Labor II: The Lernaian Hydra (page 384 lower, with art)

Chapter 13: Herakles

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Hesiod, Theogony 313-18

And again she [Echidna] bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying sword through the plans of Athena the spoil driver. Greek Text

London, British Museum 3205, Bioitian fibula, Herakles and the Hydra (on left); Herakles seizes neck of Hydra with left hand while holding sword in lowered right hand; next to Herakles’ right foot is crab; below, Iolaos saws at Hydra’s tail with harpé

london-boiotianherakles-hydra

H.B. Walters, Catalogue of the bronzes, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan, in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum (1899) p. 374, fig. 87

British Museum

Digital LIMC

Philadelphia, PA, University Museum 75-35-1: Boiotian fibula with Herakles and the Hydra; Herakles, on the right, wields a large sword against the Hydra; a crab is between his legs; Iolaos, on the left, cuts body of Hydra with a harpé

herakleshydraphiadelphia-2

W.N. Bates, “Two Labors of Heracles on a Geometric Fibula,” American Journal of Archaeology 15 no. 1 (1911), p. 3 fig. 2

Digital LIMC (no image)

Olympia Museum B 5800: bronze tripod leg fragment with Herakles and the Hydra; Herakles is on the right, with head of Hydra biting his knee; Iolaos is on the left, with a neck of Hydra wrapped around his leg

herhydratripodlegolympia

G.E. Hatzi, The Archaeological Museum of Olympia (John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation 2008), p. 103

Digital LIMC

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Artistic sources edited by R. Ross Holloway, Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor Emeritus, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown Univ., and Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, March 2023

Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, December 2020

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