Exactly what the title says it is.
This is adapted from Monsters and Villains of the Movies and Literature by Gerrie McCall, Dragons: Fearsome Monsters from Myth and Fiction by Gerrie McCall, and Mythical Monsters by Chris McNab.
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CLAWS: The Hydra's webbed feet possess claws that aid in heaving the massive body through the swamps. When in battle, the Hydra digs its claws into the earth and cannot be moved or stopped. BODY: The Hydra's massive, snakelike body has a huge gut for digesting cows, goats, men, women, and children. When it heaves its body through farmers' fields, all the crops are crushed and destroyed. HEADS: Nine vicious heads greet any of the Hydra's opponents. When one of these heads is cut off, another grows back in its place. One of the nine terrible heads is immortal and cannot be cut off. JAWS: The Hydra's breath reeks with a poison that pollutes the air and is deadly to any who inhale it.
Ancient Lerna conceals an entrance to the underworld, which is guarded by the terrible, nine-headed Hydra. Its poisonous breath fouls the air with a stench strong enough to kill a man. The Hydra also ranges through the countryside, flattening crops and terrifying locals. Neither livestock nor citizens are safe from the beast with nine ravenous heads. If any one of its heads is cut off, another immediately grows back in its place. Many people die of fright just from the sight of the Hydra. Everyone in Lerna believes the Hydra cannot be destroyed until the arrival of Hercules, who is determined to kill the menace.
Hercules fires flaming arrows into the Hydra's lair to draw it out into the open. He begins chopping off Hydra heads with his sword, only to discover they grow back as fast as he can lop them off. With a flaming torch in hand, Hercules's nephew comes to his aid by scorching the wound as soon as Hercules cuts off a head. When the bleeding stumps are burned, the heads cannot grow back. However, one of the Hydra's heads is immortal and cannot be removed by any weapon a person can make.
DID YOU KNOW?
To kill the Hydra's one immortal head, Hercules crushes its skull with an enormous club, and then rips off the head with his bare hands. He buries the head under a large rock, where it can no longer trouble anyone.
Hercules dips his arrowheads in the Hydra's poisonous blood, making them lethal.
When Hercules approaches the Hydra, he covers his mouth and nose with a cloth to avoid breathing its lethal fumes.
Killing the Hydra was the second labor of Hercules, a series of 12 tasks assigned to him by the king who sat on the throne that was originally intended for Hercules.
