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Encyclopedia Britannica



HYDRA (watersnake)

This article appears in Volume V14, Page 34 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HOR-I25
HYDRA (watersnake) , in Greek legend, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, a gigantic
monster
  with nine heads (the number is variously given), the centre one being immortal. Its haunt was a hill beneath a plane tree near the river Amymone, in the I marshes of Lerna by Argos. The destruction of this Lernaean
hydra was one of the twelve " labours " of Heracles, which he accomplished with the assistance of lolaus. Finding that as soon as one head was cut off two grew up in its place, they burnt out the roots with firebrands, and at last severed the immortal head from the
body
 , and buried it under a mighty
block
  of
rock
 . The arrows dipped by Heracles in the poisonous blood or
gall
  of the
monster
  ever afterwards inflicted fatal wounds. The generally accepted interpretation of the legend is that " the hydra denotes the
damp
 , swampy ground of Lerna with its numerous springs (KeePaXal, heads); its poison the miasmic vapours rising from the stagnant water; its death at the hands of Heracles the introduction of the culture and consequent purification of the soil " (
Preller
 ). A euhemeristic explanation is given by Palaephatus (39). An ancient king named Lernus occupied a small citadel named Hydra, which was defended by So bowmen. Heracles besieged the citadel and hurled firebrands at the garrison. As often as one of the defenders fell, two others at once stepped into his place. The citadel was finally taken with the assistance of the army of Iolaus and the garrison slain.
See
Hesiod
 , Theog., 313; Euripides, Hercules furens, 419; Pausanias ii. 37; Apollodorus ii. 5, 2; Diod. Sic. iv. 11; Roscher's Lexikon der Hythologie. In the article GREEK ART, fig. 20 represents the slaying of the Lernaean hydra by Heracles.


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