Heracles’ (Hercules’) task of killing the hydra

Heracles’ (Hercules’) task of killing the hydra
by valpetridis @ 2008-05-25 - 16:47:30
At first the hydra is described as a monster that had nine heads and cutting one of the heads off made two grow in its place. It took fire to destroy the head and not have two grow back. This is an analogy for a military tactic. The hydra was a symbol of a sea fairing Celtic nation. Traditionally dragons, like hydra, were used by nations, esp. Celts, to symbolise thier nation. If one cut off one of the colonies from one of the seven heads of this empire you would cause the cut off colony to put someone in charge and thus gain a new head or leader to the colonial empire of the hydra. The only way to avoid this was to raze the colony rather than cutting it off, each colony was top self sufficient to be blockaded and destroyed. This sea faring association or empire had 9 leaders or centers at the time Hercules started his tasks. They were impinging on the Greeks and cutting them off from the body of the association forced a new center or leadership to crop up. Razing was the only way to truly destroy a colony and avoid it becoming a new kingdom in the association or empire of the hydra, thus razing by fire was the only way to stop the hydra from growing a new head thus the one kingdom whose colony it was would not suddenly have two heads.
I will look at more Heraclean tasks next week.