Editing Lernaean Hydra

{{Short description|Snake-monster in Greek and Roman mythology}}
{{About|the mythological monster|other uses|Hydra (disambiguation){{!}}Hydra}}
{{Infobox mythical creature
| name     = Lernaean Hydra
| image    = Gustave Moreau - Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra - 1964.231 - Art Institute of Chicago.jpg
| caption  = [[Gustave Moreau]]'s 19th-century depiction of the Hydra, influenced by [[The Beast (Revelation)|the Beast]] from the [[Book of Revelation]]
| Folklore = [[Greek mythology]]
| Family   = Child of [[Typhon]] and [[Echidna (mythology)|Echidna]]
| Country  = [[Ancient Greece|Greece]]
| Region   = [[Lerna]]
}}

The '''Lernaean Hydra''' or '''Hydra of Lerna''' ({{langx|grc|Λερναῖα ὕδρα|Lernaîa Húdrā}}), more often known simply as the '''Hydra''', is a [[snake|serpent]]ine [[lake monster]] in [[Greek mythology]] and [[Roman mythology]]. Its lair was the lake of [[Lerna]] in the [[Argolid]], which was also the site of the myth of the [[Danaïdes]]. Lerna was reputed to be an entrance to the [[Hades|Underworld]],{{sfnp|Kerenyi|1959|p=143}} and archaeology has established it as a sacred site older than [[Mycenaean civilization|Mycenaean]] [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]]. In the canonical Hydra myth, the monster is killed by [[Heracles]] ([[Hercules]]) as the second of his [[Labours of Hercules|Twelve Labors]].{{sfn|Ogden|2013|p=26}}

According to [[Hesiod]], the Hydra was the offspring of [[Typhon]] and [[Echidna (mythology)|Echidna]].<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D306 310 ff.]. See also Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' Preface & [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae4.html#151 151]</ref> It had poisonous breath and blood so virulent that even its scent was deadly.<ref>According to Hyginus, ''[[Fabulae]]'' [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html#30 30], the Hydra "was so poisonous that she killed men with her breath, and if anyone passed by when she was sleeping, he breathed her tracks and died in the greatest torment."</ref> The Hydra possessed [[Polycephaly|many heads]], the exact number of which varies according to the source. Later versions of the Hydra story add a [[Regeneration (biology)|regeneration]] feature to the monster: for every head chopped off, the Hydra would regrow two heads.{{sfn|Ogden|2013|p=29–30}} Heracles required the assistance of his nephew [[Iolaus]] to cut off all of the monster's heads and burn the neck using a sword and fire.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LZstDwAAQBAJ&q=Lernaean+Hydra+Hercules+neck&pg=PA25|title=OCR Classical Civilisation GCSE Route 1: Myth and Religion|last1=Greenley|first1=Ben|last2=Menashe|first2=Dan|last3=Renshaw|first3=James|date=2017-08-24|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781350014886|language=en}}</ref>

==Development of the myth==
The oldest extant Hydra narrative appears in Hesiod's ''[[Theogony]]'', while the oldest images of the monster are found on a pair of bronze [[Fibula (brooch)|fibulae]] dating to c. 700 BC. In both these sources, the main motifs of the Hydra myth are already present: a multi-headed serpent that is slain by Heracles and [[Iolaus]]. While these fibulae portray a six-headed Hydra, its number of heads was first fixed in writing by [[Alcaeus of Mytilene|Alcaeus]] (c. 600 BC), who gave it nine heads. [[Simonides of Ceos|Simonides]], writing a century later, increased the number to fifty, while [[Euripides]], [[Virgil]], and others did not give an exact figure. [[Heraclitus the Paradoxographer]] rationalized the myth by suggesting that the Hydra would have been a single-headed snake accompanied by its offspring.{{sfn|Ogden|2013|p=27–29}}

Like the initial number of heads, the monster's capacity to regenerate lost heads varies with time and author. The first mention of this ability of the Hydra occurs with [[Euripides]], where the monster grew back a pair of heads for each one severed by Heracles. In the ''[[Euthydemus (dialogue)|Euthydemus]]'' of [[Plato]], Socrates likens Euthydemus and his brother Dionysidorus to a Hydra of a sophistical nature who grows two arguments for every one refuted. [[Palaephatus]], [[Ovid]], and [[Diodorus Siculus]] concur with Euripides, while [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] has the Hydra grow back three heads each time; the ''[[Suda]]'' does not give a number. Depictions of the monster dating to c. 500 BC show it with a double tail as well as multiple heads, suggesting the same regenerative ability at work, but no literary accounts have this feature.{{sfn|Ogden|2013|p=30}}

The Hydra had many parallels in [[ancient Near Eastern religion]]s. In particular, [[Sumerian religion|Sumerian]], [[Babylonian religion|Babylonian]], and [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion|Assyrian mythology]] celebrated the deeds of the [[List of war deities|war]] and [[List of hunting deities|hunting god]] [[Ninurta]], whom the ''[[Angim]]'' credited with slaying 11 monsters on an expedition to the mountains, including a [[seven-headed serpent]] (possibly identical with the [[Mushmahhu]]) and [[Bashmu]], whose constellation (despite having a single Head) was later associated by the [[Greek astronomy|Greeks]] with the [[Hydra (constellation)|Hydra]]. The constellation is also sometimes associated in [[Babylonian astronomy|Babylonian]] contexts with [[Marduk]]'s dragon, the [[Mushhushshu]].

==Second Labor of Heracles==
[[File:Antonio del Pollaiolo - Ercole e l'Idra e Ercole e Anteo - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|alt=Hercules and the Hydra, c. 1475, Uffizi Gallery|[[Antonio del Pollaiuolo|Pollaiuolo]]'s ''Hercules and the Hydra'' ({{circa|lk=no|1475}}). [[Uffizi|Uffizi Gallery]], [[Florence]], [[Italy]]]]

[[Eurystheus]], the king of the [[Tiryns]], sent Heracles (or Hercules) to slay the Hydra, which [[Hera]] had raised just to slay Heracles. Upon reaching the swamp near [[Lerna|Lake Lerna]], where the Hydra dwelt, Heracles covered his mouth and nose with a cloth to protect himself from the poisonous fumes. He shot flaming arrows into the Hydra's lair, the spring of [[Amymone]], a deep cave from which it emerged only to terrorize neighboring villages.{{sfnp|Kerenyi|1959|p=144}} He then confronted the Hydra, wielding either a harvesting [[sickle]] (according to some early vase-paintings), a sword, or his famed club. Heracles then attempted to cut off the Hydra's heads but each time that he did so, one or two more heads (depending on the source) would grow back in its place. The Hydra was invulnerable as long as it retained at least one head.

The struggle is described by the mythographer ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]]'':<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.5.2 2.5.2].</ref> realizing 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 firebrand to scorch the neck stumps after each decapitation. Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus [[Cauterization|cauterized]] the open stumps. Seeing that Heracles was winning the struggle, [[Hera]] sent a giant crab to distract him. He crushed it under his mighty foot. The Hydra's one immortal head was cut off with a golden sword given to Heracles by Athena. Heracles placed the head&mdash;still alive and writhing&mdash;under a great rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius,{{sfnp|Kerenyi|1959|p=144}} and dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood. Thus, his second task was complete.

The alternate version of this myth is that after cutting off one head he then dipped his sword in its neck and used its venom to burn each head so it could not grow back. Hera, upset that Heracles had slain the beast she raised to kill him, placed it in the dark blue vault of the sky as the [[constellation]] [[Hydra (constellation)|Hydra]]. She then turned the crab into the constellation [[Cancer (constellation)|Cancer]].

Heracles would later use arrows dipped in the Hydra's poisonous blood to kill other foes during his remaining labors, such as [[Stymphalian Birds]] and the giant [[Geryon]]. He later used one to kill the centaur [[Nessus (mythology)|Nessus]]; and Nessus' tainted blood was applied to the [[Tunic of Nessus]], by which the centaur had his posthumous revenge. Both [[Strabo]] and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] report that the stench of the river Anigrus in Elis, making all the fish of the river inedible, was reputed to be due to the Hydra's poison, washed from the arrows Heracles used on the centaur.<ref>[[Strabo]], 8.3.19</ref><ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], 5.5.9</ref>{{sfnp|Grimal|1986|p=219}}

When Eurystheus, the agent of Hera who was assigning [[The Twelve Labors]] to Heracles, found out that Iolaus had handed Heracles the firebrand, he declared that the labor had not been completed alone and as a result did not count toward the ten labors set for him. The mythic element is an equivocating attempt to resolve the submerged conflict between an ancient ten labors and a more recent twelve.

==Constellation==
{{main|Hydra (constellation)}}
[[File:Henry IV en Herculeus terrassant l Hydre de Lerne cad La ligue Catholique Atelier Toussaint Dubreuil circa 1600.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=Portrait d'Henri IV en Hercule terrassant l'hydre de Lerne, c. 1600, Louvre Museum|''Portrait of [[Henry IV of France|Henri IV]] as Hercules pinning the Hydra of Lerna'', an [[allegory]] of the [[Kingdom of Navarre|Navarrese]] king's [[French Wars of Religion#Conversion|defeat]] of the [[Catholic League (French)|Catholic League]] during the [[French Wars of Religion]]. Workshop of [[Toussaint Dubreuil]], {{circa|lk=no|1600}}.]]

Greek and Roman writers related that [[Hera]] placed the [[Hydra (constellation)|Hydra]] and [[Cancer (constellation)|crab]] as [[constellation]]s in the night sky after Heracles slew him.<ref>[[Eratosthenes]], ''Catasterismi''.</ref> When the sun is in the [[zodiacal sign|sign]] of [[Cancer (constellation)|Cancer]] ([[Latin]] for "The Crab"), the constellation Hydra has its head nearby. In fact, both constellations derived from the earlier [[Babylonian astronomy|Babylonian]] signs: [[Bashmu]] ("The Venomous Snake") and [[Alluttu]] ("The [[Crayfish]]").

==In art==<!--chronological order-->
<gallery>
File:Lernaean Hydra Getty Villa 83.AE.346.jpg|[[Cerveteri|Caeretan]] [[black-figure]] [[hydria]] (c.&nbsp;346 BC)
File:Mosaico Trabajos Hércules (M.A.N. Madrid) 02.jpg|Mosaic from [[Roman Spain]] (AD 26)
File:Artista mantovano, ercole e l'idra di lerna, argento, 1530s.JPG|Silver sculpture (1530s)
File:Hercules slaying the Hydra.jpg|Engraving (1) by [[Hans Sebald Beham]]
File:Gustave Moreau 003.jpg|[[Gustave Moreau]] (1861)
File:Singer Sargent, John - Hercules - 1921.jpg|[[John Singer Sargent]] (1921)
File:NIKOLAI TRIIK Võitlus hydraga.jpg|A modern version by [[Nikolai Triik]]
File:Medaillie General Erich Ludendorff 1914 FRZ EUE BERLIN.jpg|Reverse of a 1914 medal by Fritz Eue commemorating General [[Erich Ludendorff]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/8725 |title=Ludendorff |location=London |publisher=Imperial War Museum |access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref>
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Basilisk]]
* [[Feathered Serpent]]
* [[Horned Serpent]]
* [[King Ghidorah]]
* {{c|Prehistoric snakes |Prehistoric snakes}}
* [[Python (mythology)]]
* [[Scylla]]
* [[Snakes in mythology]]
* ''[[Titanoboa]]''
* [[Yamata no Orochi]]

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== General and cited references ==
* [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], ''Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]]; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. {{ISBN|0-674-99135-4}}. [http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* {{cite book
 | first = Walter | last = Burkert
 | author-link = Walter Burkert
 | title = Greek Religion
 | publisher = Harvard University Press
 | year = 1985
 }}
* {{cite book
 | first = Pierre | last = Grimal
 | author-link = Pierre Grimal
 | title = The Dictionary of Classical Mythology
 | publisher = E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc
 | year = 1986
 }}
* {{cite book
 | first = Jane Ellen | last = Harrison
 | author-link = Jane Ellen Harrison
 | title = Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion
 | year = 1903
 }}
* [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'', in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150823032802/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus, Gaius Julius]], [http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html ''The Myths of Hyginus'']. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
* {{cite book
 | first = Carl | last = Kerenyi
 | author-link = Carl Kerenyi
 | title = The Heroes of the Greeks
 | year = 1959
 }}
* {{Cite book |title=Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds |first=Daniel |last=Ogden |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9780199557325 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA26 }}
* {{cite book |last=Piccardi |first=Luigi |year=2005 |title=The head of the Hydra of Lerna (Greece) |publisher=Archaeopress, British Archaeological Reports, International Series N° 1337/2005, 179-186}}
* {{cite book
 | first1 = Carl |last1 = Ruck |author-link1=Carl Ruck
 | first2 = Danny |last2 = Staples |author-link2=Danny Staples
 | title = The World of Classical Myth
 | year = 1994
 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Lernaean Hydra}}
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Hydra (mythology) |display=Hydra |volume=14 |pages=33–34 |short=x}}
*{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/183011/Heracles-battling-the-Lernaean-Hydra-at-the-southern-entrance-to |title=Statue of Heracles battling the Lernaean Hydra at the southern entrance to the Hofburg (Imperial Palace) in Vienna|encyclopedia=Britannica Encyclopaedia}}
*{{cite web |url=http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=2926 |title=Statue of the Hydra battling Hercules at the Louvre |year=1525 |publisher=cartelen.louvre.fr}}

{{Labours of Heracles}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hydra, Lernaean}}
[[Category:Characters in Book VI of the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Dragons in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Labours of Hercules]]
[[Category:Legendary serpents]]
[[Category:Mythical many-headed creatures]]
[[Category:Mythological aquatic creatures]]
[[Category:Lake monsters]]