A Comparative Study of Chinese Xiangliu and Greek Hydra

Abstract

Mythology reflects ancient people’s primitive understanding of the origin of the world, natural phenomena and social life, so the mythological narration is usually full of imagination and symbolic meanings. In both Chinese and Greek Mythology, there is a similar legend of nine-headed snakes, which reflects those ancient people’s exploration of unaccountable great floods. These nine-headed monsters are called Xiangliu and Hydra respectively. According to Guideways Through Mountains and Seas , a classic collection of Chinese ancient stories, Xiangliu is the courtier of Gonggong, a legendary god of Water. Hydra in Greek mythology is a gigantic snake-like monster with nine heads, living near Lake Lerna. Both the two malicious beasts have nine heads, and are trouble-makers through taking advantage of floods, always producing poisonous smell and breath. Xiangliu has nine human faces, and his heads do not have the ability to regenerate, while Hydra has dragon-like heads with teeth and claws, and he has the ability to regenerate. Both stories are symbolic with hero-worshiping and flood-controlling themes, reflecting primitive common values in both cultures. Through comparing Xiangliu and Hydra, discussing their prototypes and their evolutionary forms in later works, we may have a better understanding of Chinese and western mythical stories, and then promote mutual respect to divergences.