2,000-year-old bronze fountain depicting Lernaean Hydra, the five-headed serpent of Greek mythology, coiled on a tree. Each of the five heads of the serpent served as a fountain mouth. It was located in the centre of the swimming pool of the Palaestra in Herculaneum, the town that was buried during the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. A replica stands in the pool in which it was found, and the original is here, on display in the Herculaneum museum. | International Man of History

The Hydra was a monster from Greek mythology with many snake-like heads. If you cut off one head, two more would grow back. It lived in the Lernaean marshes near Argos. Heracles, a Greek hero, had to defeat the Hydra as one of his twelve challenges. With help from his nephew Iolaus, they found a way to stop new heads from growing by burning the stumps after cutting them off. After beating the Hydra, Heracles used its poisonous blood to make his arrows deadly. #hydra #mythology #snakehead #reelsv