HMS Hydra (A144) the first commission of HMS "Hydra". She was decommissioned and sold to the Indonesian Navy in 1986 and renamed KRI "Dewa Kembar" (Pennant Number 932); she was still in service in 2006. There have been eight ships of the name in the Royal Navy, named for the Hydra of Greek Mythology, a serpent with many heads (though nine is generally accepted as standard), the centre one of which was immortal. The monster was overcome and slain by Hercules. The ship's badge of HMS "Hydra" depicts the monster with seven heads. The ship's motto was "Ut Herculis Perseverantia" ("Like Hercules Persevere").
Heracles the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well. Many popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles; Alexandrian poets of the Hellenistic age drew his mythology into a high poetic and tragic atmosphere. His figure, which initially drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the