Meet with us the mystical Hydra of Lerna. A creature of great power that appears in great legends and has become an icon.
Hydra Of Lerna
The Hydra of Lerna was a monster in Greek mythology. It had many heads and every time someone cut off one of them, two more heads would pop out of the stump. It was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, the father and mother of all monsters respectively. He lived on Lake Lerna in the region of Argolid in the Peloponnese.
what is the Hydra?
The Hydra is an immortal, many-headed serpent that haunted the marshes of Lake Lerna in ancient Greece. Although the monster claimed hundreds of victims, it is most famous for its battle against the hero Herakles.
Physical description
The Hydra was literally several times more ferocious than its closest relative: the snake. This swamp monster was not only larger than any known snake, but had between six and one hundred heads.
Each of the Hydra’s heads was supported by a long neck, so the heads could coil around each other or spread out and attack challengers from all angles. Eventually, all those necks came together into a fat tail, which trailed along the ground behind the monster. Some show the tail forking at the end into two or more small tails.
Personality
The Hydra had a nasty personality that matched its hideous appearance. From birth, the goddess Hera trained the monster to attack and destroy anything that fell under her gaze. It destroyed innocent villages around its home, Lake Lerna, devouring hundreds of victims.
When the Hydra was not filling its stomach with human flesh, it slept in a deep swamp cave (rumored to be one of the entrances to the underworld). Only hunger or rage could drive the beast from its lair; otherwise, it was mindless and lazy.
Origin of the birth of the lerna monster
The Hydra was the offspring of the first two Greek monsters: Typhon, an immortal giant, and Echidna, half-woman and half-serpent. Together, they gave the Hydra its immortality, its monstrous form and its evil disposition.
Hera, wife of Zeus, adopted the Hydra as a baby. She raised the creature with the intention of using it to destroy Herakles, finding a home for it, protecting it from harm and feeding its destructive urges.
When Heracles finally encountered the Hydra, all of Hera’s training was put to the test. The monster nearly killed the hero. He only managed to kill it with the help of his resourceful nephew, Iolaus.
Special Abilities
It is no mistake that Hera chose the Hydra of Lerna as one of the Eleven Tasks of Heraclitus. This monster had powers that could easily send a hero to the underworld.
First, the Hydra’s blood was full of super-toxic poison. Some men died simply by approaching the beast’s lair and smelling its poisonous blood and breath. Even after the Hydra was slaughtered, its blood was used as a weapon that felled many strong fighters.
Second, the Hydra was immortal and had regenerative abilities. The monster had an immortal head, which was protected by the other, deadly heads that grew around it. If any of the mortal heads were severed, two or more heads would sprout from the monster’s body to replace the loss. The beast could only be killed by cutting off the immortal head, an almost impossible text.
Herakles against the Hydra
Herakles was the son of Zeus, but he was not the son of Zeus’ wife, Hera. Shortly after Heracles was born, Hera learned of Zeus’ infidelity and demanded that she banish her son from Mount Olympus. But even that punishment was not enough for Hera. As she watched the golden boy grow into a young Greek hero, she became increasingly enraged.
When an oracle told Herakles that, in order to obtain immortality, he must complete twelve impossible tasks, Hera saw a golden opportunity to get rid of the boy once and for all. She adopted the Hydra and began training it to be one of the most fearsome monsters in Greece, a monster that would be nearly impossible to kill. Sure enough, slaying the Hydra became one of Herakles’ twelve tasks, much to Hera’s delight.
Heracles entered the swamp of Lerna with his mouth and nose covered with thick cloth, so as not to breathe in the poisonous odor of the monster. He crawled into the cave surrounding the fountain of Amimone, where the monster slept, and shot burning arrows at it. After a few areas, the Hydra ran out of the cave, ready to tear its assailant to shreds. But Heracles was also ready.
He began to cut off the Hydra’s head as fast as he could. Although the monster screamed in pain, the wounds were far from fatal. In fact, they only made the Hydra stronger, as several new heads grew to replace each of the ones that were lost.
After a few minutes of bloody battle, Heracles realized that he could never defeat the Hydra alone. In desperation, he called for his nephew Iolaus, who brought a torch and began burning the bloody stumps as fast as Heracles cut off the Hydra’s head. The seared stumps prevented heads of cattle from growing.
When Hera saw that Heracles and Iolaus had found a way to kill their monster, she was so angry that she sent a giant crab to distract Heracles. He crushed this under his foot. At last, Heracles made his way to the single, immortal head of the Hydra. He cut it off with a golden sword, which was given to him by Athena, and buried it under a huge rock.
Although he had slaughtered the horrible Hydra, some people claimed that Herakles had not completed the task because he had asked Iolaus for help.
The avenged Hydra
After Heracles killed the Hydra of Lerna, he dipped some of his arrows in the monster’s toxic blood; he used these arrows to kill new enemies, who had no chance against the poison.
A centaur named Nessus was one of the enemies that Heracles killed with his poison arrows. As he lay dying, Nessus beckoned to Herakles’ wife and told her that her blood spilled by her husband could be used as a love charm that would make her husband faithful to her for life. In fact, Nessus’ blood was stained with Hydra poison and had become a deadly weapon in itself.
Unbeknownst to him, Heracles’ wife dipped his clothes in the blood and gave them to him to wear. As soon as the cloth touched Heracles’ skin, the Hydra’s poison began to burn his flesh, and it burned until the hero died. Thus, in the end, the Hydra claimed the life of Heracles in exchange for its own.
Cultural representation
In writing, the Hydra first appears in Hesiod’s Theogony, which dates from around 700 B.C. Paintings and pottery suggest that the legend of the Hydra may be even older than this, possibly stemming from Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian religions.
After Hesiod introduced the Hydra of Lerna, it was embellished by the likes of Ovid, Seneca, Plato and Virgil. Originally, the serpent had six heads, and none of them regenerated, but as the story grew in fame, the monster grew in horror.
Modern appearances
Today, the Hydra is not known as an independent character, but it is still the first monster that comes to mind when people think of “Hercules” and his trials.
Interestingly, the Hydra an unnatural creature; it has made a name for itself in the natural sciences. In astronomy, constellations and technological tools have been named after the monster, and in taxonomy, a whole genus of tentacled sea creatures are named after the monster.
