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
Battle of the Lerna Mills Battle of the Lerna Mills The Battle of the Lerna Mills was fought on June 24, 1825 in Lerna, Greece between the Egyptian forces of Ibrahim Pasha and Greek forces led by Captain Ioannis Makrygiannis, Demetrios Ypsilantis and Konstantinos Mavromichalis. After the Greek army (led by Theodoros Kolokotronis) fled to Karitena, Ibrahim's forces captured Tripolitsa, which was completely abandoned. Immediately afterwards, Ibrahim sent 5000 soldiers to the plains of Argos in order to seize Nafplion. When Ibrahim's forces reached the mills of Lerna on June 24, Captain Makrygiannis and Mavromichalis organized a resistance force containing 350 Greek soldiers (Walter Alison