The Second Labor – A Non-Canonical Interpretation for the Lernaean Hydra

454, Lot: 289. Estimate $300. Sold for $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (33mm, 22.64 g, 12h). Labor of Hercules type. Dated RY 5 (AD 141/142). Laureate head right / Herakles and the Lernaean Hydra – Herakles standing left, lion skin over his left shoulder, holding club overhead with his right hand, in his left hand is the right arm-tentacle of the anthropomorphized Lernaean Hydra; [L] Є (date) across field. Köln –; Voegtli Type 2 (pl. 12e); Dattari (Savio) 2598-9 var. (obv. bust type?); K&G –; RPC IV.4 Online 15769 var. (same); Emmett 1545.5 (R5). Brown, black, and green surfaces with traces of lacquer, some smoothing and tooling. VF. Extremely rare, especially for this regnal year. SOLD AS IS, NO RETURNS.

For his second labor, Herakles had to kill the Lernaean Hydra, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and the sibling of the Nemean Lion, the Chimaera, and Kerberos. Inhabiting the swamp near Lake Lerna in the Argolid, the creature possessed numerous mortal and one immortal head on its single body; should one head be removed, two more would grow in its place. When Herakles reached the swamp where the Hydra dwelt, he drew it out of its lair near the spring of Amymone. Thereupon, wielding a harvesting sickle, he attempted to decapitate the creature. When this proved unsuccessful, because of the Hydra’s regenerative ability, Herakles enlisted the assistance of his nephew Iolaos, who devised a plan: once Herakles had cut off one of the creature’s heads, Iolaos would cauterize the stump with a burning firebrand. The plan succeeded, and the Hydra was destroyed. Herakles placed its one immortal head under a large rock on the sacred way between Lerna and Elaius and dipped his arrows in its poisonous blood.

On this rare Alexandrian type, Hydra is anthropomorphized as a giantess, which has been interpreted in the past as “the giantess Echidna raising her son Hydra against Herakles in defense.” It remains a mystery as to why the engravers at the Alexandrian mint chose this non-canonical interpretation for the Lernaean Hydra, especially when other provincial mints that struck coins for the various labors used the more traditional representation.