How Many Heads can a Hydra Grow？ - Mythconceptions

So I made a video on Heracles, where I covered some of his early adventures, including his second labor, where he fights the Lernaean Hydra. And for all of my mythology cartoons, I'll get tons of comments from people comparing some of the ways that my retelling of a myth differs from its ancient sources. Which is exactly what I want. I want my videos to get people interested in the historical side of mythology, even if it means telling me that I got something wrong, intentionally or otherwise. But sometimes I have no idea where people are getting their information from, and I find myself headfirst down a rabbit hole trying to untangle classical mythology from people's modern misconceptions about it. Or should I say, myth-conceptions. I'm really proud of coming up with that. So, a lot of the comments in my Heracles cartoon were concerning the nature of the Hydra in Greek mythology. We all know that the popular idea of the Hydra is that it's a multi-headed, snake-like monster, and if you cut off one of its heads, two more will grow back in its place. You don't even need to be a mythology nerd to know that. And that concept is exactly what's described by the ancient writers Pseudo-Apollodorus and Diodorus Siculus, whose works on Heracles were the main sources that I referenced to form my version of his story. But I've seen a surprising number of people claiming that that version of the Hydra is wrong, that it's actually supposed to have a fixed number of heads, and when you cut one off, only one will grow back to replace it. Now, I know the version I went with isn't wrong. I just cited the sources I used. But that doesn't mean an alternate version couldn't have also existed. And since this other type of Hydra was completely new to me, I wanted to see if that was the case here. When I inquired about this to my viewers, most people pointed to a very popular video by The Mythology Guy, where he compares Disney's Hercules to the traditional Greek Heracles. And in that video, he says, The Hydra does not start with one head and then grow more after being decapitated. The Hydra has nine heads, and it simply regrows whatever heads are chopped off. And from there, my trail went cold, because The Mythology Guy DID NOT CITE ANY OF THE SOURCES HE USED FOR HIS VIDEO. But at this point, I had decided, probably against my better judgment, that I wouldn't rest until getting to the bottom of this mystery. So, hope you enjoy watching a guy hyperfixate on something extremely trivial, because that's what the better chunk of this video is gonna be. In the thumbnail for Mythology Guy's video, he appears to be holding a book called The Mythology Book, Big Ideas Simply Explained, which is a compendium of a bunch of different myths from all over the world told in easy-to-read synopses. These kinds of coffee table books on mythology will often oversimplify things or use creative license to fix up small details that a modern reader might find confusing or unsatisfying. So, I thought maybe Mythology Guy was using this book as a quick reference guide and then got its description of the Hydra mixed up with a primary source. I've certainly been guilty of mistakes like that in my videos. Except I went and got this book on Kindle, that's a $1.99 I'm never getting back, and found that its version of the Hydra was based on Pseudo-Apollodorus' description, one of the same sources that I used. So, what the gosh-flippin'-heck, Mythology Guy? Now, none of the other points he made in his Hercules video jumped out to me as ill-informed on classical mythology, so I still couldn't rule out the possibility that his statements on the Hydra were based on something credible. And that left me with a single option. To check every single ancient Greek source I could find mentioning the Hydra. Which wasn't actually that hard, because online resources like Theoi.com and the Perseus Digital Library exist, but I'm a slow reader, so it took a good chunk of my afternoon. Give me some credit. The oldest piece of Greek literature mentioning the Hydra seems to be Hesiod's Theogony, written around 700 BC. But Hesiod never actually describes the monster's appearance or mentions it having any sort of regenerative ability. But pretty soon after Hesiod's time, we see plenty of art and literature with the multi-headed Hydra we all know and love. The number of heads that it has does vary a bit, though. Sometimes it's 50, sometimes 100, sometimes just vaguely a lot. But most commonly, it had nine. So, in Mythology Guy's defense, if you wanted to depict, you know, the quintessential Hydra, nine heads would probably be the best number to go with. And according to Pseudo-Apollodorus, its central head was invincible, so Heracles had to just bury it under a rock after cutting it off. For the record, I knew about this, but didn't include it in my retelling because most other sources don't mention it. As for its regeneration, there appear to be no Greek sources saying it could only regrow one head at a time. Everything I've managed to find either says two or leaves the details a little vague. So yeah, no Greek sources supporting Mythology Guy's claim of single-head regeneration. And an internet bud of mine even took the liberty of sifting through some medieval bestiaries to see if that version of the Hydra could have come from that period. Thanks again, John. But again, there was nothing. And yeah, I was stumped at this point. I spent so long digging through all these old and obscure sources that I almost didn't realize the answer was right next to me the whole time. This is Dulaire's Book of Greek Myths. It is an awesome and beautifully illustrated book summarizing many of the most popular stories in Greek mythology. You can find it on the bookshelves of most people who went through a mythology phase in middle school, like me. However, it is not an ancient Greek source. It is a children's book published in 1967. While it perfectly captures everything I love about Greek mythology, it's not trying to do so with word-for-word accuracy to the ancient sources. So it takes plenty of creative liberties here and there, like with its description of the Hydra. Now, I don't know if this is where the mythology guy got his information, but it's the best contender I've found so far for where that version of the Hydra could have originated. Hey, I'm Jake from the future, which you could probably tell from my attire. And very soon after recording this video, like I literally woke up the next morning and saw this, I got a comment from the mythology guy himself saying that he was mistaken for saying that Hydras can't regrow extra heads. And I was right, that one of his sources was Dulaire's Book of Greek Myths. However, that's not actually where the trail ends. He also mentioned visiting a site in Greece years ago where there was a ceiling mural depicting the 12 labors of Heracles, and a label for that mural described the Hydra as only regrowing one head each. And he asked a tour gui- And he asked a tour guide about this who told him that the Hydra regrowing two heads was a later development. Now, an internet friend who works in museums said it's perfectly possible that the label was just mistaken and the tour guide didn't know any better. Thanks again, John. Again. Okay, this does not want to stay on. So I still feel confident that that version of the Hydra is not supported by Greek sources, since there still doesn't seem to be any literature supporting it. But if someone can figure out where exactly mythology guy saw this mural, unfortunately he doesn't remember, then that could potentially shed more light on the subject. For now, I'm pretty confident in my conclusions. And thanks to Mythology Guy for helping out. Back to you, Jake from the past. So now that I've more or less solved the mystery, I'm left to ask myself... Was it worth it to make a whole video about this? The Hydra misconception isn't very widespread. And even if it was, you know, the world is gonna keep spinning. Biden isn't gonna have to press the nuke button. And I certainly shouldn't feel the need to defend myself against every ill-informed nitpick someone makes at my cartoons, when I mainly just make them for entertainment. That just makes me look insecure. Which I am, but, you know, I don't want to look like it. But this whole thing, as little as it is, is part of a bigger issue I see in discussions about mythology on the internet. And that issue bugs me, I think, for valid reasons. The people who make those nitpicky comments clearly care about how modern depictions of Greek myths compare to their original sources. But they don't seem to care about trying to verify whether the information that they're sharing is supported by those original sources. Usually, when someone makes a dubious claim, and you ask for clarification, or you show them a source that challenges their stance, they hit you with, Oh, well, you know, there's tons of different versions of every myth. Which is true, but you don't get to claim a specific version existed if you can't point to a source backing it up. Everything we know about Greek mythology, we know because somebody wrote it down. Or painted it on something, you know what I mean. And it's fine to learn about mythology mainly from secondary sources, like modern books, or YouTubers like me and Mythology Guy. But secondary sources, especially those bent more towards entertainment, can often get things wrong. So if there's something super specific you want to know, or you need to settle an argument in a comment thread, it's not hard to just check theoi.com for something you can cite. And you can also just sit down and read the classical sources. A lot of them are admittedly pretty dry. Hesiod's entire paragraphs where he's just listing the names of a bunch of minor gods you don't care about, or passive-aggressively telling his brother how to be a better farmer, aren't exactly riveting literature. But the library by Pseudo-Apollodorus is actually a super easy read that covers most of the big myths, and I highly recommend it. You can read it for free on Theoi, or if you want the same translation that I have, I'll leave an affiliate link to buy it in the doobly-doo. So yeah, finding accurate information on Greek mythology is not as hard as I think most people assume it is. And I wanted to make this video as a way of showing how you can be very easily misled if you just stick to modern sources. Oh, and for the love of God, don't take this video as me, like, trying to start a beef with the Mythology Guy because he got one thing wrong. Again, I've made the exact same kind of mistake in my own videos, and I'm positive I will again. If there's any takeaway from this video, it should be that no one person is the authority on Greek mythology. The classical sources are the authority.