracles tried to kill the Hydra with his sword, he had to call his nephew Iolaus to cauterize the stumps of its necks with a firebrand, because whenever one head was lopped off two others immediately grew up. After disposing of the mortal heads, he chopped off the immortal one and buried it under a rock on the road from Lerna to Eleusis. He then cut open the serpent's body and took possession of its poison in order to anoint his arrows.