Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video we’re discussing the Lernaean Hydra.
The Lernaean Hydra was a monster who lived in the swamps of Lerna. It had a great serpentine body,
and from it, sprouted a mass of nine serpent heads, though some accounts described a
writhing tangle that numbered as many as 50 or 100. Each head was extremely lethal,
possessing swiftness, strangling strength, and enough venom to glaze over a man’s eyes with death
many times over. Though this description alone makes the Hydra a formidable foe,
one of the most powerful monsters in Greek mythology, its description alone
really only scratches the surface: one couldn't begin to grasp the true peril the hydra presented
until they faced it. Each time a head was destroyed, whether severed,
leaving only a stump, or bludgeoned, leaving only a gory mess, two more heads immediately grew back
from the ruin of the old. Furthermore, the central head was immortal, meaning it couldn’t be killed.
It comes as no surprise that the Hydra was such a daunting foe when you consider its parentage.
Typhon, the most powerful monster in Greek mythology, was the father, and Echidna, sometimes
known by the moniker, Mother of Monsters, was the mother. Other nightmarish creatures you could
consider to be the Hydra’s siblings included: the chimera, Cerberus, the Hound of Hades, the Sphinx,
orthos, a two-headed dog, Geryon, a tripled-bodied giant, and the Nemean Lion.
Hercules’ second labour was to travel to the swamps of Lerna and slay the Hydra.
He brought with him his young cousin, Iolaos, who would prove himself to be much more than a simple
companion dragged along to make Hercules’ life more comfortable; no Iolaos would be indispensable
to the completion of this labour. After entangling himself with the hydra and destroying many heads,
it quickly became apparent that this approach was counter-productive,
for all this yielded was a proliferation of new heads, thirsty for blood, ravenous for
flesh. It was Iolaus who proposed cauterizing each stump the moment a head was lopped off
or reduced to pulp. This proved effective, and the number of heads Hercules fought off dwindled.
The situation, though, reached a new level of danger when a giant crab rose up from
the depths of the swamp, proceeding to attack Hercules, who was now forced to contend with two
large pincers, an unwelcome addition to the already nearly-impossible challenge
of fending off the sinuous attacks of a multitude of snake heads.
Hercules stomped the crab to death, and the hydra fell once all of its heads were severed
and all of the stumps cauterized. But still, because it was immortal,
the last head still squirmed with life even after being separated from its body.
Unable to kill it, the best Hercules could do was bury it,
piling large rocks on top of it. Both the crab and the hydra were set in the sky as constellations.
After the hydra was killed - or as close to being killed as it could be - Hercules cut
the monster open and dipped his arrows in its lethal venom, and these poison-tipped arrows
would prove invaluable in subsequent labours, as was the case when Hercules killed Geryon,
the triple-bodied giant, with but a single draw of his bow.
Undoubtedly, this labour was one of the - if not the - most dangerous accomplished by Hercules,
but despite our hero risking life and limb, Eurystheus, the king dispensing the labours whom
Hercules was forced to submit to, would not count the slaying of the Hydra towards Hercules penance,
which was to complete labours so as to atone for the murder of his wife and three children - this
atrocity committed by Hercules while his mind was bewitched by a spell of madness. The reason
given for this labour not being counted was that Hercules didn’t overcome the hydra by himself,
but was, rather, able to do so only with the help of his cousin, disqualifying the achievement.