Why am I hearing the word 'leviathan'...I don't think
leviathan is an octopus per say.. moreso a multiheaded
hydra Serpent beast/sea monster..but ya.. it's liken to
an octopus in that it's tentacles encompasses and
squeezes the whole planet!
From wiki...
Leviathan (/lɪˈvaɪ.əθən/ liv-EYE-ə-thən; Hebrew: לִוְיָתָן,
romanized: Līvyāṯān) is a sea serpent noted in theology
and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the
Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the
Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to
some translations, in the Book of Jonah;[citation
needed] it is also mentioned in the Book of Enoch. The
Leviathan is often an embodiment of chaos and
threatening to eat the damned after their life. In the
end, it is annihilated. Christian theologians
identified Leviathan with the demon of the deadly sin
envy. According to Ophite diagrams, the Leviathan
encapsulates the space of the material world.
The Destruction of Leviathan by Gustave Doré (1865)
The Leviathan of the Book of Job is a reflection of the
older Canaanite Lotan, a primeval monster defeated by
the god Baal Hadad.[1][2] Parallels to the role of
Mesopotamian Tiamat defeated by Marduk have long been
drawn in comparative mythology, as have been wider
comparisons to dragon and world serpent narratives such
as Indra slaying Vrtra or Thor slaying Jörmungandr.[3]
Leviathan also figures in the Hebrew Bible as a
metaphor for a powerful enemy, notably Babylon (Isaiah
27:1). Some 19th-century scholars pragmatically
interpreted it as referring to large aquatic creatures,
such as the crocodile.[4] The word later came to be
used as a term for great whale, and for sea monsters in
general. Snip...
Judaism...
Later Jewish sources describe Leviathan as a dragon who
lives over the sources of the Deep and who, along with
the male land-monster Behemoth, will be served up to
the righteous at the end of time. The Book of Enoch
(60:7–9) describes Leviathan as a female monster
dwelling in the watery abyss (as Tiamat), while
Behemoth is a male monster living in the desert of
Dunaydin ("east of Eden").[12]
When the Jewish midrash (explanations of the Tanakh)
were being composed, it was held that God originally
produced a male and a female leviathan, but lest in
multiplying the species should destroy the world, he
slew the female, reserving her flesh for the banquet
that will be given to the righteous on the advent of
the Messiah.[22][23] A similar description appears in
Book of Enoch (60:24), which describes how the Behemoth
and Leviathan will be prepared as part of an
eschatological meal.
Rashi's commentary on Genesis 1:21 repeats the
tradition:
the...sea monsters: The great fish in the sea, and in
the words of the Aggadah (B.B. 74b), this refers to the
Leviathan and its mate, for He created them male and
female, and He slew the female and salted her away for
the righteous in the future, for if they would
propagate, the world could not exist because of them.
הַתַּנִינִם is written. [I.e., the final "yud", which denotes
the plural, is missing, hence the implication that the
Leviathan did not remain two, but that its number was
reduced to one.] – [from Gen. Rabbah 7:4, Midrash
Chaseroth V’Yetheroth, Batei Midrashoth, vol 2, p.
225].[24]
In the Talmud Baba Bathra 75 it is told that the
Leviathan will be slain and its flesh served as a feast
to the righteous in [the] Time to Come and its skin
used to cover the tent where the banquet will take
place. Those who do not deserve to consume its flesh
beneath the tent may receive various vestments of the
Leviathan varying from coverings (for the somewhat
deserving) to amulets (for the least deserving). The
remaining skin of the Leviathan will be spread onto the
walls of Jerusalem, thereby illuminating the world with
its brightness. The festival of Sukkot (Festival of
Booths) therefore concludes with a prayer recited upon
leaving the sukkah (booth): "May it be your will, Lord
our God and God of our forefathers, that just as I have
fulfilled and dwelt in this sukkah, so may I merit in
the coming year to dwell in the sukkah of the skin of
Leviathan. Next year in Jerusalem."[25]
The enormous size of the Leviathan is described by
Johanan bar Nappaha, from whom proceeded nearly all the
aggadot concerning this monster: "Once we went in a
ship and saw a fish which put his head out of the
water. He had horns upon which was written: 'I am one
of the meanest creatures that inhabit the sea. I am
three hundred miles in length, and enter this day into
the jaws of the Leviathan'".[26][23]
When the Leviathan is hungry, reports Rabbi Dimi in the
name of Rabbi Johanan, he sends forth from his mouth a
heat so great as to make all the waters of the deep
boil, and if he would put his head into Paradise no
living creature could endure the odor of him.[27] His
abode is the Mediterranean Sea; and the waters of the
Jordan fall into his mouth.[28][23]
In a legend recorded in the Midrash called Pirke de-
Rabbi Eliezer it is stated that the fish which
swallowed Jonah narrowly avoided being eaten by the
Leviathan, which eats one whale each day.[29]
The body of the Leviathan, especially his eyes,
possesses great illuminating power. This was the
opinion of Rabbi Eliezer, who, in the course of a
voyage in company with Rabbi Joshua, explained to the
latter, when frightened by the sudden appearance of a
brilliant light, that it probably proceeded from the
eyes of the Leviathan. He referred his companion to the
words of Job 41:18: "By his neesings a light doth
shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the
morning".[30] However, in spite of his supernatural
strength, the leviathan is afraid of a small worm
called "kilbit", which clings to the gills of large
fish and kills them.[31][23]
In the eleventh-century piyyut (religious poem),
Akdamut, recited on Shavuot (Pentecost), it is
envisioned that, ultimately, God will slaughter the
Leviathan, which is described as having "mighty fins"
(and, therefore, a kosher fish, not an inedible snake
or crocodile), and it will be served as a sumptuous
banquet for all the righteous in Heaven.
In the Zohar, the Leviathan is a metaphor for
enlightenment. The Zohar remarks that the legend of the
righteous eating the skin of the leviathan at the end
of the days is not literal, and merely a metaphor for
enlightenment.[32] The Zohar also specifies in detail
that the Leviathan has a mate.[33] The Zohar also
associates the metaphor of the leviathan with the
"tzaddik" or righteous in Zohar 2:11b and 3:58a. The
Zohar associates it with the "briach" the pole in the
middle of the boards of the tabernacle in Zohar 2:20a.
Both, are associated with the Sefira of Yesod.[34]
According to Abraham Isaac Kook, the Leviathan – a
singular creature with no mate, "its tail is placed in
its mouth" (Zohar) "twisting around and encompassing
the entire world" (Rashi on Baba Batra 74b) – projects
a vivid metaphor for the universe's underlying unity.
This unity will only be revealed in the future, when
the righteous will feast on the Leviathan.[35]
Christianity....
Leviathan can also be used as an image of the devil,
endangering both God's creatures—by attempting to eat
them—and God's creation—by threatening it with upheaval
in the waters of Chaos.[36] A "Dragon" (Drakon), being
the usual translation for the Leviathan in the
Septuaginta, appears in the Book of Revelation.
Although the Old Testament nowhere identifies the
Leviathan with the devil, the seven-headed dragon in
the Book of Revelation is.[37] By this the battle
between God and the primordial chaos monsters shifts to
a battle between God and the devil.[38] Only once, in
the Book of Job, the Leviathan is translated as Sea-
Monster (ketos).[38]
In the following chapter, a seven-headed beast,
described with the same features as the dragon before,
rises from the waters endowing a Beast of the Earth
with power. Dividing the beasts into monster of water
and one of dry earth is probably a recalling of the
monstrous pair Leviathan and Behemoth.[39] In
accordance with Isaiah 27:1, the dragon will be slain
by God on the last day and cast into the abyss.[38][39]
The annihilation of the chaos-monster results in a new
world of peace, without any trace of evil.[38]
Jerome comments on Psalm 104:26 that "this is the
dragon that was cast out of Paradise, that beguiled
Eve, and is permitted in this world to make sport of
us. How many monks and clerics has it dashed headlong!
“They all look to you to give them food in due time,”
for all the creatures of God live at His bidding."[40]
Thomas Aquinas described Leviathan as the demon of
envy, first in punishing the corresponding sinners
(Expositio super Iob ad litteram). Peter Binsfeld
likewise classified Leviathan as the demon of envy, as
one of the seven Princes of Hell corresponding to the
seven deadly sins. Leviathan became associated with,
and may originally have been referred to by, the visual
motif of the Hellmouth, a monstrous animal into whose
mouth the damned disappear at the Last Judgment, found
in Anglo-Saxon art from about 800, and later all over
Europe.[41][42]
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible suggests in a
footnote to Job 41:1 that Leviathan may be a name for
the crocodile, and in a footnote to Job 40:15, that
Behemoth may be a name for the hippopotamus.[43]
Satanism...
Anton LaVey in The Satanic Bible (1969) has Leviathan
representing the element of Water and the direction of
west, listing it as one of the Four Crown Princes of
Hell. This association was inspired by the demonic
hierarchy from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-
Melin the Mage. The Church of Satan uses the Hebrew
letters at each of the points of the Sigil of Baphomet
to represent Leviathan. Starting from the lowest point
of the pentagram, and reading counter-clockwise, the
word reads "לויתן": (Nun, Tav, Yod, Vav, Lamed) Hebrew
for "Leviathan".[44] snip...
Ps...I didn't know the significance of the letters of
the pentagram meant..I learn something new everyday!
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