Hydra
The Serpent of Lerna
HY-druh
Cut off one head and two grow back, the swamp serpent whose venom outlived the hero who killed it.
The Story
The Hydra lived in the marshes of Lerna, and Heracles's second labour turned into a lesson about the wrong method: every head he crushed came back doubled. The fix was his nephew Iolaus with a torch, searing each stump before it could regrow, and the one immortal head buried under a rock.
Killing it was not the end of it. Heracles dipped his arrows in the blood, and that venom goes on to kill Chiron, Nessus, and, through the poisoned shirt Nessus leaves behind, Heracles himself. Of all the monsters, this is the one that wins in the long run.
Did You Know?
- Hydra is the largest of the eighty-eight constellations, sprawling across a quarter of the sky.
- Linnaeus named the freshwater polyp Hydra after her, because cutting one in pieces produces several living animals.
- Eurystheus disallowed the labour on the grounds that Heracles had help, which is why twelve labours were assigned rather than ten.