Lernaean Hydra was a gigantic, nine-headed water-serpent, a chthonic creature. It is associated with the underworld, and therefore symbolic with the subconscious. Hydra appears to be the shadow, or the ugly side of the ego which the individual does not accept as themselves and tries so hard to suppress. Hercules attempted to kill it by cutting the heads from the Hydra with the result being that multiple heads regrowned from each severed neck. In a symbolic way we are seeing the result of one who tries to destroy the shadow instead of assimilating it. From a psychological standpoint, you cannot destroy the shadow caused by anger, rejection and frustration, you cannot remove the negative. Instead, the individual has to accept these features of the psyche and bring them under his own control.
