Ancient Greece was a developed, advanced civilization; and we are lucky to have access to knowledge of their society passed down through millennia for our benefit. The founders of our nation were students of the Greek philosophy of government and the ideals of freedom, liberty, and equality. Our Constitution was constructed with the influence of their enlightened principles ,which gave us the foundations of our representative democracy.

In addition to philosophers and historians whose work has been preserved, the Greeks had great storytellers. Greek mythology was full of allegory and symbolism, where we can even today pick up important life lessons. Even though the stories revolve around gods and super-human heroes, they can apply to the mere mortals of today. In fact, the gods of the Greeks (and also the Romans, as many of their gods are analogous) act much like humans, each seeming to represent mortal foibles such as jealousy and revenge.

We can draw some contemporary parallels from their story of the Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed serpent. Versions of the Hydra motif varied by time and author, the oldest we know of dating to around 700 B.C., and continuing through many Greek writers; most well-known being Euripides and Virgil. The many-headed monster is a long-established theme shared across cultures, having similar counterparts in ancient Near eastern religions for instance. It occurs as part of the archetypical notion of a heroic odyssey, also shared broadly across world cultures.

Where is the modern Hydra lurking? The Hydra in Greek mythology hid in the marshes of Lerna, and was believed to guard the entrance to the underworld. The hero Hercules was required by the gods, specifically a vengeful Hera, to perform 12 labors, the second of which was to eliminate the Hydra. How Hercules accomplished his task may give some insights into our current national fracturization dilemma.

As Hercules fought the Hydra, he attempted to down it with a club, but simple brute force didn’t faze it. He resorted to a sword, symbolic of a more noble approach, but found that each time he severed one of the heads of the serpent, it not only grew back, but it multiplied. According to the storytellers, the Hydra had one immortal head, which controlled the rest. Only by somehow removing this head would the Hydra be defeated. The controlling head of our modern Hydra is hidden behind many other heads, which when removed, come back in even more extreme forms. Our Hydra has been menacing for some time now, and chipping at it one head at a time has shown it to only get bigger.

Some of the Hydra heads that our country is facing have been reiterating and rejuvenating even as attempts are made to defeat them. The head of racism that began as the shipping of slaves by the European settlers to the New World has continued to multiply with its current heads presenting as White Supremacists, neo-Nazis, brutal police, opponents of teaching the true history of slavery in schools, including members of congress – Steve King (former representative from Iowa) and Paul Gosar, representative from Arizona, who make the speaking rounds to White Nationalist events. Gosar is even spurned by his family who endorsed his election opponent. The head that belonged to corporate greed began multiplying during the industrial revolution and now each of its replications are multi-billionaires who belong to 1% of the population owning 90% of the wealth, like Amazon tycoon, Jeff Bezos. They have powerful lobbyists, like the NRA head, whose influence keeps meaningful gun reform at bay. The twisted head of some (not all) evangelical Christians seeks to take away women’s rights and infiltrate religion into government where it doesn’t belong. The Head that represents political corruption has multiplied exponentially with the entrance of Donald Trump into the arena.

The Hydra head that spreads lies and conspiracies contributes to unrest and violence, the inaccurate information on COVID has caused unnecessary deaths, and the head has multiplied since there is very limited regulation on truth in social media and on so-called news channels, like Fox and OAN.

Hercules finally overcame the Hydra by enlisting the aid of his nephew, Iolaus, to burn the severed stubs as he cut them off so they would not grow back. He eventually made it to the immortal head which he removed from the body so it could no longer control it. By being smart and working as a team, the Hydra’s threat was neutralized. Who and how will our Hydra be taken care of? Joe Biden has taken on the Herculean task. He has wisdom, experience, and the ability to form coalitions to work together, bipartisan where possible.

What approach might work today to overcome the modern Hydra? Hercules had to adapt his strategy. One of the lessons we can learn from this Greek myth is that it is a metaphor for a saying possibly attributed to Einstein that you can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results. (The same goes for counting votes over and over.)

Incidentally, there was another version of the Hydra story. In 1963, a movie was produced called “Jason and the Argonauts.” In it, the Hydra had teeth that when scattered in front of Jason and his men, turned into skeleton warriors. So just when this hero thought he had succeeded, he faced another attack from what was left of the Hydra. Any allegorical story is open to interpretation, and the Greeks were masters of that. Draw your own conclusions. I’m paraphrasing a T Rex lyric, we have “the teeth of the Hydra upon” us.

Susan Bigler is a Sheridan resident.