This 17th-century engraving depicting Hercules slaying the Hydra, created by Christoffel Jegher after a design by Peter Paul Rubens, exemplifies how classical mythological subjects continued to provide powerful symbolic frameworks for exploring human triumph over adversity in Baroque European culture. Based on Rubens' ceiling painting for London's Banqueting Hall, the print demonstrates how heroic narratives from Greek mythology were adapted to serve new cultural and political functions in early modern contexts.

The Hydra—a multi-headed serpent that grew two heads for each one cut off—represents a particularly powerful symbol of seemingly insurmountable challenges that require both strength and strategy to overcome. By depicting Hercules in the moment of victory, with an angel crowning him, the image creates visual rhetoric celebrating the triumph of heroic virtue over chaotic forces. This narrative framework provided Baroque audiences with compelling model for conceptualising human struggle against complex threats that resist straightforward solutions.

The collaborative nature of this work—Rubens providing the design, Jegher executing the engraving—exemplifies how printmaking facilitated broader circulation of mythological imagery during this period. By translating designs originally accessible only to elite audiences into more widely available prints, this process democratised access to mythological narratives and their associated symbolic frameworks. This wider circulation played crucial role in maintaining the cultural currency of classical references across diverse social contexts.

The engraving's impressive scale (620 x 382 mm) and the notation that it was published "with Rubens' privilege" indicates its significance as both artistic achievement and commercial product. The preservation of this print in the Museum Plantin-Moretus collection reflects ongoing cultural interest in understanding how classical mythological narratives were adapted to address changing cultural circumstances while maintaining connection to established symbolic traditions. The image thus provides valuable insight into how mythological frameworks continued to provide meaningful ways of conceptualising human experience during a period of profound political and religious transformation.