Leviathan
Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) · numen · Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Leviathan is the great serpent of the sea in Jewish myth, drawn from the biblical monster of Job, Isaiah and the Psalms and elaborated in the aggadah of the Babylonian Talmud. God is said to have created a male and a female Leviathan, then slain the female to prevent the pair from multiplying and destroying the world, salting her flesh for the messianic banquet at which the righteous will dine. Its coiled body encircles the ocean, and God is said to sport with it daily. Together with Behemoth and the bird Ziz it forms the triad of primordial creatures ruling sea, land and sky.
Domains
- sea
- primordial chaos
Powers
- coils the primordial deep
- furnishes the banquet of the righteous
Epithets
- נָחָשׁ בָּרִיחַ — the fleeing serpentIsaiah 27:1 (primary)
- נָחָשׁ עֲקַלָּתוֹן — the twisting serpentIsaiah 27:1 (primary)
Relations
- companion: BehemothThe two monsters of sea and land, male and female, reserved together for the end of days.1 Enoch 60:7-9 (primary)
- companion: ZizOne of the three primordial creatures of sea, land and sky.Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, vol. 1 (Jewish Publication Society, 1909), pp. 27-30 (secondary)
Sources
- Leviathan is the primordial sea-monster whom God created, killing the female of the pair lest they overwhelm the world, and reserving her flesh for the eschatological feast of the righteous.: Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 74b-75a (primary); Job 40:25-41:26 (primary); Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 63-66 (secondary)