The Lernaean Monster In Hesiod's Theogony

The Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna is an interesting monster because of its original origin and of how the monster itself is. The origin of this monster is in Greece. The Hydra was created by the ancient Greeks and has been a creature in Greek mythology since then. Famous Greek poets Hesiod, Alcaeus, Simonides, and Euripides contributed to hydra that we all know. The Lernaean Hydra appears in Hesiod's Theogony, a poem describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods. The Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. Typhon was a monstrous giant and Echidna was a half-woman, half-snake. The hydra is a giant water snake-like creature. The oldest image of the monster is found on a pair of bronze fibulae that date back to ca. 700 BCE. The fibulae portrayed the monster with six heads, but in the writings of Alcaeus (ca. 600 BCE) gave the hydra nine heads. Then a century later Simonides increased the number to fifty, while Euripides did not bother to give a number. What makes this creature a monster is that it is immortal and cannot be killed. The hydra has a regenerating ability. The first mention of the ability was from Euripides. He wrote that the monster grew a pair of heads for each one that

It was raised by Hera to slain Hercules. The hydra lived in the swamp near Lake Lerna. The hydra caused havoc among the villages near his resting place. The only known nemesis is a demi-god named Hercules. To defeat the Hydra, Hercules had to call one of his nephew named Iolaus because he realized he couldn't defeat it. Hercules chopped off one of the Hydra's heads and the Iolaus would seal the wound with a hot iron or a torch so that the head wouldn't grow back and multiply. When Hercules removed all of the Hydra's heads, he then buried it under the earth and collected his blood. Another version is that Hercules would cut one head off and use its own venom to burn each head so that it wouldn't grow