The Horrible Hydra

Eurystheus was embarrassed and angry when he heard everyone laughing at him. Still, he was so scared that he would not leave his room and see Hercules in the lion's skin. He ordered one of his servants to tell Hercules of his second task.

"In the lake of Lema," began the servant, "lives a terrible monster called the Hydra. The Hydra is a large dragon with nine heads, and the head in the middle cannot be wounded. At night, the dragon comes out of the water and eats people in the towns near the lake. The king wants you to save these towns from the Hydra."

Hercules knew that this would be a very hard task indeed, so he called for the help of his nephew Iolaus. "I must go on a very dangerous journey, Iolaus, and I will need your help," he said. Iolaus agreed, and the two men set out to find the Hydra.

When they arrived in the town nearest to the lake where the Hydra lived, Hercules asked the people about the terrible monster. He learned that many men had come to fight the Hydra, but that all had been eaten. The Hydra's strength was found in its terrible heads. If a man was able to cut off one of the monster's heads, it would instantly grow back. And no man could hurt the middle head in any way.

"This is a terrible monster indeed!" thought Hercules. "I cannot use my sword to destroy it, for its heads cannot be killed."

But Hercules was a smart man and wise in the ways of fighting. He had beaten the terrible Lion of Nemea, and he felt sure he could destroy the Hydra. He asked the people of the town to make him a large net with large stones tied around the outside ropes. He then asked Iolaus to make a few torches that would burn with hot flame. Once all these preparations were made, Hercules and Iolaus left to find the Hydra.

Hercules knew that the Hydra only came out of the water at night, so he and Iolaus waited by the lake until the sun began to go down behind the hills. Hercules then told Iolaus to light the torches while he prepared the net. "Iolaus," he said, "when I cut off one of the Hydra's heads, you must quickly burn the neck so that a new head cannot grow in its place."

Just then, the two men heard the water moving. Nine huge snake heads rose out of the water. When the Hydra saw Hercules, it attacked him with all of its mouths at once. Hercules jumped back and threw the net over the monster. Because the net had heavy rocks tied around it, the monster could not move. However, this did not stop the monster from attacking. Its heads were narrow enough to get through the net and each one worked to free itself.

Each time a head became free, Hercules would cut it off with a powerful strike with his sword, and Iolaus would burn the neck with his torch. In that way, no new heads could grow where the old ones had been cut off.

Soon only the Hydra's middle head remained. It rushed at Iolaus and bit his arm. Hercules jumped to help his nephew and wrestled the head down to the ground. Once the head was in his strong grasp, Iolaus tied the mouth closed with a rope.

Since the middle head was immortal, there was no way to kill it. Because of this, Hercules lifted the Hydra above his head and carried him up the side of the closest mountain. Once he found a cave, Hercules put the Hydra inside and closed off the entrance to the cave with many large stones. Even today, the Hydra still lives in that cave.

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