THE LERNEAN HYDRA. 49 



Apollodorus of Athens, son of Asclepiades, who wrote in 

 stiff, quaint Greek about 120 B.C., gives in his 'BibHotheca ' 

 (book ii. chapter 5, section 2) the following account of the 

 many-headed monster. " This Hydra," he says, " nourished 

 in the marshes of Lerne, went forth into the open country 

 and destroyed the herds of the land. It had a huge body 

 and nine heads, eight mortal, but the ninth immortal. 

 Having mounted his chariot, which was driven by lolaus, 

 Hercules got to Lerne and stopped his horses. Finding 

 the Hydra on a certain raised ground near the source of the 

 Amymon, where its lair was, he made it come out by pelt- 

 ing it with burning missiles. He seized and stopped it, but 

 having twisted itself round one of his feet, it struggled with 

 him. He broke its head with his club : but that was use- 

 less ; for when one head was broken two sprang up, and a 

 huge crab helped the Hydra by biting the foot of Hercules. 

 This he killed, and called lolaus, who, setting on fire part 

 of the adjoining forest, burned with torches the germs of 

 the growing heads, and stopped their development. Hav- 

 ing thus out-manceuvred the growing heads, he cut off the 

 immortal head, buried it, and put a heavy stone upon it, 

 beside the road going from Lerne to Eleonta, and having 

 opened the Hydra, dipped his arrows in its gall." 



If we wish to find in nature the counterpart of this 

 Hydra, we must seek, firstly, for an animal with eight out- 

 growths from its trunk, which it can develop afresh, or 

 replace by new ones, in case of any or all of them being 

 amputated or injured. We must also show that this 

 animal, so strange in form and possessing such remarkable 

 attributes, was well known in the locality where the legend 

 was believed. We have it in the octopus, which abounded 

 in the Mediterranean and .^gean seas, and whose eight 

 prehensile arms, or tentacles, spring from its central body, 



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