Leviathan
Leviathan West AsiaLiterally, ‘coiled’. The sea serpent of Hebrew myth, a restatement of the chaos-dragon Tiamat, is the same as the Ras Shamra Lotan, the seven-headed monster slain by Anat. The apocryphal Book of Enoch speaks of a companion beast. ‘And in that day will two monsters be separated a female named Leviathan to dwell in the abyss over the fountains of waters. But the male is called Behemoth which occupies with his breasts an immeasurable desert named Dendain.’ The Talmud, a compendium of the teachings of later Rabbis, states that the fins of Leviathan radiate such brilliant light as to obscure the rays of the sun. Though the plaything of Yahweh, in the last days of the world the sea serpent will repulse attacks from angels, till Behemoth kills it. According to Islamic tradition, Allah used Behemoth not as a destroyer of dragons but a firm foundation for the world, a mighty back overarching the water and the darkness below the...
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