Greek Mythology - Hercules

The Hydra of Lerna

In a swamp close to the town of Lerna, there was a monster that had a body like a snake and 9 dragon heads. It was called the "Hydra of Lerna".

Eurystheus sent Hercules to kill this monster. This was a difficult task because one of the Hydra's heads was immortal. Hercules took his friend Iolaos to help him with this difficult task. Soon they found the monster. They lit a fire and Hercules lit up his arrows from that fire. He started throwing the arrows at the Hydra but all this did was to make the snake like creature wilder and more fierce.

Hercules started to hit the heads with his club and cut them off.
For hours he tried to kill the beast, but when he would cut one head off, two would grow in its place. They had to think of something else.

Suddenly Hercules had an idea. He would cut off each head and his friend Iolaos, would burn the neck with a lit piece of wood. One by one, Hydra's heads were falling on the ground. Finally the immortal head was cut off and Hydra fell lifeless in front of them. Hercules opened up its belly and dipped his arrows in the Hydras poisoned blood.

Then he buried the monster and put a big rock on it, so nobody could ever exhume it. He returned to Tirintha (Tiryns) awaiting his next task...