Heracles and the Hydra of Lerna
Heracles Stop 2 of 9
In brief
- For his second labor, Heracles was sent to kill the Hydra, a monstrous serpent with many heads living in the swamp of Lerna.
- Every time he severed one head, two more grew back in its place, until his nephew Iolaus had the idea to cauterize each wound with fire.
- Heracles dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood afterward, making them lethal for the rest of his life.
The second of Heracles's Twelve Labors sent him to the swamps of Lerna, where a monstrous serpent with many heads, the Hydra, terrorized the countryside and poisoned the land with its venomous breath. Heracles set out with his young nephew Iolaus as his charioteer, determined to end the creature's reign.
Finding the Hydra in its lair, Heracles began hacking at its heads with his sword, but discovered a terrible truth: for every head he severed, two more sprang up in its place. The more he fought, the more heads confronted him, and the battle threatened to overwhelm him entirely.
Realizing brute force alone would never win, Heracles called on Iolaus for help. As Heracles cut off each head, Iolaus rushed forward with a burning torch to sear the open wound before new heads could grow, one by one silencing the Hydra's regeneration until only its immortal central head remained, which Heracles buried beneath a massive boulder.
Before leaving, Heracles dipped the tips of his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood, a decision that would follow him for the rest of his life: the same poison would later kill the centaur Nessus, and, indirectly, Heracles himself, when a robe soaked in Nessus's tainted blood was given to him as a fatal gift.
