Ziz

The Ziz is the monstrous bird of Jewish legend, third of the primordial trio alongside Leviathan and Behemoth. Derived by the rabbis from the obscure phrase ziz sadai in Psalm 50, it is imagined as a creature of such size that its head touches the sky while its feet stand on the earth, and its outspread wings darken the sun. It guards the smaller birds and stays the destructive south wind with its pinions. Like its companions of sea and land, the Ziz is destined to be served at the eschatological banquet of the just.

Domains

• sky

Powers

• eclipses the sun with its wings
• shields the earth from the southern gale

Epithets

• זִיז שָׂדַי

Relations

• companion: Leviathan
• companion: Behemoth

Sources

• Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 73b
• Leviticus Rabbah 22:10
• Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 68-69