Lernaean Hydra
The Lernaean Hydra is a nine-headed serpent-like creature from Greek mythology, known for its deadly poison and regenerative abilities. Residing in the swampy region of Lerna, the hydra was nearly impossible to defeat; when one of its heads was severed, two more would grow back in its place, while its central head was immortal. The Greek hero Hercules faced the hydra as the second of his twelve labors, accompanied by his nephew Iolaus. During their battle, Hercules employed a strategy that involved using fire to cauterize the stumps of the severed heads to prevent regeneration. After defeating the hydra, Hercules buried its immortal head and dipped his arrows in its blood, making them incurable. Despite his victory, the labor was deemed invalid by King Eurystheus, who argued that Iolaus's assistance disqualified Hercules's achievement. In a twist of fate, the goddess Hera, who despised Hercules, immortalized the hydra as a constellation and placed the giant crab that assisted it among the stars as well. The hydra's legacy continues in literature and modern biology, where a freshwater invertebrate shares its name, noted for its regenerative properties.
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Lernaean Hydra
The Lernaean hydra is a nine-headed serpent-like creature from Greek mythology. According to myth, the beast breathed poison and lived in a swampy region of Greece known as Lerna. The hydra was considered nearly impossible to defeat. If one of its heads was cut off, two more grew back in its place, and its middle head was indestructible. The Greek hero Hercules was tasked with killing the hydra as one of his twelve labors. Hercules battled the creature and was able to defeat it with the help of his faithful nephew. The goddess Hera placed the hydra among the stars as a constellation after its death.
Background
According to myth, Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods, became captivated by the beautiful Alcmene, the mortal wife of King Amphitryon. While Amphitryon was away in battle, Zeus came to Alcmene disguised as her husband and slept with her. As a result, Alcmene became pregnant with a son. When the baby's birth was imminent, Zeus proclaimed that the next child born to a descendant of the hero Perseus would become king of Mycenae. Zeus intended that child to be his son with Alcmene, who was the granddaughter of Perseus.
Hera, Zeus's wife and queen of the gods, was angered by her husband's constant infidelities. To get revenge, she secretly prolonged Alcmene's labor and delayed the birth. Hera then ensured the next child born in the line of Perseus would be Eurystheus, the son of King Sthenelus. After Eurystheus was born, Alcmene gave birth to Hercules, but because of Zeus's proclamation, the birthright of rule went to Eurystheus.
Hera continued to despise Hercules as a reminder of Zeus's affair. She sent two snakes into his bed to try to kill him when he was an infant, but Hercules strangled the serpents with his bare hands. Hercules grew to become a great warrior. He married and had several children. One day, Hera drove Hercules into a temporary fit of madness, during which he accidently murdered his wife and children. When he regained his senses and saw what he had done, Hercules sought forgiveness from the god Apollo. Through his oracle, Apollo ordered Hercules to serve Eurystheus for twelve years.
Hercules had no love for his cousin Eurystheus, but he agreed to the sentence to earn his forgiveness. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to perform ten labors—seemingly impossible tasks that were beyond the abilities of most mortals. These labors included slaying the ferocious Nemean lion, stealing the cattle of the monster Geryon, and cleaning the vast, filthy stables of King Augeas in less than a day.
Overview
The second of Hercules's labors was to kill the deadly Lernaean hydra. The hydra was the offspring of the half-woman, half-snake Echidna and the giant serpent Typhon, who once tried to overthrow Zeus himself. Echidna and Typhon were considered the parents of all the world's monsters. The hydra lived in the swamps near Lerna, a seaside region in the southern peninsula of Greece. According to most legends, the serpent-like hydra had nine heads, though some myths increased that number to one hundred. When one of its heads was severed, two more grew back in its place. The creature's poisonous breath and blood were deadly, and its central head was immortal and could not be killed.
As Hercules set off to hunt and kill the hydra, he was accompanied by his nephew, Iolaus. Together, they tracked the creature to its lair by the springs of Amymone in Lerna. Hercules wrapped a cloth around his nose and mouth to protect himself from the monster's poisonous breath. To draw the creature out, he shot it with flaming arrows and seized it when it emerged from its den. The hydra coiled itself around Hercules's foot, trapping the hero in a vice-like grip.
Some legends say Hercules smashed the hydra's heads with his club; others say he used a sword or a scythe. As he destroyed each head, two more grew back to take its place. To make the fight even more difficult, Hera sent a giant crab to bite Hercules as he battled the hydra. Hercules crushed the crab with his foot and called to his nephew to come to his aid. Iolaus devised a plan to thrust a burning torch into each bloody stump after Hercules destroyed one of the creature's heads. The fire seared close the wound and prevented the head from regenerating.
When all but the last of the hydra's heads were destroyed, Hercules cut off the creature's immortal head, buried it by the roadside, and covered it with a large rock. He then slit the creature's body open and dipped his arrows in its blood so that wounds inflicted by them would be incurable. When Hercules returned in triumph to Eurystheus, the king declared the labor invalid because Hercules had received help from Iolaus. Eurystheus later said the labor of cleaning the Augean Stables was invalid, too, so Hercules was forced to perform twelve labors rather than the agreed-upon ten.
Hera maintained her hatred of Hercules throughout his life. To show her contempt, she immortalized the hydra in the heavens as the largest constellation in the sky. She also placed the giant crab there, where it became the constellation known as Cancer. The hydra appears in the first-century BCE epic The Aeneid by Roman poet Virgil. In the work, the hydra is one of the mythical beasts guarding the entrance to the underworld. In modern biology, a hydra a freshwater invertebrate that resembles a tiny, multi-tentacled tube. Like its mythological namesake, the hydra's cells can regenerate, leading scientists to believe the creatures may not age.
Bibliography
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