Lerna
Lerna was a marshy region near Argos, famed as the lair of the Lernaean Hydra and believed to contain one of the entrances to the underworld.
The Story of Lerna
The marshes of Lerna were considered bottomless — the emperor Nero reportedly tried to plumb their depth and failed. Dionysus descended to the underworld through the Alcyonian Lake at Lerna to retrieve Semele. Heracles slew the Hydra here for his second labour. The site also figured in the myth of the Danaids, condemned to carry water in leaking jars for eternity. Archaeologically, Lerna was an important Early Bronze Age settlement.
Symbols
Fun Fact
The archaeological site at Lerna revealed one of the oldest monumental buildings in Europe — the "House of the Tiles," nearly 4,200 years old.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Taenarum
🏛 placeSacred geography
A promontory at the southern tip of the Peloponnese believed to contain an entrance to the underworld
Acheron
🏛 placeRiver of Woe in the underworld
The Acheron was the River of Woe in the underworld, which the dead had to cross — in some traditions it was Charon's river rather than the Styx.
Cape Taenarum
🏛 placeEntrance to the underworld
Cape Taenarum (modern Cape Matapan) at the southern tip of the Peloponnese was one of the most famous entrances to the underworld.
Lake Avernus
🏛 placeunderworld, entrance
A volcanic crater lake near Cumae believed to be an entrance to the Underworld, whose noxious fumes were said to kill birds flying overhead.
Acheron River
🏛 placeUnderworld geography
The river of woe in the Greek underworld across which the dead were ferried by Charon
Underworld
🏛 placeRealm of the dead
The Underworld was the vast subterranean realm where all mortal souls went after death — a geography of rivers, fields, and judges more detailed than any other mythological afterlife.
Corinth
🏛 placeCity of Sisyphus and Medea
Corinth was a wealthy trading city on the narrow isthmus connecting mainland Greece to the Peloponnese, associated with Sisyphus, Medea, Bellerophon, and Pegasus.
Crisa
🏛 placegeography
A Phocian city below Delphi, sometimes confused with Cirrha, associated with Apollo's arrival in central Greece.
Hades
🏛 placeUnderworld geography
The vast underground kingdom of the dead ruled by the god Hades and his queen Persephone
Tartarus
🏛 placeThe deepest pit of the underworld
The deepest abyss beneath the earth, as far below Hades as heaven is above earth. Tartarus was the prison of the Titans and the ultimate place of punishment.
Oracle of the Dead
🏛 placeunderworld, prophecy
The Oracle of the Dead at Ephyra in Epirus where the living consulted ghosts of the deceased through elaborate underground rituals.
Chersonese
🏛 placegeography
The narrow Thracian peninsula (modern Gallipoli), site of Protesilaus' sanctuary and Hecuba's transformation.