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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal Cycle

KTU 1.5 I

Though you struck Litan the wriggling serpent,⁠
finished off the writhing serpent,⁠
Encircler-with-seven-heads,⁠
the skies will be hot, they will shine
when I tear you in pieces: I shall devour you,
elbows, blood and forearms;
You will indeed go down into the throat of divine Mot (death),⁠
into the maw of the Beloved of El, the hero.
The gods departed and did not stay. Then they set their faces
towards the lord of the heights of Sapan,
and Gupan and Ugar said:
Message of divine Mot (death),
word of the Beloved of El, the hero:
My appetite is the appetite of the lion in the wasteland⁠
as the desire of the shark is in the sea;
as wild bulls yearn for pools, or the hind longs for the spring.
Look, in truth does my throat devour clay
and with both my hands I devour them.
My seven portions are on the plate,
and Nahar has mixed my cup.
For Baal did not invite me with my brothers,
nor did Haddu summon me with my kinsmen,
but he ate food with my brothers,
and drank wine with my kinsmen!
But you forget, Baal, that I can indeed pierce you,
Though you struck Litan the wriggling serpent,
finished off the writhing serpent,
Encircler-with-seven-heads, the heavens will be hot, they will shine
when I tear you in pieces, I shall devour you, thighs, blood and forearms; you will indeed go down into the throat of divine Mot (death), into the maw of the Beloved of El, the hero.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.5 I:3 and Kiddushin 29b

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Rabbinic

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Summary

The Ugaritic Baal cycle refers to a mythic serpent as the Encircler-with-seven-heads. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Kiddushin describes the demon of Abaye's study hall as a serpent with seven heads, likely preserving details of this Semitic tradition.

Passages

KTU 1.5 I:3

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Though you struck Litan the wriggling serpent, finished off the writhing serpent, Encircler-with-seven-heads, the skies will be hot, they will shine when I tear you in pieces: I shall devour you,
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Kiddushin 29b

Rabbinic · Babylonian Talmud
Abaye heard that Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov was coming. There was a certain demon in the study hall of Abaye, which was so powerful that when two people would enter they would be harmed, even during the day. Abaye said to the people of the town: Do not give Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov lodging [ushpiza] so that he will be forced to spend the night in the study hall. Since Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov is a righteous man, perhaps a miracle will occur on his behalf and he will kill the demon. Rav Aḥa found no place to spend the night, and he entered and spent the night in that study hall of the Sages. The demon appeared to him like a serpent with seven heads. Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov began to pray, and with every bow that he bowed one of the demon’s heads fell off, until it eventually died. The next day Rav Aḥa said to the townspeople: If a miracle had not occurred, you would have placed me in danger.
450–550 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Kiddushin

References

“... Several aspects of this wider culture as filtered through the Babylonians shed new light on the elusive tale of the seven-headed demon in B. Kiddushin 29b. Ancient Mesopotamian mythological accounts tell of a primordial battle between the gods that led to the creation of a mythic seven-headed snake warrior. According to the Babylonian epic of creation, the Enuma Elish, written during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I (r. c. 1125–1104 BCE), it was the goddess Tiamat who sought to destroy the gods who killed her husband. To build her army, Tiamat created eleven monsters, one of which was the Mušmaḫḫu, a giant serpent with seven heads. Though the other gods defeated Tiamat and her army in battle, the text suggests that the gods did not destroy the Mušmaḫḫu, but rather preserved it in some form in the primordial deep. In older Sumerian texts, the war-god Ninurta is described as vanquishing “the seven-mouthed mušmah serpent” and hanging its body from the “shining cross-beam” of his chariot. Sumerian and Akkadian visual images of Ninurta depict him using some sort of weapon to battle the beast. This idea was not exclusive to ancient Mesopotamia. To the west in Ras Shamra, in what is now northern Syria, the Ugaritic Baal Cycle also describes a series of battles between the gods. In a number of places, the goddess Anat declares, [...] Seven-headed serpents were a common ancient Near Eastern image, but not a late antique Zoroastrian one. The figure had a long afterlife in Babylonian and Semitic cultures. ...”
Sara Ronis, “A Seven-Headed Demon in the House of Study: Understanding a Rabbinic Demon in Light of Zoroastrian, Christian, and Babylonian Textual Traditions,” AJSR 43.1 (2019): 132–133.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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KTU 1.5 I:3 and Kiddushin 29b

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