Hydra Traditional Cache

Hydra constellation is usually associated with the second of Heracles’ labours in Greek mythology. Hydra was a giant multi-headed creature fathered by the monster Typhon and Echidna, who was half-woman, half-serpent. The dragon Ladon, that guarded the garden of the Hesperides, was Hydra’s brother. The dragon, also killed by Heracles, is represented by the constellation Draco, while the hero is commemorated by the constellation Hercules. In mythology, Hydra had nine heads and one of them was immortal. The celestial Hydra is depicted with only one head, presumably the immortal one. The monster lived near the town of Lerna, where it ravaged the land and killed cattle. Heracles, faced with a difficult task, first shot flaming arrows into the Hydra’s lair and smoked it out. Then he fought with it, smashing the creature’s heads one by one with his club. Every time he smashed one, two new heads would grow in its place.While the two fought, Heracles was distracted by a crab, which crawled out of the swamp and attacked his foot. Heracles killed the crab and Hera, a sworn enemy of his, placed it among the stars as the constellation Cancer. Heracles was able to defeat the Hydra when his charioteer Iolaus helped him by burning the stumps of each head that Heracles struck off, and eventually Heracles cut off the immortal head and buried it under a rock. He dipped his arrows in Hydra’s poisonous blood, which would eventually lead to his own death. In a different myth, the constellation Hydra is associated with the water snake on which Apollo’s crow blamed its tardiness. The god had sent the bird, represented by the constellation Corvus, to fetch him some water in a cup. The cup is associated with the constellation Crater. The crow was distracted by a fig tree and stopped to feast. When it finally returned to Apollo, it said the water snake was to blame, but the god saw through the bird’s lie and punished it by placing it into the sky. Apollo also turned the water snake and the cup into constellations. In the sky, the water snake (Hydra) eternally prevents the crow (Corvus) from drinking out of the cup (Crater).