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

Hercules and the Hydra (1634) was painted by the Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664). The Lernaean Hydra was a serpentine water monster from Greek mythology, and if you cut off one of his heads, three new ones would grow back. This painting shows the second of twelve labors of Hercules, where he elicits the help of his nephew to kill the Hydra by scorching each stump after decapitating a head, such that the new heads could not grow back. The serpent was actually created by the godde