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In the Sumerian text Ninurta’s Exploits, the warrior god slays a Seven-headed Serpent among his monstrous enemies. Psalm 74 draws on this ancient Near Eastern tradition when it praises God for crushing the many heads of Leviathan.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ninurta's Exploits
Lugale
Ancient Near East
‘Hero, beware!’ it said concernedly. The Šar-ur addressed Lord Ninurta: ‘Hero, pitfall (?), net of battle, Ninurta, King, celestial mace ... irresistible against the enemy, valiant one, tempest which rages against the rebel lands, wave which submerges the harvest, King, you have looked on battles, you have ... in the thick of them. Ninurta, after gathering the enemy in a battle-net, after erecting a great reed-altar, Lord, heavenly serpent, purify your pickaxe and your mace! Ninurta, I will enumerate the names of the warriors you have already slain: the Mermaid, the Dragon, the Gypsum, the Strong Copper, the hero Six-headed Wild Ram, the Magilum Barge, Lord Saman-ana, the Bison, the Palm-tree King, the Anzud bird, the Seven-headed Serpent—Ninurta, you slew them in the mountains.’ ‘But Lord, do not venture again to a battle as terrible as that. Do not lift your arm to the smiting of weapons, to the festival of the young men, to Inana’s dance! Lord, do not go to such a great battle as this! Do not hurry; fix your feet on the ground. Ninurta, the Asag is waiting for you in the Mountains. Hero who is so handsome in his crown, first-born son whom Ninlil has decorated with numberless charms, good Lord, whom a princess bore to an en priest, Hero who wears horns like the moon, who is long life for the king of the Land, who opens the sky by great sublime strength, inundation who engulfs the banks ..., Ninurta, Lord, full of fearsomeness, who will hurry towards the Mountains, proud Hero, this time you will not equal the Asag! Ninurta, do not make your young men enter the Mountains.’
Date: c. 2000 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Psalms 74:14
Hebrew Bible
13 You destroyed the sea by your strength; you shattered the heads of the sea monster in the water. 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you fed him to the people who live along the coast. 15 You broke open the spring and the stream; you dried up perpetually flowing rivers. 16 You established the cycle of day and night; you put the moon and sun in place.
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Notes and References
“... On the basis of Sumerian texts from approximately the same date it may be assumed that it was the warrior god Ninurta/Ningirsu who vanquished the seven-headed dragon. In both cases the beast has legs, but also a ‘seven-headed snake’ is among the monsters Ningirsu defeated. About a thousand years later the seven-headed monster reappears in a text from Ugarit, a Canaanite city located at the coast of present-day Syria, approximately opposite the ‘finger’ of the island of Cyprus. He is called Ltn and since this differs from the Hebrew consonantal spelling lwytn an explanation of the etymology of the name of the Leviathan is called for. ...”
Korpel, Marjo C.A. and de Moor, Johannes C.
"The Leviathan in the Ancient Near East" in van Bekkum, Koert; Dekker, Jaap; van de Kamp, Henk R.; Peels, Eric (ed.) Playing with Leviathan: Interpretation and Reception of Monsters from the Biblical World
(p. 5) Brill, 2017
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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