In the swamps of Lerna, during the age of heroes, there lived a great and poisonous serpent, a monstrous offspring of the union of Typhon and Echidna. The destruction of this beast, called the Lernaen Hydra, became the second Labor of the greatest of all Greek Heroes, Heracles. Every time the Glory of Hera knocked off a head of this creature, two more grew to take its place. It was not until his nephew, Iolaus, had the idea to cauterize the stumps that the son of Zeus was able to vanquish his foe.
Believe it or not, today's topic was not chosen by me, but rather by the lovely Natalie Kim, whose drawing can be found here. For this piece, I recycled my own designs for both the Hydra and Heracles from my upcoming book Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory (coming out in July!) but the drawing is all new-- took me about a half hour, from pencils to scan. Consider it a preview.
