Imagine if you a will, you are at sea. While you are on your boat you hear a rumble. This rumble is followed by a bubbling of the water and the desperate look of horror on the other passengers faces. Then a giant head of a serpent appears, followed by another. It finally ends with more heads then you could count, and the destruction of your boat and you. In modern days this would be laughed off if someone told you. However, if you were to tell this tale long ago, many people would believe you and some would even try to help. That is, because this was a very common story, and it was all blamed on one thing. The demon of the deep. In the time before time existed there was myth, and in Greece myth was king. From atlas to Hercules, through the pages of Zeus, there were battles and struggles, each with different creatures. No creature from the sea was as feared as the giant multi headed monster known as .. Hydra. Where did this story start though? What would make someone think of this beast, and why would they choose for it to look like that? First lets start with how it looks according to legend. The hydra in pictures seems to be between anywhere from 10 feet to multiple stories tall. It seems to have the skin of a lizard making it reptilian in nature. The hydra has been known to have between 20 and 50 heads. Everytime you chop off one of the heads two heads grow in its place. Knowing that leads many to believe that it can have an infinite number of heads. It has four legs, two long legs in the front and two shorter in the back. The hydra also has a long tail as well. Second, Where did the story start? The story of the hydra or the Lernean Hydra was start by the Greeks. The story of the hydra first appears in something called Hesiod’s Theogony. Which is a poem. The oldest images of the hydra are on a pair of fibulae dating back to 700 BCE., which are like modern day broche or fastener for garments. The fibulae show a six headed monster, but Alcaeus in 600 BCE added additional heads to the myth of the monster. With vast amounts of stories each story added my heads. The total eventually became 50, and in some counts may be even more. So what was the story about? The story of Lernaean Hydra is about Hercules. Hydra was the offspring of Typhon a large serpentine giant and Echidna was a half woman half snake monster. Hydra was raised by Hera, who specifically raised the creature to kill Hercules. The hydra lived in Lake Lerna. So if you ever want to try to see it, I would suggest going to visit. Carefully. During Hercules trials, he was expected to fight the hydra. After a long battle the only immortal had that the beast had was cut off by a golden sword given to Hercules by Athena. Other variations of the story tell of Hercules using the beast own venom to cut the rest of the heads off. I think this is a great legend. If you have anything you want add leave a comment below.
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Josh Hill
I try to research as much about the paranormal as I can. I find this world beyond ours to be fascinating. My goal is to bring you all the information you need to find the answers for yourself. Archives
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