Second Labor - Hercules (Heracles - Herakles)
<Apollodorus> <Hesiod> Labor 2 - Lernean Hydra
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In those days, there was a beast living in the swamps of Lerna that ravaged the countryside devouring cattle. It was known as the Hydra. For his second labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to rid the world of this predatory monster.
Taking his nephew, Iolaus (a surviving son of Hercules' brother Iphicles), as his charioteer, Hercules set out to destroy the beast. Of course Hercules couldn't simply shoot an arrow at the beast or club him to death with his club. There had to be something special about the beast that made normal mortals unable to control it.
The Lernaean monster had nine heads, and one of these was immortal. If ever a mortal head was cut, from the stump would immediately spring forth two new heads. Wrestling with the beast proved difficult because while trying to attack one head, another would use its fangs to bite Hercules' leg. Ignoring the nipping at his heels and calling upon Iolaus for help, Hercules arranged to have Iolaus burn the neck the second Hercules took a head off. In this way the stump could not regenerate. When all eight mortal necks were headless and cauterized, Hercules sliced off the immortal head and buried it underground with a stone on top to hold it down.
Having dispatched with the head, Hercules dipped his arrows in the gall of the beast, and in this way, as he would soon learn, he made his arrows lethal.
Upon returning to the outskirts of Tiryns, Eurystheus denied Hercules credit for the labor because Iolaus had helped out.
