#hydra of lerna

[briefbestiary]

A large lake monster with regenerating heads. She made her den by or within the ancient lake at Lerna, an alleged entrance to the underworld.

Her immortal head is either killed with a golden sword granted by Athena, or pinned beneath a boulder for eternity.

A beast of intense toxin, from both breath and blood, and by dipping his arrows into her corpse Heracles' obtained his famed poisonous arrows.

[publicdomaincharacters]

Here is a public domain creature,The Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna or commonly as the Hydra from Greek mythology

[vickapinto]

Fantastic Creatures of the Greco-Roman Mythology: Lernaean Hydra, the monster of multiple heads

Author’s note: The following article was published on Spanish language in April 28th, 2024, in my Blurt blog. Heracles and Lernaean Hydra by Gustave Moreau. Image edited with Canva. Source of the image: Wikipedia In the last post, we explained the Sphynx, a mysterious creature who was close to the entry to the city of Thebes, and which proposed a riddle to its victims. We remember that this…

[petitsportraits]

[eleosthebestest]

My Takes On The Lernaean Hydra

[illustratus]

Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra by Gustave Moreau

[the-ultimate-squish]

Tiebreaker Winners

Apologies for how long this took me. With the holidays, my classes, and personal mental health, and now Jazwares supporting Israel, it took me a bit to finish up my spreadsheet and determine who needed a tiebreaker in the first place. But they're here now!! You can always check this spreadsheet as I keep it up to date faster than I make announcements like these. Tiebreakers are determined by me asking three of my irl friends who did not vote.

In Gilbert the Groundhog vs Jalisca the Leopard, Jalisca won!!

In Victoria the Boba Tea vs Randy the Racoon, Randy won!

In Cici the Red Panda vs Torrence the Dragon, Cici won!

In Amal the Moth vs Baptise the Macaw, Amal won!

In Lamar the Whale Shark vs Lerna the Hydra, Lamar won!

In Aiden the Dragon vs Christian the Caterpillar, Aiden won!

In Adela the Basset Hound vs Belozi the Cow, Adela won!

In Sebastiano the Pig vs Zaria the Cat, Sebastiano won!

Please do not buy squishmallows irl. Sources below

[orchestrated-haunting]

using my classics degree for good. i cannot wait for 3.0

my notes from my first watch through of "Amphororeus' Saga of Heroes" under the cut. please note that i did this at 8am with minimal double and triple checking of sources

Aglaea- Aglaea in mythology is the child of zeus and is one of the three Charities in Greek myth; according to Dionysiaca she is one of the "dancers of Orchomenus" who tend to Aphrodite. Helped Aphrodite in her attempt to weave better than Athena by holding and passing Aphrodite the yarn. She also acts as Aphrodite's messanger. Her drip marketing also mentioned her connection to romance so her being a stand in for Aphrodite feels like a easy call

Tribbie- hermes or hecate (likely a combination) she's a messenger like hermes, however the description of "the three-faced" is usually used in description of Hecate goddess of the crossroads

Anaxa- likely the athena parallel as said to have enough knowledge to refute faith and is capable of killing gods. this is in line with athena's domains of wisdom and the logical side of combat; eyepatch is similar to odin of norse mythology as he exchanged one of his eyes for all the knowledge in the world; Anax is the attic greek word for "tribal cheif, lord, or military leader"; there are also several notable figures who have the prefix anax- in their name Anaxandridas II (a king of sparta) and anaxagoras and anaxarchus (both philosphers)

Hyacine - name from hyacinthus, lover of apollo and where we get the name of hyacinths from; she also "severs dawn from dusk" which makes me feel more than confident in her being the apollo parallel

Mydei- ares parallel, lion symbolism is common with warriors in ancient greece; hercules wore the skin of a lion he killed. the rest of it is vibes based but look at him; could not find any strong name parallels immediately as both Medea and Midas do not have many war-like contributions; however medea is close enough to mydei in pronunciation. medea was the daughter of Aeetes and lover of Jason from the argonauts and granddaughter to the sun god Helios; fire motifs, could be connection to hephaestus but i'd need more before i make that call; japanese version uses Mydeimos which points to Deimos, the god of terror and twin brother of Phobos the god of fear, both of which are children of Ares and Aphrodite (thank you @/integraseras for connection)

Cipher- fleet-footed hunter and said to "make time stop" while i can't think of any deity that specifically can do that the fleet-footed hunter aspect along with her being feminine strongly implies to me an artemis parallel; "make time stop" is interesting because in some stories and accounts the gods could stop time to communicate with a single hero or person without others noticing their presence

Castorice- "daughter of the river styx" and other death motives makes her almost certainly Hades; this is likely unrelated but one of the twins of the Diocusi (gemini twins) is named Castor however they are the children of Zeus, however castor was born mortal and pollux was born immortal, eventually they made a deal in which they would spend half of the time with the gods and the other half in the underworld

Phainon- couldnt find one of the olympians that fight however the god Phaenon is the sky god of Cronus (the planet Saturn); name means "bright" or "shining"; this could also be our Zeus figure due to Phaenon being called "the star of Jove" (Jove being another name for Zeus in roman myth)

(following names were from the video description but no other info was given)

Hysilens- name possibly comes from the combination of the gods Silenus and Hysminai; silenus is the god of wine, drunkenness, and the forest while also the foster father of Dionysus. Hysminai is the personification of combat; likely stand in for Dionysus

Cerydra- name has some parallels to the hydra the lake monster of Lerna in the Argolid, cer- could possibly (very unlikely) come from cerberus; my money would be on them being the parallel for posideon; the hydra was also one of hercules 12 labors and the lake Lerna was said to be an enterence to the underworld, possibly connecting cerberus in there, as cerberus is the guard dog of the underworld

Two unnamed characters: also there Gods that haven't been explicitly shown: Hera, Hestia, Demeter and Hephaestus. I could see hoyo combining Hera and Hestia into a single character of marriage, hearth and home

Other notes:

the gods were said to have gold blood

Amphoreus from the greek vessel style of a container with a long neck and two handles used to store oil, wine, milk, or grain. Amphorae were sometimes used as grave markers or as containers for funeral offerings or human remains and Amphora was also used as a unit of measure

the titans in the trailer = titans in myth; the conflict that follows is basically the equivalent of the war in mythology between the olympians and the titans

[aliciavance4228]

10 Greek Mythology Jokes:

How do you call a singer petrified by Medusa? A Rock Star.

What do Perseus and the Alpheratz star have in common? Both of them are inside Andromeda.

What is Cronus' favourite menu? Kids menu.

What game are the kids from Lerna playing? Hydra and Seek.

What is Oedipus' favourite TV Series? Go Back to Where You Came From.

How do you call a broken cable? Elektra-city.

How do you call a collaboration between Oedipus and King Midas? Motherfucking Gold.

Why does Athena dislike dentists? They pull out your wisdom teeth.

Why doesn’t Demeter invite mortals for dinner? Last time when this happened left a bad taste in her mouth.

What is Oceanus' favourite movie? Titan-ic.

[astroboots]

Where does Boa hide these around the house to best fuck with Santi?

BEHIND ENEMY LINES

Summary: Santiago is on a mission to take out your army of freakishly ugly mutant toys that you keep placing on his desk.

Homecoming Drabbles | Homecoming Masterlist | Astroboot’s Masterlist

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They're back again.

Santiago stares at the horrifying toy creature. Half husky and half--- penguin? Is that what it fucking is?!

He can't keep his eyes from the small miniature toy, its hauntingly blue piercing eyes and dog-like snout, its two flappy wings held against its protruding belly and standing on two webbed feet.

He doesn't know. Doesn't know where you managed to find this godless toy. Doesn't know what the toy manufacturer was thinking when they greenlit this for production. Doesn't know what kind of hallucinogenic drugs the designer must've been on when he made it.

Only thing he knows, is that it's fucking hideous is what it is.

Narrowing his eyes at the abomination, he glares at it in indignant anger where it sits perched on his desk. He threw this out last week. Stealthily took it out on the day it was Frankie's turn to take out the trash, so you couldn't find it and stop it beforehand.

So he doesn't know how it's back. Or worse, he doesn't know how now there's not only a husky penguin but right next to it there's also malformed sad looking half-tiger, half-squirrel.

He thought there was only the one. But with the appearance of this second one... fuck it can't be.

... Fuck.

You have the whole fucking line up hidden somewhere don't you?

And if he throws these two away... he's pretty sure like the fucking mythical Hydra of Lerna, there's going to be four of them lined up on his desk by tomorrow.

That won't do.

But he also doesn't want to sit here, looking at schematics for his latest consulting project, and having to stare up at these hideous crimes against nature and god. No, he needs to get rid of them...

But there's no way out of this that doesn't end in an escalation until his desk becomes a gathering ground of these horrifying mutant toys... Unless he takes it out by the source. Destroy the nest so that it cannot breed more... Sniff out where you've hidden this mutant-freak toy army and get rid of them before you'll ever see him coming.

Santiago glances up at the clock. 4.30pm, you'll be home within the hour, he still got time. Pushing his chair away from his desk, he skulks down the hallway to the guestroom where you tend to store all your junk. All the crazy shit you keep dragging back home from the antique stands and farmers market you drag him to at ungodly early hours on Sunday morning. The haunted porcelain dolls, the joke taxidermy--with mice wearing human clothes and squirrels that are in a boxing match-- and the collection of inappropriately sexy Christmas baubles you got in a moving box on the shelf.

He continues to root around, in the empty shoe boxes stored under the guest bedroom. The first one contains--- more sexy Christmas baubles, one that looks eerily alike Michael Bublé that makes his skin crawl. The second--a bunch of old photo albums. The third-- just a bunch of brightly colored socks, that shouldn't be stored there in the first place. He digs around and-- Bingo.

In the very bottom, inside a sealed plastic bag he finds what he is looking for. It's the rest of the pack. A confused looking zebra-kangaroo, a lion-gerbil?! (or is it hamster, jesus-- it's horrifying). And finally a face that will haunts his nightmares until the end of time... The face of a gorilla staring up at him, eerily detailed and accurate, with the body of an elephant.

Actually forget seeing this in his nightmares, Santiago doesn't think he'll ever sleep again after seeing this. He shakes his head as he pulls up the bag pinched between his thumb and index finger, not even daring to clutch it in his hand, as he tucks it inside his sweater, closing the lid before leaving the room and heading down towards the garage.

He's not taking any risks, he's heading straight into the car to the junkyard himself to make sure these things aren't recovered by some deus ex machina intervention.

"Santiago have you been going through my stuff?" you ask.

Santiago doesn't look up from the pages of his book, as he takes another sip at his piping hot coffee. "What do you mean sweetheart?"

He doesn't need to look at you to know the look that will be in your eye. The way you're narrowing your eyes at him in observation, the way a detective would pin down their suspected perpetrator in an interrogation room.

"My stuff in the guestroom," you clarify.

"No clue." He has to bite the inside of his cheeks to tamper down the grin that's threatening to escape.

What follows is your usual morning routine after breakfast. When he says bye by the front porch, you throw him a quick kiss goodbye, but you linger for longer than you normally do. Your eyes squinting down on him, a silent accusation of, "I know what you did."

Santiago doesn't say shit.

Instead he waves you off like a young maiden in an old timey black and white movie waving off their husband to war with a handkerchief, as he turns back into the house, smiling like a loon. The feeling of victory surging bright in his veins.

Santiago practically skips on each steps up the staircase back to his office, humming, and if he could be any happier he would be floating.

He opens the door, the refreshing spring breeze flowing in through his window. The morning sun spilling across the length of his desk when he sees it.

His smile drops.

No.

Fuck no.

You gotta be kidding.

They're back again.

Standing in a neat tidy line in front of his computer screen, the whole family is gathered. Husky-penguin, Tiger-squirrel, Zebra-kangaroo, Lion-gerbil/hamster and the most nightmare inducing of them all... Gorilla-elephant.

He doesn't understand.

He drove them there.

Personally chucked them into a bag and into the junkyard where it can never be retrieved. But...

They're all back... and they brought friends.

He threw away five, and now there's ten....

He stares at them, the whole of the line up. At each ugly, deformed, mutant, hybrid animal toy creature, eyes lingering in particular at the horrifying shark with four slim and graceful legs and hooves.... And he doesn't even know what to say.

He doesn't even know what the fuck this is.

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[tylermileslockett]

Protogenoi 5: Echidna; Mother of Monsters

As mentioned in the previous section, The deep and mysterious ocean deities Phorkys and Ceto give birth to Echidna; a half-nymph half-snake creature that lives in a cave and comes to be known as the “mother of monsters.” Echidna mates with another fearsome creature called Typhon, a storm giant with hundreds of snakes heads and fiery eyes. Together they bear many famous beasts:

Orthrus, is a two-headed dog, with serpents for tails, who guards the red cattle of Geryon, a three-bodied warrior giant. Heracles, in one of his 12 labors, defeats Orthus and Geryon, and takes the cattle back to Greece. (*see

Cerberus is the guard dog of the gate to Hades in Underworld. Hesiod describes the dog as having fifty heads, but later depictions portray the dog with three heads. In one myth, Cerberus eats Theseus warrior friend Perithous when they attempt to kidnap Queen Persephone from the Underworld.

Hydra is a nine-headed swamp serpent of Lerna who is raised with spite by Hera for her hate for Heracles. To defeat it, Heracles, with the aid of Iolus and Athena, cauterizes the stumps of the necks before the new heads can grow back.

Chimaera is a three headed beast; near the front a lion, in the middle a fire-breathing goat and a serpent for a tail. The hero Bellerophon, with the aid of the flying horse Pegasus, defeats the Chimaera.

Sphinx is a female creature with the body of a liom head and torso of a woman, eagles wings, and serpent tale. Sphinx is sent to punish Thebes by devouring those who fail to solve her riddle. When the hero Oedipus solves it, she casts herself off a mountain in self destruction.

Nemean lion, is a lion creature raised by Hera and defeated by Heracles in his first labor, and after skinning it, the hero proudly wears the impervious hide ever after. 

[luxsit]

The second labor of Hercules was to kill the Lernean Hydra. From the murky waters of the swamps near a place called Lerna, a monstrous serpent with nine head, the hydra would rise up and terrorize the countryside.

[mr-e-gallery]

giovanni falconetto god heracles kills hydra of lerna

[inspofromancientworld]

Legendary Creatures: Cerberus

By Eagle Painter - User:Bibi Saint-Pol, Own work, 1 June 2007, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2192736

Cerberus (Κέρβερος Kérberos) was the multi-headed hound of Hades that was captured and then released by Heracles during the last of his twelve labors.

By No machine-readable author provided. Stella maris assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4980513

It's not known exactly where the name Cerberus came from. One theory is that it came from the Sanskrit सर्वरा sarvarā, which was a name of one of Yama's dogs, which came from the Proto-Indo-European *k̑érberos, which means 'spotted'. Others say that the name is more related to the Proto-Indo-Eurpoean *ger-, which means 'to growl' and is therefore related to the Norse dog Garmr, but this is debated because *ker- and *gher- are different word roots, so they wouldn't be related. Servius (Roman grammarian, late 4th-early 5th century) stated that Cerberus came from ceroboros, which means 'flesh-devouring' or from 'Ker berethrou' which means 'evil of the pit'.

By Andokides Painter - User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2007-06-15, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2257884

Exactly what Cerberus looks like, including how many heads he has, is also uncertain. He usually has three heads, but that can vary. Hesiod (8th-7th century BCE) described him as having 50 heads and Pindar (about 522-443 BCE) said it was 100 heads. Most later writers gave Cerberus the more traditional three heads. Horace, a Latin poet (65-8 BCE), said that there was only one dog head and 100 snake heads. Apollodorus gave Cerberus three dog heads and 'all sorts of snakes' heads. The Byzantine poet John Tzetzes (12th century CE) said Cerberus had 50 heads, 3 of dogs and the rest were 'heads of other beasts of all sorts'. Most artwork depicts Cerberus with between one and three heads, but most commonly two visible heads.

By User:Bibi Saint-Pol - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2208203 and By Daderot - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80004577

Typhon is recorded as Cerberus' father and the snake descriptions for him come because Typhon had many snakes as feet. He is also related to the Hydra of Lerna and Orthrus, a two headed dog that guarded the cattle of Geryon, the grandson of Medusa, and the Chimera. His mother is listed as Echidna, a half beautiful woman half terrible snake, though exactly how she looked varies by author.

By Unknown artist - User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2007-06-06, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2223750

The only story that Cerberus is mentioned in is in the labors of Heracles. Heracles was ordered by the Tirynian king Eurystheus to bring back Cerberus from the underworld because he thought it was thought to be impossible. Eurystheus was Hera's representative and as such gave Heracles the trials to punish him for killing his wife Megara and their children, even though Hera caused the madness that caused Heracles to kill his wife. Initially, there were ten labors, but Eurytheus decided that two didn't count because Heracles had the assistance of his nephew Iolaus for one and redirected a river through a stable for another. Heracles had the assistance of multiple gods, including Athena and Hermes. As Heracles brought Cerberus to Euystheus, some found it gauche that Heracles paraded Cerberus through town while others praised him for completing the task. After Eurstheus saw Cerberus, it's uncertain whether Heracles returned Cerberus to Hades or if Cerberus escaped and returned to Hades himself.

[goc-agent-labyrinth]

The reason behind GOC nicknames for GOIs

Burnout (Prometheus Labs): They burnt out. They collapsed. They flopped.

Carcinoma (CI): it's a type of cancer that happens when the DNA of a cell gets messed up and the cell starts growing uncontrollably and getting worse for health

Kewpie (Foundation): A collectible baby doll that some people keep on their shelves and don't touch (like the Foundation does with some anomalies)

Kringle (Wondertainment): Kris Kringle. Santa Claus. Need I say more?

Lerna (Serpent's Hand): The lair of the Lernaean Hydra (a chthonic many-headed snake). Unrelated, but Heracles (Hercules was the Roman version) killed it for Task #2.

Poe (Parawatch): Edgar Allan Poe wrote spooky stories about the paranormal and the supernatural, like Parawatch does.

Teresa (MCF): Mother Teresa founded this thing called the Missionaries of Charity, a religious group that got its start helping "the poorest of the poor" in the slums of Calcutta.

Warhol (AWCY?): Andy Warhol was an influential and controversial artist who's considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He made those paintings of the Campbell's Soup Cans.

[glisten-inthedark]

Will defeats the thessalhydra with fireball at the end of season 1’s D&D game……….Will paints a three-headed dragon (a hydra, if you will) and the OG 4 party members facing it together in season 4…………methinks this is clear and intentional foreshadowing

Also the Lernaean Hydra in Greek myth was a serpentine lake monster………I theorize that perhaps Lake Gate might be guarded by a lake monster they’ll dub the Thessalhydra and Will will kill it with fire

(Will will kill, what a sentence😂)

(Thessalhydra anon) I love how the second I hit send, I kept reading about the Lernaean Hydra and saw THIS“Lerna was reputed to be an entrance to the Underworld.” (Wikipedia)HMMM INTERESTING(Also Heracles killed the hydra by burning its necks to prevent them from regenerating………hmmmmmm………..)

Hello!!

How are you doing?

Oh it's so interesting that you brought this up because I've been thinking about it for a while and I kept going over that scene in my head of season 2. I remember it struck out to me because I legit thought - that the time - that it'd be the next creature they'd face because I was following what I like to call the Teen Wolf pattern of foreshadowing (for context, if you haven't seen or any other person hasn't) Jeff Davies had a thing for foreshadowing plot points a whole season before they happened on Teen Wolf, and it's something he does in most things he produces (you can say what you want about him, but he could tie plots together quite well).

So when I watched season 2 I was like oh so they're going to face off against a hydra looking thing, cool. And then the moment never came and I was like 👀

Anyway, I got sidetracked for a second there lmao.

But I totally think they could play into this next season!

Thanks for the ask