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In Greek mythology, the 'Lernaean Hydra' (Greek: Λερναία Ὕδρα) was an ancient nameless serpent-like chthonic water beast that possessed numerous heads— the poets mention more heads than the vase-painters could paint— and poisonous breath (Hyginus, 30). The Hydra of Lerna was killed by Heracles as one of his Twelve Labours. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, though archaeology has borne out the myth that the sacred site was older even than the Mycenaean city of Argos, for Lerna was the site of the myth of the Danaids. Beneath the waters was an entrance to the Underworld, and the Hydra was its guardian (Kerenyi 1959, p. 143).
The Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna (''Theogony'', 313), noisome offspring of the earth goddess, Gaia. It was said to be the sibling of the Nemean Lion, the Chimaera and Cerberus.

Contents

The second labour of Heracles: The Lernaean Hydra

The battle

Constellation

Iolaus

After the Hydra

Cultural depictions of the Hydra in the Christian era

Sources

External links

The second labour of Heracles: The Lernaean Hydra

The battle

Upon reaching the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelt, Heracles covered his mouth and nose with a cloth to protect himself from the poisonous fumes and fired flaming arrows into its lair, the spring of Amymone, to draw it out. He then confronted it, wielding a harvesting sickle in some early vase-paintings; Ruck and Staples (p. 170) have pointed out that the chthonic creature's reaction was botanical: upon cutting off each of its heads he found that two grew back, an expression of the hopelessness of such a struggle for any but the hero, Heracles.

The details of the confrontation are explicit in Apollodorus (2.5.2): realising that he could not defeat the Hydra in this way, Heracles called on his nephew Iolaus for help. His nephew then came upon the idea (possibly inspired by Athena) of using a burning firebrand to scorch the neck stumps after decapitation, and handed him the blazing brand. Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus burned the open stump leaving the hydra dead; its one immortal head Heracles placed under a great rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius (Kerenyi1959 p 144), and dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood, and so his second task was complete. The alternative to this is that after cutting off one head he dipped his sword in it and used its venom to burn each head so it couldn't grow back.
The Greek word for ''bow'', which is ''toxon'', is closely related to the Greek word for ''poison'', which is ''toxis'', thus the poison arrows that Heracles created from the Hydra's blood. Associations with the Nemaean lion may derive from recreating the surrounding narrative to suit an order in which the tale of the Hydra follows that of the lion.

Constellation

Mythographers relate that the Lernaean Hydra and the crab were put into the sky after Heracles slew them.
In an alternative version, Hera's crab was at the site to bite his feet and bother him, hoping to cause his death. Hera set it in the Zodiac to follow the Lion (Eratosthenes, ''Catasterismi'')
When the sun is in the sign of Cancer, the constellation Hydra has its head nearby. Also close by, beneath the sun, is the constellation of Cancer, the crab.

Iolaus

When Eurystheus, the agent of ancient Hera who was assigning to Heracles The Twelve Labours, found out that it was Heracles' nephew who had handed him the firebrand, he declared that the labour had not been completed alone and as a result did not count towards the ten labours set for him. The mythic element is an equivocating attempt to resolve the submerged conflict between an ancient ten Labours and a more recent twelve.

After the Hydra

Heracles later used an arrow dipped in the Hydra's poison blood to kill the centaur Nessus; and Nessus's tainted blood applied to the Tunic of Nessus eventually killed Heracles himself.

Cultural depictions of the Hydra in the Christian era

★ Heracles's contest with the Hydra is represented in many paintings and sculptures, including several the Musée du Louvre.

Sources

★ Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, , Jane Ellen, Harrison, , 1903,

★ The Greek Myths, , Robert, Graves, , 1955,

★ The Heroes of the Greeks, , Carl, Kerenyi, , 1959,

★ Greek Religion, , Walter, Burkert, Harvard University Press, 1985,

★ The World of Classical Myth, Ruck, Carl and Staples, Danny, , , , 1994,

External links

★ Statue of the Hydra battling Hercules at the Louvre