Lernaean Hydra just to slay Heracles. Upon reaching the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelt, Heracles covered his mouth and nose with a cloth to protect himself from the poisonous fumes. He shot flaming arrows into the Hydra's lair, the spring of Amymone, a deep cave from which it emerged only to terrorize neighboring villages. He then confronted the Hydra, wielding either a harvesting sickle (according to some early vase-paintings), a sword, or his famed club. The chthonic creature's reaction to this decapitation was botanical: two grew back, an expression of the hopelessness of such a struggle for any but
Greek ironclad Hydra Greek ironclad Hydra Hydra () was an ironclad warship of the Greek Navy, named for Hydra, one of the Saronic Gulf islands which played a key role in the war at sea during the Greek War of Independence. The lead ship of her class of ironclads, she was ordered in 1885 in response to a crisis in the Balkans and Ottoman naval expansion. The ship was launched in 1889 and delivered to Greece by 1892. She was armed with a main battery of three guns and five guns, and had a top speed of . "Hydra" and her sisters saw