Hyda and Hyde, a town of Lydia, under mount Tmolus, which some suppose to be the same as Sardes.
Hydara, a town of Armenia. Strabo, bk. 12.
Hydarnes, one of the seven noble Persians who conspired to destroy the usurper Smerdis, &c. Herodotus, bks. 3 & 6.—Strabo, bk. 11.
Hydaspes, a river of Asia, flowing by Susa. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 211.——Another in India, now Behut or Chelum, the boundaries of Alexander’s conquests in the east. It falls into the Indus. Curtius, bk. 5, ch. 2.—Lucan, bk. 8, li. 227.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 22, li. 7.—Strabo, bk. 15.——A friend of Æneas, killed in the Rutulian war. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 10, li. 747.
Hydra, a celebrated monster, which infested the neighbourhood of the lake Lerna in Peloponnesus. It was the fruit of Echidna’s union with Typhon. It had 100 heads, according to Diodorus; 50, according to Simonides; and nine, according to the more received opinion of Apollodorus, Hyginus, &c. As soon as one of these heads was cut off, two immediately grew up if the wound was not stopped by fire. It was one of the labours of Hercules to destroy this dreadful monster, and this he easily effected with the assistance of Iolas, who applied a burning iron to the wounds as soon as one head was cut off. While Hercules was destroying the hydra, Juno, jealous of his glory, sent a sea-crab to bite his foot. This new enemy was soon despatched; and Juno, unable to succeed in her attempts to lessen the fame of Hercules, placed the crab among the constellations, where it is now called the Cancer. The conqueror dipped his arrows in the gall of the hydra, and, from that circumstance, all the wounds which he gave proved incurable and mortal. Hesiod, Theogony.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 5.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 17.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 69.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 4, li. 61.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 276; bk. 7, li. 658.
Hydraotes, a river of India, crossed by Alexander.
Hydrophŏria, a festival observed at Athens, called ἀπο του φορειν ὑδωρ, from carrying water. It was celebrated in commemoration of those who perished in the deluge of Deucalion and Ogyges.
Hydruntum and Hydrus, a city of Calabria, 50 miles south of Brundusium. As the distance from thence to Greece was only 60 miles, Pyrrhus, and afterwards Varro, Pompey’s lieutenant, meditated the building here a bridge across the Adriatic. Though so favourably situated, Hydrus, now called Otranto, is but an insignificant town, scarce containing 3000 inhabitants. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 11.—Cicero, bk. 15, Letters to Atticus, ltr. 21; bk. 16, ltr. 5.—Lucan, bk. 5, li. 375.
Hydrūsa, a town of Attica. Strabo, bk. 9.
Hyĕla, a town of Lucania. Strabo, bk. 6.