The Lernaean Hydra that Heracles must overcome during his second labour symbolizes the victory over desire and the primary movements of appropriation.
To fully understand this web page, it is recommended to follow the progression given in the tab Greek myths interpretation. This progression follows the spiritual journey.
The method to navigate in the site is given in the Home tab.
Heracles Fighting the Lernaean Hydra with the Help of Iolaos, Louvre Museum, Paris
After the test of the Nemean Lion, Eurystheus ordered the hero to kill the Lernaean Hydra.
The Hydra was a giant water snake, born of Echidna and Typhon, who lived in the marshes near the Amymone springs and ravaged the surrounding country. It had a large number of heads (six to fifty depending on the sources). Hera is said to have raised the snake.
In order to force the Hydra out of the marsh, Heracles used flaming arrows before seizing her firmly. While the monster hugged one of his legs, Hera sent a giant crab that pinched his foot. Heracles then had to ask for the help of his nephew Iolaus.
The hero first crushed the crab with his foot, then managed to defeat the Hydra, while Iolaos burned the necks at their roots when the heads were cut off to avoid them to grow again.
Then he rubbed the tip of his arrows with the blood of the monster which was a powerful poison. This venom caused the death of the Centaur Nessus much later. The latter gave Dejanira a little of his blood poisoned by the venom before dying. Later, she would dip a tunic in the poisoned blood and give it to Heracles in revenge for his infidelity, causing his death. Eurystheus refused to recognise this labour, arguing that Heracles had not accomplished it alone.
Hercules Slaying the Lernaean Hydra, circa 1565
See Family Tree 1
We have observed the difficulty of matching primordial movements of life with different monsters while studying the Gorgon, especially as Hesiod and Homer do not agree on genealogies. We also mentioned that between the two, Homer was the one whose accounts fit best with the experience, while those of Hesiod involve more metaphysical notions.
According to Homer, Typhon “the ignorance” (from whom the four major monsters Orthrus, Cerberus, the Hydra and the Chimera were born) is a son of Hera, and her children are unquestionably linked to human consciousness. For Hesiod, however, Typhon is from Tartarus “the Nescience” making “ignorance” an original principle.
Just like there are two representative symbols of the ego, the lion of Cithaeron which only relates to its surface manifestations and the Nemean lion who plunged to its roots, there are also two levels of representation for the twisted life energy: the Gorgon Medusa and the Hydra, of which we will mention here a few elements discussed earlier in the myth of Perseus.
The symbolism of the Gorgon is ambiguous depending on whether one considers the iconographic sources or affili