Jon Solo Sebastian 02/16/2025:

“If they cut off one head, two more shall take its place.” – Red Skull

If you’ve watched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most notably—Captain America: The First Avenger, you’ve heard this before. The character Red Skull says this to his Hydra troops to rile them up before setting his plans in motion. While this is a film, and a line a villain would say, it comes straight from Greek mythology.

The Hydra, or Lernean Hydra, is a serpentine or even dragon-like water monster with nine heads. One of its many feats that make it a formidable beast of the sea is regeneration. How do you defeat the Hydra when one of its heads gets severed, two more take its place? Much like the film, Captain America, Steve Rogers believes he defeats Hydra, but he discovers in the sequel, The Winter Soldier, that Hydra has grown to be more powerful than before.

What is the Lernean Hydra? Where did it come from?

Aside from it being a legend of Greek mythology, what else do we know about the Hydra? For starters, it’s an offspring of the popular duo—Typhon and Echidna. If you’re familiar with Greek mythology, or have read some of my other pieces like, the Chimera, Orthrus, or the Nemean Lion, then you’ve likely heard of Typhon and Echidna. Typhon is well-known to be the father of all monsters. He himself is an interesting character that I’ll be doing a piece on in the future. He’s a giant with his upper body resembling human features, while his arms and legs are made up of snakes. Echidna, like Typhon, has a human-like upper body, but her lower half is a serpent which gives her a dragon-like appearance. It’s not hard to believe an offspring like the Hydra came from them when you know what they look like.

According to the folklore, the Hydra haunted the marshes of Lerna near Argos, which is how it got the title: Lernean Hydra. It fed on people in the area or on their livestock. It wreaked havoc on the people until it became the second labour of Hercules. The legend states this massive water monster is not only very strong and gigantic, but to accompany its nine heads (or more if any are severed) and regenerative power, comes its deadly and venomous blood and breath. If its breath or blood touches you, it’s curtains for you; curtains.

While Hercules was no joke, he struggled against the Hydra due to it being a powerful beast, but mostly due to its regeneration powers. The destruction of the Hydra was one of the labors of the hero Heracles (Hercules), 12 seemingly impossible tasks he had to perform. Heracles defeated the Hydra with the help of his nephew Iolaus. As one head of the Hydra was cut off, two new ones grew in its place. Therefore, Iolaus finally burned out the roots with firebrands as soon as Heracles cut off each head. At last Heracles severed the one immortal head from the body and buried it under a heavy rock.

Fun Side Note:

During the fight between Hercules and the Hydra, Hera sent a giant crab to help defeat Hercules. The crab proved to be no match for him as he crushed it under his foot. Later, Hera turned her crab and the Hydra into constellations. The crab is the Cancer constellation, and the Hydra is the constellation bearing the same name.

Hydra’s in Pop Culture

Aside from Greek mythology and the Captain America movies, the Hydra appears in other mediums either by name or by monster. The popular roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons features all kinds of creatures, and the Hydra is one of them. There is Mother Hydra in H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth. The Hydra also appears in video games like Dragon’s Dogma and Dark Souls as a boss type of enemy for the player to defeat to progress through the game.

The Hydra is one of my favorite creatures of any mythology. Even though it succumbed to the power of Hercules in a battle worthy of the main event at Wrestlemania, it would certainly be a formidable opponent for anyone that is not a demigod. Who would want to face a dragon-like beast that has nine heads with one of them being immortal, regeneration leading to the possibility of it having one hundred heads, and poisonous blood and breath?