This page needs to be read in partnership with the pages on Tehom/Tiamat, Bohu/Behemot, Nachash/Nechushtan, Rachav and Taninim, as these are all aspects or variants of the same paradigm. Liv-Yatan is also connected with Lotan.
The same is probably true of Rachav (Rahab), "the Celestial Prince of Egypt"; though there are also scholars who see him as Greek Oceanus. Liv-Yatan's monstrous tusks spread terror, his mouth issued fire and flame, his nostrils smoke, and his eyes a fierce beam of light; his heart knows nothing of mercy or pity. As such he is like the Great Dragon who will be dispatched on the Day of Reckoning. The Great Dragon was originally captured by Elohim, who trapped him in a fishing net with all his progeny and shattered their skulls and pierced their sides. In Job, Elohim is said to have captured Liv-Yatan in like manner (Job 41), using a hook which pierced his extraordinary scales, then hauled him up from the Deep, tied down his tongue with a rope, thrust a reed through his nostrils, pierced his jaws with a thorn and then threw the carcass back into the sea.
With all these stories, death does not mean death, and the creatures seem to live on despite dying. Liv-Yatan, after the creation of the fishes and other sea-beasts, was given dominion over the seas and a throne on a colossal underwater rock.In some versions he grew a number of heads, or there were two creatures, both named Liv-Yatan - the Fleeing Serpent and the Crooked Serpent - see again Isaiah 27:1, but also my account of Tiamat. Other versions have him tamed by the angel Yahu-El who took him out on a lead for sport three times a day. Great sea-dragons furnished his food, the Yarden (Jordan) his drinking water, where it flows through a secret channel into the open sea. When hungry he emits a smoky vapour that upsets the water; when thirsty he causes such a turmoil that the seas need seventy years to settle down again and even his earth-twin Behemot of the Thousand Mountains lives in awe of him. But Liv-Yatan does fear one creature: the tiny Chalkis fish (probably a sardine, or herring), which Elohim created specially to keep Liv-Yatan under control.
Some say that Liv-Yatan was confined in an ocean cave where the whole weight of the world rests on his back. His body lies on that of Tehom, to prevent her from flooding the earth. But the sea water is too salty for him, so he occasionally has to lift one fin: in that instant Tehom's sweet waters gush out and he can drink. Some say he has 365 eyes, one for each day of the year and radiant scales that can obscure the very sun; that he grips his tail between his teeth and forms a ring around the ocean. The lower firmament, which is one of the zodiacal signs, is therefore also called Liv-Yatan.
The two-Liv-Yatan version is probably an alternative to the Liv-Yatan-Behemot twinning, which is also seen in male-female terms; but the marriage and mating did not take place lest the whole Earth collapse in its wake. Some predict that Liv-Yatan and Behemot will one day fight a duel and kill each other (in the Arthurian version of the myth, they do, the White and the Red Dragon in this case; and in the Ring of the Nibelungen, Fafner and Fasolt likewise).
In some versions (notably Job) Liv-Yatan is a crocodile, in others (notably Jonah) a whale. Ezekiel 29:3 calls Egypt "the great dragon that lies among the rivers" which refers to a song of Pharaoh Tut-Mousa III: "I let the vanquished behold your Majesty in the likeness of a crocodile feared in the waters, which no man dares approach"; interestingly, the following verse in Ezekiel threatens to do to him precisely what Elohim did to Liv-Yatan in Job 41.
Crocodiles were worshiped at Crocodilopolis, Ombos, Coptos, Athribis and Thebes. Their mummies have been found in several Egyptian tombs; they were native creatures to the Middle East until very recently. Their principal god was named Sobek. Crocodiles are salt-water creatures, where alligators prefer the "sweetness" of freshwaters.
Psalm 74:14 refers to Liv-Yatan, probably in this case the seven-headed monster of the Beney Chet (Hittites) and Ugarit.
There is also a third monster, Hel, in the Norse Creation myth, who rules the Underworld, and like Liv-Yatan of the sea and Behemot of the land has equivalents in mythologies from all around the world - see my notes to Genesis 3.
"The Leviathan" is the title of one of the seminal works of the European Enlightenment, by Thomas Hobbes.
Copyright © 2021 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment