how did hercules kill hydra

How is the Hydra killed?

Each time Hercules bashed one of the hydra's heads, Iolaus held a torch to the headless tendons of the neck. The flames prevented the growth of replacement heads, and finally, Hercules had the better of the beast. Once he had removed and destroyed the eight mortal heads, Hercules chopped off the ninth, immortal head.

Who helped Hercules kill the Hydra?

nephew IolausThe destruction of the Lernean Hydra became one of the 12 Labours of Heracles. For that and other labours, Heracles enlisted the aid of his nephew Iolaus. As Heracles severed each mortal head, Iolaus was set to the task of cauterizing the fresh wounds so that no new heads would emerge.

How did Hercules kill the Hydra Disney?

As stated in the myth, Hercules slew the Hydra by slicing off its heads, then using a torch to cauterize the stumps left.

Who was the ugliest god?

HephaestusHephaestus. Hephaestus is the son of Zeus and Hera. Sometimes it is said that Hera alone produced him and that he has no father. He is the only god to be physically ugly.

Did the Hydra kill Hercules?

In the canonical Hydra myth, the monster is killed by Heracles (Hercules) as the second of his Twelve Labors. According to Hesiod, the Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. It had poisonous breath and blood so virulent that even its scent was deadly.

How did Hercules kill Nemean lion?

Hercules picked up his club and went after the lion. Following it to a cave which had two entrances, Hercules blocked one of the doorways, then approached the fierce lion through the other. Grasping the lion in his mighty arms, and ignoring its powerful claws, he held it tightly until he'd choked it to death.

Who killed Hercules?

Several years later Heracles fell in love with Iole, daughter of Eurytus, king of Oechalia. Deianeira, realizing that Iole was a dangerous rival, sent Heracles a garment smeared with the blood of Nessus. The blood proved to be a powerful poison, and Heracles died.

Who killed Cerberus?

HeraclesHeracles carried Cerberus away, showed him to Eurystheus, then returned Cerberus to the underworld. In an apparently unique version of the story, related by the sixth-century AD Pseudo-Nonnus, Heracles descended into Hades to abduct Persephone, and killed Cerberus on his way back up.

Who helped Hercules?

Athena helped Hercules during labors 6, 11, and 12. To scare off the enormous flock of birds at a lake by the town of Stymphalos during Labor No. 6, Athena gave Hercules noisemaking clappers, known as krotala.

How did Jason help phineus?

Jason took pity on Phineus and ordered his crew to help the king; after luring down the Harpies with a luxurious feast, the Boreads (Calais and Zetes) chased the Harpies away for good.

How did Hercules capture Cerberus?

Hercules & the Capture of Cerberus Hades agreed that Hercules could try, as long as he used no weapons and did not hurt poor Cerberus. Hercules used his bare hands. He scooped all three heads up at once, and strangled Cerberus until he was unconscious. He gently carried the dog off to King Eury's.

How did Hercules kill Cerberus?

Hercules descended into Hades, defeated Cerberus and returned without harming or killing the hellhound. Hercules managed to overpower Cerberus by grabbing him by the throat.

How did Hercules lure the coily creature from the safety of its den?

First, Hercules lured the coily creature from the safety of its den by shooting flaming arrows at it. Once the hydra emerged, Hercules seized it. The monster was not so easily overcome, though, for it wound one of its coils around Hercules' foot and made it impossible for the hero to escape.

What is the name of the giant water serpent that haunted Lerna?

HYDRA LERNAIA (Lernaean Hydra) was a gigantic, nine-headed water-serpent, which haunted the swamps of Lerna. Herakles (Heracles) was sent to destroy her as one of his twelve labours, but for each of her heads that he decapitated, two more sprang forth.

How did Hercules lure the coily creature from the safety of its den?

First, Hercules lured the coily creature from the safety of its den by shooting flaming arrows at it. Once the hydra emerged, Hercules seized it. The monster was not so easily overcome, though, for it wound one of its coils around Hercules' foot and made it impossible for the hero to escape.

What was the fearsome hydra?

Even so, Pausanias did not think that this labor was as fantastic as the myths made it out to be: to him, the fearsome hydra was just, well, a big water snake. At the source of the Amymone grows a plane tree, beneath which, they say, the hydra (water-snake) grew.

What was Hercules' second labor?

Hercules' Second Labor: the Lernean Hydra. The Lernean Hydra. The second labor of Hercules was to kill the Lernean Hydra. From the murky waters of the swamps near a place called Lerna, the hydra would rise up and terrorize the countryside. A monstrous serpent with nine heads, the hydra attacked with poisonous venom.

Who was Hercules' charioteer?

Legend has it that Iolaus won a victory in chariot racing at the Olympics and he is often depicted as Hercules' charioteer. So, the pair drove to Lerna and by the springs of Amymone, they discovered the lair of the loathsome hydra. Munich 1416, Attic black figure amphora, ca. 510-500 B.C.

Who was Hercules' nephew?

Hercules set off to hunt the nine-headed menace, but he did not go alone. His trusty nephew, Iolaus, was by his side. Iolaus, who shared many adventures with Hercules, accompanied him on many of the twelve labors. Legend has it that Iolaus won a victory in chariot racing at the Olympics and he is often depicted as Hercules' charioteer. So, the pair drove to Lerna and by the springs of Amymone, they discovered the lair of the loathsome hydra.

Did Eurystheus think Hercules' labor count as one of the ten?

Eurystheus was not impressed with Hercules' feat, however. He said that since Iolaus had helped his uncle, this labor should not count as one of the ten. This technicality didn't seem to matter much to anyone else: the ancient authors still give Hercules all of the credit. Even so, Pausanias did not think that this labor was as fantastic as the myths made it out to be: to him, the fearsome hydra was just, well, a big water snake.

Who slashed the Hydra?

Slaying the Hydra was the second labor of the hero Heracles, but he needed help to overcome the legendary monster. Read more to learn about Iolaus, the young hero who accompanied Heracles on his adventures!

What task did Heracles fail to complete?

One of the tasks that Heracles had supposedly failed was the slaying of the Hydra. The monster had been killed with the help of Iolaus, so Eurystheus and Hera decreed that Heracles had not completed the task to their satisfaction.

How many labors did Heracles commit?

The twelve labors of Heracles are one of the most famous quests in all of mythology. To atone for the crime of killing his children under the influence of madness, the hero had to commit himself to ten years of servitude.

What is the play about the fate of the hero's children after his death?

The playwright Euripedes made Iolaus a central figure in the Heracleidae, a play about the fate of the hero’s children after his death. In it, Iolaus is elderly and frail, but still committed to helping his uncle’s family.

How many heads did Hydra have?

Eventually, only one head remained. The Hydra’s main head was immortal, so Heracles buried it in a place where no one would ever dig it up. Before leaving, Heracles dipped his arrows in the monster’s blood to imbue them with its deadly venom.

Where did the Hydra live?

The Hydra was a monster that lived in the swamps of Lake Lerna, near Argos. While most accounts claimed that it could not be truly killed, Heracles was sent to defeat it.

Did Heracles fight the Hydra?

Heracles was a skilled and fearless fighter, but the battle against the Hydra nearly proved to be beyond his capabilities. Although he fought well, he could not outpace the Hydra’s ability to regrow its severed heads.

How did Heracles defeat the Hydra?

Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus cauterized the open stumps. Seeing that Heracles was winning the struggle, Hera sent a giant enemy 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—still alive and writhing—under a great rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius, and dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood. Thus, his second task was complete.

What is the oldest myth of Hydra?

The oldest extant Hydra narrative appears in Hesiod's Theogony, while the oldest images of the monster are found on a pair of bronze 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 (c. 600 BC), who gave it nine heads. 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.

What is the Lernaean Hydra?

For other uses, see Hydra (disambiguation). The Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna ( Greek: Λερναῖα Ὕδρα, Lernaîa Hýdra ), more often known simply as the Hydra, is a serpentine water monster in Greek and Roman mythology. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, ...

What did Eurystheus do to the Hydra?

Eurystheus sent Heracles to slay the Hydra , which Hera had raised just to slay Heracles. Upon reaching the swamp near 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. He then confronted the Hydra, wielding either a harvesting sickle (according to some early vase-paintings), a sword, or his famed club. The chthonic creature's reaction to this decapitation was botanical: two grew back, an expression of the hopelessness of such a struggle for any but the hero. The weakness of the Hydra was that it was invulnerable only if it retained at least one head.

How many heads does Hydra regrow?

Later versions of the Hydra story add a regeneration feature to the monster: for every head chopped off, the Hydra would regrow two heads. 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.

What constellations did Hera place in the night sky?

Workshop of Toussaint Dubreuil, c. 1600. Greek and Roman writers related that Hera placed the Hydra and crab as constellations in the night sky after Heracles slew him. When the sun is in the sign of Cancer ( Latin for "The Crab"), the constellation Hydra has its head nearby.

Why did Heracles cover his mouth and nose with a cloth?

Upon reaching the swamp near 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.

How did Hercules lure the Hydra out?

He brought his trusted servant and nephew, Iolaus. After discovering its lair, Hercules lured the Hydra out by shooting flaming arrows at it. He covered his nose and mouth with a cloth to protect himself from the Hydra’s poisonous vapors. Some myths portray his weapon as a harvesting sickle or a sword, but the most popular version is a club.

Who buried the Hydra's head?

With only the immortal head remaining, Heracles is thought to have either torn it off with his bare hands or chop it off with a golden sword given to him by Athena. Heracles dipped his arrows in the venomous bile of the Hydra and would later use them during his remaining labors. Any wound inflicted by the arrows would prove to be fatal. Heracles buried the Hydra’s head in the ground between Lerna to Elaeus before placing a huge boulder over it.

What was Heracles' second labor?

The second labor performed by Heracles was to slay the water serpent Lernaean Hydra. The Hydra dwelled in the swamps near the ancient city of Lerna in Argolis and would emerge onto the flatlands to attack local villagers and livestock. Some versions of the story suggest that the serpent came from the same offspring as the Nemean Lion.

What did Eurystheus discover about Heracles?

When King Eurystheus discovered that Heracles did not complete the labor on his own, he declared the victory unlawful. Unimpressed that his nephew had come to his aid, King Eurystehus asserted that the conquering of the Hydra did not count towards the 12 labors set out for him.

What did the crab do to Heracles?

The crab began attacking Heracles trapped foot but he managed to crush it underneath his heel. Heracles was now wounded and relied on Iolaus to help slay the Hydra. As Heracles smashed the multiple heads of the Hydra, Iolaus would apply a firebrand to the severed neck stumps. This technique cauterized the wounds and prevented regeneration.

Who did Iolaus call upon to help him defeat the Hydra?

Wielding his club, he smashed the many heads of the Hydra but as soon as he smashed one, another two would spring from its place. The Hydra had also coiled itself around one of Heracles’ feet and he was unable to move. Realizing that he was unable to defeat the Hydra by just smashing its heads, he called upon Iolaus to help him. But Iolaus was not the only one who came – a giant crab sent by Hera had also come to the Hydra’s aid.

Where is the Hydra's lair?

The Hydra was guarding the Underworld that was beneath the waters and its lair was set in a deep cave in Amymone. The Hydra had the body of the serpent and many heads, with debates ranging from five to one hundred, but the most commonly accepted myth is that it had nine heads, the middle of which was immortal. The blood and breathe of the Hydra was poisonous enough to kill any man or animal that even it’s tracks were fatal.

Who was standing behind Herakles during the Hydra battle?

Ancient artists corroborate Athena' s involvement here with their renditions of the story, in which it seems that Athena, the protector of heroes (especially if they're her own brothers like Perseus and Herakles), was standing behind Herakles throughout the Hydra battle.

Who protected Herakles and Iolaos from the Hydra's breath?

It may simply be that Pallas Athena, somehow, protected both Herakles and Iolaos from the Hydra's breath.

What did Iolaus do to the Lernaean Hydra?

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 beside 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. 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 neighboring wood and burning the roots of the heads with the brands, prevented 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. But the body of the hydra he slit up and dipped his arrows in the gall. However, Eurystheus said that this labour should not be reckoned among the ten because he had not got the better of the hydra by himself, but with the help of Iolaus.

Why did Herakles wrap Ajax in the Nemean Lion?

The scholion on Iliad 23.841 says that when Aias [Ajax], the son of Herakles' nephew Telamon, was a baby, Herakles wrapped him up in the skin of the Nemean Lion so that Aias became invulnerable like his cousin Akhilleus [Achilles] . The idea here seems to be that an infant's coming into contact with the lion-skin caused the infant to become impervious, as opposed to an adult upon whom such "magic" clearly did not work the same way, since Herakles himself, who wore the pelt all the time, did not grow impervious skin from such extended periods of interaction therewith. Perhaps, though, there was some minor, less permanent effect on an adult whose head was helmeted inside the head of the flayed lion, in that it created a pocket of cushioned air.

What was the first mission of Herakles?

Mission 1.0 had been To Kill the Lion of Nemea , which lion, according to Apollodorus, was a brother of the Hydra. At any rate Herakles did complete his first mission and from then on he wore the skin of the Nemean Lion as armour practically everywhere he went. The lion pelt was impenetrable and impervious, and in ancient artwork the hero is usually depicted wearing the skin while battling the Hydra. There is no explicit written reference to the idea that the skin might have shielded Herakles in any way against the dragon of Lerna but there are some clues in his later adventures as to how this might have been so.

Who was Herakles' last enemy?

One of the last of these enemies was the Centaur Nessos [Nessus] , who tried to violate Herakles' bride Deianeira. As he was dying, Nessos thought quite fast about how he could be avenged on his slayer even after he himself was long gone. He convinced Deianeira that his own Centaur blood (in one version this is mixed together with another bodily fluid) was a philtron [love-potion] which might come in handy someday if Herakles ever became unfaithful to her, and Deianeira collected what she could of it as an insurance policy.

Was Hydra's blood poisonous?

Technically it was not the Hydra's blood that was venomous at all. The confusion regarding this seems to arise from the fact that it was Hydra-venom in combination with someone else's blood that eventually brought an end to Herakles the Hydra-slayer himself. There does not seem to be any ancient reference to Herakles using the Hydra's blood itself as poison, rather it was the monster's gall or bile which was venomous , and this is what he dipped his arrows in, and is what sealed his arrows as fatality weapons.

Why did Megara marry Heracles?

Typically, Megara was married to Heracles by her father as a reward for the hero after he lead the defense of Thebes against the Minyans at Orchomenus, and the couple had several sons together. In his madness, Heracles killed their children either by shooting them with arrows or by throwing them into a fire.

What did Hera do to kill Zeus's son?

Determined to kill Zeus's illegitimate son, Hercules, Hera sent two snakes to strangle the baby in his sleep. Luckily for Hercules, having Zeus as a father meant he was a demigod, unusually strong and fearless. He grabbed each snake by the neck and strangled them just before they were able to strike.

Who sent the snakes to Hera?

The snakes had been sent by Hera . Of all the sons Zeus had fathered on other women, Hera hated Heracles most of all, for the seed of Zeus flowed in his veins most copiously. But Zeus protected Heracles and he grew into the strongest of men and the greatest of all Greek heroes. So Hera devised another plan.

Who guided Hercules to the Oracle of Delphi?

Unbeknownst to him, the Oracle was guided by Hera. Click to see full answer. Subsequently, one may also ask, what did Hera do to make Hercules kill his family?