Lernaean Hydra?

What's the Chronology of Tiryns? · Lernaean Hydra?

🇬🇷 Tiryns & Lerna (Myloi), Peloponnese Greece. Hercules and The Origins of Greek Mythology.
Greece Explored 🇬🇷 | 3 May 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22vcPRfSFv8

I had speculated that Lernaean marshes were so far off that Hercules basically could invent anything he liked about what he had fought.

Not really.

Lerna is today known as Myloi, and it's less than 11 km, actually 10.4 km or 7 miles from Tiryns.

What I learned in this video is, it was a pre-Mycenaean site. Wiki dates it to 2700 BC, which would be around 1687, when Joseph died in Egypt, according to my tables. In the video they say 2500 BC which would be 20 years later, in 1667 BC.

Starting out 1700 BC

87.541 pmC, dated as 2800 BC

1687

Joseph dies.

1678 BC

89.449 pmC, dated as 2600 BC

1656 BC

91.353 pmC, dated as 2404 BC

Before you say "that's when Mycenean Greece starts" ... no. Carbon dated 1600 BC or 1609 BC is 1511, the year of the Exodus:

1511 BC

98.822 pmC, dated as 1609 BC = 1600 BC

So, Lerna is, if not 700 years at least 156 years older than the Mycenaeans.

Other fact I learned, Lerna probably had a huge symbolic and religious significance. This means that the Lernaean Hydra could represent some religious imagination:

In ancient Mesopotamia, Nirah, the messenger god of Ištaran, was represented as a serpent on kudurrus, or boundary stones.[26] Representations of two intertwined serpents are common in Sumerian art and Neo-Sumerian artwork[26] and still appear sporadically on cylinder seals and amulets until as late as the thirteenth century BC.[26]

Ištaran's character is poorly understood,[16] even though he belonged to a "very high level in the pantheon".[4] It is known that he was primarily viewed as a divine judge.[17] ... Based on Ištaran's placement in the proximity of Ereshkigal in the god list An = Anum it has been suggested that he was associated with the underworld.[19]

The two wikis, Snakes in Mythology and Ištaran footnote to 26) Black, Jeremy; Green, Anthony (1992). Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. pp. 166–168. ISBN 0714117056. / 16,19) pp. 34 and 42 Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (1997). "Transtigridian Snake Gods". In Finkel, I. L.; Geller, M. J. (eds.). Sumerian Gods and their Representations. STYX Publications. ISBN 978-90-56-93005-9. / 4) Lambert, Wilfred G. (1980), "Ištarān", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-04-17 / 17) p. 72 Woods, Christopher E. (2004). "The Sun-God Tablet of Nabû-apla-iddina Revisited". (Consult with paid subscription) Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 56. American Schools of Oriental Research: 23–103. doi:10.2307/3515920. ISSN 0022-0256. JSTOR 3515920. S2CID 163512399. Retrieved 2022-04-17.

So, overall, this snakelike god is supposed to be the Mesopotamian version of Osiris or of Minos, judge of the dead.

I think the best explanation for the second and twelfth labours of Hercules is, Lerna had a literal death cult, and Hercules overturned it. Figures of speech or optic illusions used by the former priesthood there contributed to the idea that Hercules had been dealing with many headed beasts (Hydra and Cerberus). Also, that cult would have been more Mesopotamian in inspiration. When Hercules interfered, that cult lost its power, and a more Greek as we think of it religiosity started forming.

Remember, of the Labours, only First: Nemean lion, Second: Lernaean Hydra, Third: Ceryneian Hind, Fourth: Erymanthian Boar, Fifth: Augean stables, Sixth: Stymphalian birds take place in the vicinity of Tiryns. Of these, only the Hydra concerns sth which biologically shouldn't exist. Given that one beast in the Apocalypse is kind of modelled on this Hydra, we can conclude that the End Times Beast-from-the-Sea is in fact a kind of death cult. We have some of those around these days. The ensuing labours, Seventh: Cretan Bull, Eighth: Mares of Diomedes, Ninth: Belt of Hippolyta, Tenth: Cattle of Geryon take place far off, where no one from Tiryns except himself and possible companions could check. The last two, Eleventh: Golden apples of the Hesperides, Twelfth: Cerberus, I have long considered simply due to his capacity of bragging. But Cerberus could also be a reflex of his dethroning the Pagan clergy of Lerna.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Sosthenes
28.XI.2025

Apud Corinthum natalis sancti Sosthenis, ex beati Pauli Apostoli discipulis; cujus mentionem facit idem Apostolus Corinthiis scribens. Ipse autem Sosthenes, ex principe Synagogae conversus ad Christum, fidei suae primordia, ante Gallionem Proconsulem acriter verberatus, praeclaro initio consecravit.

PS, the cited tables of conversion from carbon dates to real and Biblical ones, is part three of this series: Newer Tables: Preliminaries · Flood to Joseph in Egypt · Joseph in Egypt to Fall of Troy.