Lernaian Hydra/Definition

From Greek mythology, a creature which resembled a snake with nine heads, and one of these heads was immortal. It was the second labor of Heracles to kill it; he succeeded with the assistance of Iolaos; the problem was that when one head was chopped off, two would grow back, but it was solved when Iaolos would cauterize the stumps as Heracles chopped off the heads. The immortal head was buried under a boulder. Source: Elizabeth Vandiver, Classics scholar, authority on Greek mythology and Greek tragedy, including the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Homer, and Virgil. This definition is based on her course Classical Mythology for The Teaching Company.