Lerna in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Lerna

9 passages from 4 ancient authors that tell of Lerna, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Lerna was a region in the Peloponnese in Greece, which was the backdrop for one of the Labours of Heracles in Greek mythology. It was the place where ... For the story in one place, read our article on Lerna.

Apollodorus (2)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 2.5.1–6The Labours of Heracles (1-6): the Nemean Lion to the Stymphalian BirdsHeracles goes to Tiryns and serves Eurystheus, who sets him labours. He strangles the Nemean lion, kills the Lernaean hydra with Iolaus's help, takes the Cerynitian hind alive, and captures the Erymanthian boar after the fight with the centaurs at Pholus's cave, in which Chiron is wounded. He then cleans the stables of Augeas by diverting two rivers, and scares off the Stymphalian birds with Athena's castanets. Eurystheus refuses to count the hydra and the stables, because Iolaus helped and Augeas paid a wage.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 2.1.1–5Inachus, Io and the DanaidsThe line of Inachus of Argos runs through Phoroneus and Apis to Argus the All-seeing, whom Hermes kills while he guards Io, whom Zeus has turned into a cow. Io wanders to Egypt and bears Epaphus, whose descendants include the twins Belus and Agenor. Belus's twin sons Aegyptus and Danaus quarrel over the kingdom, Danaus flees to Argos with his fifty daughters, and they are married to Aegyptus's sons and kill them on the wedding night, all but Hypermnestra, who spares Lynceus.

Aeschylus (1)

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 609–686Second episode: Io tells her storyPrometheus tells Io who he is, that he gave fire to mankind, and that Zeus and Hephaestus bound him, but he will not say why he is punished. At the Chorus' urging she tells how dreams urged her to go to the meadow of Lerna to meet Zeus, how her father Inachus received oracles that told him to cast her out, and how she was changed into a cow and pursued by Argus and by the gadfly.

Pausanias (5)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.36.1–8Hermionis to Asine and Lerna: Halice, Mases, Didymi and the fall of AsinePausanias follows the roads from Hermion through the deserted city of Halice, between Mount Pron and Cuckoo Mountain, to Mases, Cape Struthus, the Bolei and Didymi with its sanctuaries. He then describes the Argive district of Asine, and tells how the Argives under Eratus destroyed it after the Asinaeans joined the Spartan king Nicander. He ends with the roads to Lerna, the sanctuary of the Dioscuri, the place where Pluto descended, and Mount Pontinus.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.38.1–7Temenium, Nauplia and the Thyreatis: the eastern coast of ArgolisPausanias follows the coast from Lerna to Temenium, with its sanctuaries and the tomb of Temenus, and to deserted Nauplia, with Hera’s yearly bathing in the Canathus spring. He also notes Genesium, Apobathmi where Danaus landed, and the Thyreatis, where three hundred Argives and Spartans fought and the Lacedaemonians took the district. He ends with villages including Eva and Polemocrates’ sanctuary, and Mount Parnon with the Hermes stones marking the border of Laconia.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.4.1–7Corinth: Athena the Bridler, the kings of Corinth and the road up to Acro-CorinthNear the tomb of Medea’s children is the sanctuary of Athena the Bridler, which leads Pausanias to Bellerophon and Pegasus and to the lineage of Corinth’s kings from Sisyphus to the Dorian Aletes, the Bacchids and the tyrant Cypselus. He describes the theatre, the Daedalic Hercules, the spring Lerna and the temples of Zeus and Asclepius, and the shrines of Isis, Serapis, the Mother of the Gods, the Fates, Demeter and Bunaean Hera on the way up to Acro-Corinth.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.24.1–7Argos: the acropolis Larisa, Zeus with three eyes and the road to TegeaPausanias describes the acropolis Larisa and its sanctuaries of Hera, Apollo Diradiotes with his woman oracle, Athena the Sharp-sighted, and Larisian Zeus. The wooden Zeus with three eyes, once Priam’s, prompts his explanation that one Zeus rules heaven, sea and the underworld. He then follows the road to Tegea past Mount Lycone and the sanctuary of Artemis, the springs of the Erasinus on Mount Chaon, Cenchreae with its war graves, and the ruins of Hysiae.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.37.1–6Lerna: the sacred grove, Philammon’s mysteries, the Hydra and the Alcyonian LakeThe grove at Lerna runs from Mount Pontinus to the sea between the rivers Pontinus and Amymone, with images of Demeter and Dionysus and a sanctuary of Athena founded by Danaus. Pausanias describes the Lernaean mysteries and how Arrhiphon showed a supposed Philammon text to be spurious, the plane-tree and spring of Amymone where the Hydra was bred, and the bottomless Alcyonian Lake, through which Dionysus is said to have descended to fetch Semele.

Nonnus of Panopolis (1)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 25.194–270Book 25: Heracles compared; the poet turns back to the warThe poet measures the labours of Heracles (the Lernaean hydra, the deer, the Cretan bull, Geryon and the rest) against the exploits of Dionysos and finds them small. He asks Homer's pardon, says he will not compare Dionysos with Achilles, and prays for inspiration to return to the Indian war.