Like Father, like Son: Altar shows heroic son of Hercules slaying a many-headed Hydra

A second century AD altarpiece carved in marble and showing a strongman battling a monster has been found near a river by villagers in Turkey. Experts think the mythic scene may depict Bargasos, a son of the hero Hercules, doing battle with a Hydra to invoke the river god Harpasos. An inscription across the top dedicates the altar to Harpasos.

Live Science reports that villagers found the altar near the River Akçay in an area that was controlled by the Roman Empire in the second century. When the altar was carved, at the behest of a man named Flavius Ouliades, the river was called the Harpasos.