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 Greece ordered three new ironclads of the . "Hydra" was ordered from the "Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire" shipyard in St. Nazaire, France during the premiership of Charilaos Trikoupis. The ship, named for the island of Hydra, was launched in 1889, and by 1892, she and her sister-ships "Spetsai" and "Psara" were delivered to the Greek fleet. The ship was long between perpendiculars and had a beam of and a mean draft of . She displaced as built. She was powered by a pair of steam engines of unknown type; they were rated at and provided a top speed