Learning Japanese with Berserk: Hydra
Added 2023-01-18 13:00:05 +0000 UTCAfter Norse mythology, Greek mythology! In episode 356, other than the word Jötunn for giants, we learn about the word for "hydra" from Raban. One such creature had first been seen in episode 305, but not been named. Miura uses the kanji 多頭蛇 for it, alongside the furigana ヒドラ (HIDORA). The word is composed of two parts: 多頭 (たとう), which means "many-headed" in this case, and 蛇 which means "snake" or "serpent". Fairly straightforward.
Interestingly, in Japanese ヒドラ isn't the common spelling for the mythological Greek monster of lake Lerna; it's ヒュドラー (HYUDORAA). However ヒドラ is used for a variety of things named after the beast, like Pluto's moon, the constellation, or the genus of invertebrates. There's no telling why Miura chose that particular spelling.
Another thing worth pointing out is that the monster in Berserk has nine heads, while the mythological beast is typically depicted as having seven. It is also not water-dwelling, nor does it seem to possess any poison. Lastly, its heads do regrow almost instantly, but they don't grow in numbers with each decapitation.
