Herakles (Hercules) and the Hydra
King Eurystheus then told Hercules he had to go
kill the Hydra. The Hydra was a huge snake with seven heads. Hercules
thought, "Well, that sounds easy. I'll just go cut off its heads with
my sword." But when he was fighting the Hydra, he realized that whenever
he cut off a head, two more grew back out of the neck! By fighting the
Hydra, Hercules was only making it stronger.
So Hercules thought of another plan. Instead of cutting off the heads,
he smashed them between two rocks. Then the heads did not grow back,
and so Hercules was able to kill the Hydra.
(Hercules is an enemy of Hera, and Hera
is an Earth goddess, and earth goddesses are always associated with
snakes, that crawl on the earth).
Here's a video of Hercules fighting the Hydra