Hercules’s Second Labor and Michel Dorigny’s Print

We, like Hercules, have many tests to overcome. Oleg Senkov/Shutterstock

We continue our journey into the 12 labors of Hercules. In the previous part of this series, we looked at Hercules’s defeat of the Nemean Lion. We intend to tackle one a month until the end of the year. So join us on this journey through one of the greatest stories told in the history of Western civilization.

The 2nd Labor of Hercules

According to Apollodorus, King Eurystheus orders Hercules to destroy the nine-headed, serpentine monster Hydra for his second labor. The Hydra lived in a swamp but slithered into the farmlands, killed livestock, and disrupted the livelihood of the people. The Hydra’s horrible stench and poisonous blood left the water around the farmlands foul. It was now up to Hercules to defeat the Hydra.

Hercules sets out with his nephew Iolaos to find the beast. They discover the Hydra in its lair near a spring. Hercules throws burning embers at it to make it emerge from its lair. As soon as it does, Hercules grabs the giant monster and begins to club off its heads. However, each time he destroys a head, two more heads grow in its place. To make matters worse, Hera sends a giant crab to bite at Hercules’s feet and ankles.

Hercules realizes he cannot defeat these two by himself, so he calls over Iolaos. Hercules kills the giant crab while Iolaos sets fire to the surrounding forest. Then, Iolaos uses burning wood from the forest to cauterize the wound when Hercules removes one of the Hydra’s heads, ensuring that the head doesn’t grow back.

Finally, Hercules removes the last head. He buries it and places a heavy rock over it to prevent it from regenerating. Before returning to the king, Hercules thinks it wise to dip the tips of his arrows into the poisonous blood of the slayed beast to assist him in his future trials.

Though Hercules and Iolaos successfully defeat the Hydra, King Eurystheus isn’t satisfied because Hercules did not do it alone. Because of Iolaos’s assistance, King Eurysteus does not count this heroic act as a completed labor.

Detail of “Hercules and the Hydra,” 1651 by Michel Dorigny after Simon Vouet. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain

Michel Dorigny’s print illustrates this story. Hercules and Iolaos are shown on the left side of the composition. Hercules wears the protective skin of the Nemean Lion and swings his club at the Hydra head that bites his calf. Iolaos directs his torch downward toward one of the Hydra’s heads. Only six Hydra heads are shown here, and one, directly under Iolaos’s arm, has already been cut off.

Prideless Patience and Harmony

Instead of describing an actual serpent-like creature, some scholars believe this story of the Hydra describes how the ancient Greeks dealt with an environmental problem. Scholars speculate that the Hydra’s heads might have symbolized springs that were flooding farmland and creating marshes. Even the Hydra’s smell is thought to correlate with sulfur in the soil.

In this sense, removing the heads of the Hydra just relates to cutting off the bodies of water so that they stop flooding. The use of fire to burn down a forest is thought to be relevant to the redirection of the water. Water, one of the four elements in ancient Greek thought (water, fire, air, earth), was balanced by its counterpart, fire, and it was only when these elements were in balance that the cosmos and the human body were in harmony.

But what might this story mean for us, today? We might have a task that is too overwhelming to do alone. Does this labor suggest that despite how strong and capable we may think we are, there are still times when it’s advisable to ask for or accept help?

It may be that a friend or colleague has something to learn from accomplishing the task with us, and we have something to learn from a fellow journeyer. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we are capable all by ourselves, but the Creator has ways of reminding us that there’s nothing we can do alone.

Not only do we need help to overcome hardships, but also we need patience. Every time Hercules cut off a head, two reappeared in its place. Sometimes, we too feel that our hardships multiply. We need great patience to endure what comes our way.

“Hercules and the Hydra,” 1651 by Michel Dorigny after Simon Vouet. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain

Might it be that great patience requires removing our egos—our own heads—as we overcome hardship? Could it be the case that the story refers to an inner battle? And that Hercules represents our true soul and the Hydra with its many heads represents our ego’s sins?

Finally, it’s necessary to recognize when we ourselves are out of balance. Fire was the counterbalance to Hydra (water) that helped Hercules accomplish his goal. Counterbalancing requires knowing when an extreme has been reached. How do we recognize when we’ve reached an extreme so that we may apply an opposite measure to counter the trouble?

Hercules is one of the most popular characters in Greek mythology. His great strength and courage inspired the Western world. Yet he was a complex figure whose actions did not always make sense. In this series, ‘Our Herculean Tasks,’ we will explore Hercules’s 12 labors in search of wisdom for our modern times. To assist with this daunting task throughout this series, I will mostly refer to Apollodorus’s “Library of Greek Mythology,” unless otherwise stated, and use the “Oxford Handbook of Hercules” as a secondary source.

The previous article in the series shows how Hercules accomplished his first labor, defeating the Nemean Lion.

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