Lernaean Hydra

The Lernaean Hydra was a many-headed water-serpent of Greek mythology that lived in the swamp of Lerna in the Argolid. When one of its heads was cut off, others grew in its place. Killing it was the second labour of Heracles, which he performed with the help of his nephew Iolaus. Afterwards Heracles dipped his arrows in its poison (Hesiod, Theogony 313–318; Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2).

Parents and Origin

Hesiod makes the Hydra a child of Typhaon (Typhon) and Echidna, and so a sibling of Orthus, the dog of Geryon, and of Cerberus. He adds that the white-armed goddess Hera brought her up, in anger at the strength of Heracles (Hesiod, Theogony 306–315). Apollodorus says only that the creature was bred in the swamp of Lerna and used to come out into the plain to ravage the cattle and the countryside (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2).

The number of heads varies. Apollodorus gives her nine heads, eight mortal and the middle one immortal (Library 2.5.2). Diodorus says a hundred necks grew from a single body, each with a serpent’s head (Diodorus 4.11.5). Euripides calls her the “ten-thousand-headed” hound of Lerna, which Heracles burned out before smearing his arrows with its venom (Euripides, Heracles 419–424). Pausanias thought that the Hydra had only one head, and that the poet Peisander gave her many to make the beast more frightful (Pausanias 2.37.4).

Heracles meets The Lernaean Hydra

Heracles had been driven mad by Hera and had killed his children by Megara; the oracle at Delphi told him to live at Tiryns and serve Eurystheus for twelve years, and to carry out the labours that the king commanded (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.12). Eurystheus ordered him, as a second labour, to kill the Hydra (Library 2.5.2).

Heracles drove to Lerna in a chariot with Iolaus, halted the horses, and found the Hydra on a hill beside the springs of the Amymone, where it had its den. He forced it out of the lair by shooting burning arrows at it, then seized and held it. Pausanias writes that a plane tree grows at the source of the Amymone, under which the Hydra was said to have been bred (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2; Pausanias 2.37.4).

One head off, two heads Grow!

The Hydra wound itself around one of Heracles’ feet, and he could not make headway by smashing its heads with his club, because as soon as one head was crushed, two grew in its place (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2). Diodorus puts it the same way: where a head was cut off, the place put forth two others, and the monster was considered invincible (Diodorus 4.11.5).

Iolaus Helps Heracles

Heracles called for help on Iolaus. Iolaus set fire to part of the nearby wood and burned the roots of the heads with the brands, so that they could not sprout again (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2). Diodorus says that Heracles ordered Iolaus to sear with a burning brand the part that had been cut off, to stop the flow of blood (Diodorus 4.11.6). Hesiod says that Heracles killed the Hydra with the help of Iolaus, by the counsels of Athena (Hesiod, Theogony 316–318). In Euripides’ Ion, the chorus, looking at the carvings of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, sees the son of Zeus killing the Lernaean Hydra with a golden sickle while Iolaus lifts a flaming torch beside him (Euripides, Ion 190–200).

Hera Helps The Lernaean Hydra

A huge crab came to help the Hydra and bit Heracles on the foot; he killed it (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2). Hyginus says the crab sprang from the swamp and seized his foot, and that Heracles, enraged, killed it (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.23).

The Immortal Head

Once the other heads were dealt with, Heracles cut off the immortal head, buried it, and put a heavy rock on top of it, beside the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2).

The Venomous Blood

Heracles slit open the body of the Hydra and dipped his arrows in its gall (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2). Diodorus says he dipped the arrow-heads in the venom so that the wounds they made would be incurable (Diodorus 4.11.6). Pausanias, who doubted the many heads, accepted that the poison was so strong that Heracles treated his arrow-points with the gall (Pausanias 2.37.4). This poison played a part in the death of Heracles. In Sophocles, the centaur Nessus, wounded by one of these arrows, tells Deianira to keep the blood from his wound, “where the offspring of the Lernaean Hydra dyed the arrows”, as a charm to keep her husband’s love, and the blood is later smeared on the robe that Deianira sends to Heracles (Sophocles, Trachiniae 572–577, 580, 689–693).

Eurystheus Does Not Count the Labour

Eurystheus declared that this labour should not be counted among the ten, because Heracles had not overcome the Hydra by himself but with the help of Iolaus (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.2).

The Hydra constellation

Hera, who had reared the Hydra (Hesiod, Theogony 314–315), rewarded the crab: according to Hyginus she set it among the stars as the constellation Cancer, so that it would be one of the twelve signs of the zodiac (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.23). The constellation Hydra is explained differently by Hyginus, not as the Lernaean monster but as the water-snake that Apollo placed under the Cup and the Raven, to keep the thirsty raven from drinking (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.40).

The Hydra Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 306–318. Apollodorus, Library 2.4.12, 2.5.2. Diodorus Siculus 4.11.5–6. Pausanias 2.37.4. Euripides, Heracles 419–424; Ion 190–200. Sophocles, Trachiniae 572–577. Hyginus, Astronomica 2.23, 2.40.

See Also: Labours of Heracles, Heracles, Hera, Eurystheus, Typhon, Echidna, Iolaus, Cerberus, Shirt of Nessus