In modern English hydra or hydra-headed can describe a difficult situation that has many parts or problems. This meaning comes from the monster’s multiplying heads: When Heracles cut off a head, two new ones would grow. The Hydra’s heads became a metaphor for problems that grow more complicated when people try to solve them. In Plato’s dialogue Euthydemus, Socrates compared a difficult argument to Heracles’ struggle with the monster.
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