THE HEADS OF THE HYDRA

“So marched they then as though all the land were swept with fire; and the earth groaned beneath them, as beneath Zeus that hurleth the thunderbolt in his wrath, when he scourgeth the land about Typhoeus in the country of the Arimi, where men say is the couch of Typhoeus.”¹

This myth of Typhon’s battle with Zeus is seeded in Greek myth by its appearance in Homer’s ‘Iliad.’ The location of the mythical land of the Arimi has been the source of controversy since antiquity. Among the numerous theories the Arimi have been equated with the Scythian tribe of the Arimaspi (Arimaspoi). The ancient territory of Scythia can be roughly traced over contemporary Ukraine.

Hesiod identifies the Arimi with the location of the cave where the serpentine goddess Echidna mated with Typhon and consequently then spawned multiple monstrous offspring including the Lernaean Hydra.

“And in a hollow cave she bore another monster, irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the undying gods, even the fierce goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days. Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bore Orthus the hound of Gerryones, and then again she bore a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong.”²

As indicated by its name the Hydra dwelled in the marshes of Lerna. In his second labour Heracles was tasked with destroying the Hydra. The multiple component heads of the creature were visualized by ancient artists as snake-like forms that protruded from a massive coiling serpentine body.

“And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying sword through the plans of Athena the spoil-driver.”³

Each head of the Hydra reproduced itself when severed and in some accounts multiple heads grew for each that was severed. The comprehensive account of Apollodorus assigns nine heads to the Hydra, eight mortal and one immortal.

In his struggle Heracles is compelled to draw on the aid of Iolaus to neutralize the constantly regenerating heads. By cauterizing and branding the severed necks with a flaming branch or torch the eight mortal heads of the Hydra are prevented from regenerating and are destroyed. The ninth immortal head is buried under a heavy rock.

“As a second labour he ordered him to kill the Lernaean hydra. That creature, bred in the swamp of Lerna, used to go forth into the plain and ravage both the cattle and the country. Now the hydra had a huge body, with nine heads, eight mortal, but the middle one immortal. So mounting a chariot driven by Iolaus, he came to Lerna, and having halted his horses, he discovered the hydra on a hill besides the springs of the Amymone, where was its den. By pelting it with fiery shafts he forced it to come out, and in the act of doing so he seized and held it fast. But the hydra wound itself about one of his feet and clung to him. Nor could he effect anything by smashing its heads with his club, for as fast as one head was smashed there grew up two.”⁴

During the struggle a giant crab comes to the aid of the Hydra but is destroyed together with the Hydra. In commemoration of the mythical battle Hera placed the crab and the Hydra among the stars as constellations. The modern constellation of Hydra is the longest form in the night sky and thus immortalizes a battle that has resonance in the present.

“A huge crab also came to the help of the hydra by biting his foot. So he killed it. and in his turn called for help on Iolaus who, by setting fire to a piece of the neighbouring wood and burning the roots of the heads with the brands, preventing them from sprouting. Having thus got the better of the sprouting heads, he chopped off the immortal head, and buried it, and put a heavy rock on it, beside the road that leads through Lerna to Elaeus.”⁵

1. Homer – Iliad 2.780
2. Hesiod – Theogony 300-320
3. Ibid.
4. Apollodorus – Library 2.5.2
5. Ibid.