Hercules and the Hydra

Description

Hercules and the Hydra
Hercules was the son of Zeus and Alcmena, the wife of Amphitryon, a distinguished general of Thebes.
Hera, the wife of Zeus, never forgave Hercules for this and intervened during his life, to his detriment.
Of his many exploits one was to fight and conquer the Minyans, who had been extracting a burdensome tribute from the Thebans.
The grateful citizens gave him as a reward the hand of the Princess Megara.
He was devoted to her and their children.
When Megara had borne him 3 sons, he went mad.
Hera sent the madness upon him.
He killed his children and Megara too.
Then his sanity returned. As he stood there in utter bewilderment, Amphitryon approached him and told him what he did.
Hercules struggled with whether, or how, to live with what he had done.
At Delphi where he went to consult the Oracle the priestess looked at the matter as just he did.
He needed to be purified, she told him and only a terrible penance could do that. She bade him go to his cousin Eurystheus, King of Myceane and submit to whatever he demanded of him.
He went willingly, willing to do anything that could make him clean again.
Eurystheus was by no means stupid, but of a very ingenious turn of mind and when the strongest man on earth came to him humbly prepared to be his slave he devised a series of penances which from the point of view of difficulty could not have been improved upon.
It must be said that he was helped and urged on by Hera.
To the end of Hercules life she never forgave him for being Zeus’ son.
The tasks Eurystheus gave him to do are called the “Labors of Hercules”.
There were 12 of them and each one was all but impossible.
The second labor was to go to Lerna and kill a creature with 9 heads called the Hydra which lived in a swamp there.
This was hard to do because one of the heads was immortal, and the others almost as bad inasmuch as when Hercules chopped off one, two grew up instead.
Hercules was helped by his nephew Iolaus who brought him a burning brand with which he seared the neck as he cut each head off so that it could not sprout again.
When all had been chopped off he disposed of the one that was immortal by burying it securely under a rock.
Thanks Edith Hamilton
Painting:
18-1/2” high by 12-1/4” wide
Frame:
23” high by 17” wide