Leviathan (Creature)

Leviathan (Hebrew: לִוְיָתָן, liviyatan or liwjatan) is, in the Bible, a marine animal that appears in the Psalms, the book of Isaiah, and the book of Job. The Talmud also refers to it, evoking animals rebelling against the Creator and destroyed by the latter.

It is a well-known myth from pre-biblical sources relating to the primordial battle between the Creator and the marine forces personifying Chaos, found among the Hittites (the dragon Illouyankas), Mesopotamia (battle of Marduk and Tiamat) and in the Phoenician-Ugarit myth of Baal and Anat, set against various sea monsters (one of which is Lotan).

Leviathan
Group	mythological creature
Subgroup	Beast
Origin	Hebrew bible

Table of Contents

Description of Leviathan

Leviathan is a colossal monster, dragon, snake and crocodile, whose shape is not specified; It can be seen as the evocation of a terrifying cataclysm capable of altering the planet, and shaking up its order and geography, if not annihilating the world. His description evokes by periphrase the formidable Nile crocodile which then abounded in the land of the pharaohs. Preceding him in a panorama of Egyptian fauna were the hippopotamus, the lion, the raven, the goat and the doe, the evening primrose, the buffalo, the ostrich, the horse, the sparrowhawk and the eagle.

Leviathan is also, according to some versions, one of the main demons of hell. It is represented in the Middle Ages in the form of an open mouth that swallows souls, symbolizing the entrance to hell.

Excerpts from the Bible

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“Let it be cursed by those who curse the days, By those who know how to excite the leviathan!”
Job 3:8

“Will you take the crocodile (Leviathan) on the hook? Will you grab his tongue with a rope? Will you put a rush in his nostrils? Will you pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he press you with supplication? Will he speak to you in a soft voice? Will he make a covenant with you, To become your slave forever? Will you play with him like a bird? Will you tie it up to amuse your young girls? Do fishermen traffic in it? Do they share it among merchants? Will you cover his skin with stingers, And his head with harpoons? Raise your hand against him, And thou shalt no longer dare to attack him. Behold, one is deceived in his expectation; To its very aspect, are we not overwhelmed?”
Job 40:20-28

“I want to talk again about its members, and its strength, and the beauty of its structure. Who will lift his garment? Who will penetrate between his jaws? Who will open the doors of his mouth? Around his teeth dwells terror. His magnificent and mighty shields are united together as if by a seal; They huddle together, And the air would not pass between them; They are brothers who embrace, seize each other, remain inseparable. His sneezing makes the light shine; His eyes are like the eyelids of dawn. Flames shoot from his mouth, Sparks of fire escape. A smoke comes out of his nostrils, Like a boiling vase, a fiery boiler. His breath lights the coals, His mouth throws the flame. Strength has its neck as its dwelling, And dread leaps before him. Its fleshy parts hold together, Faded on him, unshakeable. His heart is hard as stone, hard as the lower millstone. When he rises, the most valiant are afraid, And terror makes them flee. It is in vain that it is attacked with the sword; The spear, the javelin, the breastplate, are useless. He looks at iron as straw, brass as rotten wood. The arrow does not put him to flight, The stones of the sling are for him thatch. He sees in the club only a blade of straw, He laughs at the whistle of the stingers. Under its belly are sharp points: It looks like a portcullis that it spreads on the silt. He boils the bottom of the sea like a boiler, He shakes it like a vase filled with perfumes. He leaves behind him a shining path; The abyss takes the hair of an old man. On earth no one is his master; It was created to fear nothing. He looks with disdain at all that is high, He is the king of the proudest animals.”
Job 41:3-25

“You crushed the head of the crocodile, You gave it for food to the people of the desert.”
Psalm 74:14

“There walk the ships, And this leviathan that you have formed to play in the waves.”
Psalm 104:26

“In this day the Lord shall strike with his hard, great, and strong sword The leviathan, a runaway serpent, The leviathan, a tortuous serpent; And he will kill the monster that is in the sea.”
Isaiah 27:1

Similar creatures

Leviathan is comparable in Norse mythology to Jörmungandr, the gigantic serpent that surrounds the world (“serpent-world”), son of the evil god Loki, who will participate in the end of the world, Ragnarök.
He is often identified with the Beast of the Apocalypse.
It is often depicted in the form of a gigantic sea serpent, whose ripples are at the origin of the waves.
The term Leviathan was assigned to a taxon in 2010 for a sperm whale that lived in the Miocene (Tortonian). Leviathan’s only fossil reaches 17.5 meters. This name is a tribute to the power of the sperm whale’s jaw, one of the most powerful in the history of the animal kingdom.
It is also the name of an ancient Phoenician god.

Leviathan References

Political philosophy

In 1651, Thomas Hobbes made this monster the title of a famous work, Leviathan, in which the monster is a metaphor for the state.
The philosopher Alain, in two brief essays dated 1928 and 1932, during the rise of fascism, calls Leviathan rather the state and its mass media and the crowds that blindly adhere to the monster: “those who compose it… receive with enthusiasm the signs of this great body, and agree with its movements… The assembly of men sets humanity back. The war is a strong proof of this. »

Economy

In economics, Leviathan symbolizes a tendency of the state to grow ever more. These theories date back to James M. Buchanan and Geoffrey Brennan’s seminal (1980), The Power to Tax: Analytical Foundations of a Fiscal Constitution. In this vision, tax competition between states is seen as a means of chaining Leviathan, that is, blocking the expansion of the state apparatus.
Israel has named Leviathan the largest of the gas fields discovered in the Mediterranean west of its coast, a field that should revive its economy. Here the name evokes the multi-headed sea snake.

Leviathan in art and popular culture

Literature

Leviathan or Matter, Form and Power of the Christian and Civil State (1651) is a book by Thomas Hobbes.
In Friedrich Maximilian Klinger’s novel The Life of Faust, His Exploits and How He Was Thrown into Hell (1791), the demon that accompanies Faust is not the traditional Mephistopheles, but Leviathan.
In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851), the author considers that “Leviathan” was the fabulous name for what was later discovered to be the whale.
In Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862), the sewers of Paris are described as Leviathan’s intestine.

Victor Hugo also uses the metaphor of Leviathan to designate the revolutionary liner Great Eastern due to the genius of Isambard Brunel, a “sea monster” far ahead of his time and who had a fate for the least tormented, in a long poem entitled Pleine mer-Plein ciel from his collection of poems La Légende des siècles. The ship had not received its final baptismal name until the very end of construction and the British press had taken the habit of calling it Leviathan during its construction.

In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869-1870), the author Jules Verne evokes “He believed in it as some good women believe in Leviathan”.
In Arthur Rimbaud’s poem Le bateau Ivre (1871), the author evokes marshes “where a whole Leviathan rots in the rushes”.
In the collection Alcools (1913) by Guillaume Apollinaire, Leviathan is mentioned in the poem “La synagogue” where: “… the deep voices of men / Will make a Leviathan groan at the bottom of the Rhine… ».
Léviathan (1929) is the title of a novel by Julien Green. Leviathan represents “evil” hidden within each character in the story.
Der Leviathan (1938) is the title of a book by Joseph Roth.
Leviathan (1949) is the title of a book by Arno Schmidt.
Leviathan (1992) is the title of a book by Paul Auster.
Leviathan (1998) is the title of a book by Boris Akunin.
In James Clemens’ cycle The Banished and Outcast (1998-2002), Leviathan is a gigantic sea monster that serves as a mobile palace for the aquatic people of the Sea.
In the cycle The Vampires of Manhattan (2006-2013) by Melissa de la Cruz, the name Leviathan is evoked to name the devil.
In Le Poisson Bleu Nuit (2007) by Armand Cabasson, Leviathan is at the heart of the short story “The Rise of the Great Leviathan”.
Leviathan (2009) is the title of a book by Scott Westerfeld.
“Léviatemps” (2010) by Maxime Chattam.
Leviathan is the title of a novel in several volumes by Lionel Davoust published by Don Quixote: volume 1 – The Fall (2011), 408 pages, (ISBN 978-2-35949-009-1), volume 2 – La Nuit (2012), 472 pages, (ISBN 978-2-35949-070-1), tome 3 – Le Pouvoir (2013), 544 pages, (ISBN 978-2-35949-142-5).
In the Star Wars universe, Leviathans are gigantic creatures designed from the alchemy and witchcraft of the ancient Sith. There are two types, terrestrial Leviathans and aquatic Leviathans.
In Clive Barker’s “The Scarlet Gospels,” Leviathan is the monster guarding the doors of Lucifer’s church.
Liviyatan is a novel by Céline Maltère (2021, ed. The Silver Key). It is subtitled The Monster of Allier and metaphorically uses the biblical figure of Leviathan to talk about a news item that occurred in Vichy during the winter of 1933-34.

Music

Leviathan, the name of an American band
Leviathan is the title of a song from a children’s charity album (War Child, 2005) by Manic Street Preachers.
Leviathan (2012) is the name of a song by the band Worship.
Léviathan (2015) is the name of an album, a title and a video by Flavien Berger.
Léviatan is the name of a title of the group Raubtier.
Leviathan is the name of a track on the album Rewind, Replay, Rebound (2019) by the band Volbeat.
Leviathan is the name of an album by the band Mastodon.
” Leviathan ” is the name of a track (track 8) from the album Fire and Ice by Yngwie Malmsteen.
Leviathan is the name of an EP and a track by the band Alestorm.
” Leviathan ” is the name of a track (track 12) from the album Shampoohorn by the band Z.
Leviathan is the name of a track on the album Resurrection by the band Venom.
Leviathan is the name of a track on the album XO by the band Leathermouth.
Leviathan is the name of a track on the album The Beautiful and Damed by rapper G-Eazy.
Leviathans is the name of a song by the singer BadKlaat.
Leviathan is the name of an album by YouTuber Alt236 released in 2018.
In their collaboration Nautilus (2019), Alkpote and Kaaris team up with Leviathan.
Leviathan is the name of a 2021 album by the band Therion.

Cinema

In Tony Randel’s film Hellraiser 2 (1988), Leviathan is the God of flesh, greed and desire.
In Leviathan (1989) by George P. Cosmatos, the Leviathan is the name of a Russian ship that houses a sea monster that hybridizes with its human prey.
In Atlantis, the Lost Empire (2001), Leviathan is the guardian of the sunken city Atlantis. It is a gigantic machine, robot from Atlantean technology.
In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Secret of the Cursed Chest (2006), Bill Turner named Leviathan Davy Jones’ Kraken.
Léviathan (2012) is a documentary directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel showing the sordid daily life of fishermen aboard an old trawler.
In Leviathan (2014) by Andrei Zvyagintsev, Leviathan represents a collusion of powers (church, mafia, ).
In Dragons 2 (2014 animated film), Varek talks about Leviathan “class 5 or even 6” when he and his gang spy on Drago in his secret lair (47-48th minutes).
In The Rite (film, 2011), Father Lucas talks about Leviathan to illustrate one of his speeches.

TV series and Internet

In the television series Farscape, Leviathan is a kind of living ship.
In Supernatural, Leviathans are the first creatures created by God before angels and humans, locked in purgatory to prevent them from devouring all of God’s new creations.
In Once Upon A Time, in season 2 episode 3, Leviathan is the nickname of the general of King George’s army.
In Veep, “The Leviathan” is Gary Walsh’s (Tony Hale) nickname for the huge bag he carries as soon as the vice president comes out of his office.
In Smallville, Luthorcorp has developed a prototype called Leviathan that has catastrophic consequences for marine wildlife (Aquaman episode).
In Elementary, Leviathan is an impenetrable secret chest.
In the MP3 sagaThe Legend of Xantah, Leviathan is a biological form living in space, capable of destroying huge ships.
In The New Adventures of Sabrina, Ambrose Spellman’s pet is named Leviathan.
In Supergirl (season 5) Leviathan is an immortal secret organization existing since the dawn of time at the origin of the greatest evils and disasters of History. Its purpose is to manage the different evolutions of humanity to protect the planet. She is first fought in the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover by members of the Arrowverse, and in Supergirl first by Lex Luthor and Brainy (although Lex’s position is ambiguous) and then by Supergirl and Lena Luthor.
In the animated series Martin Mystère, the Leviathan wreaks havoc in the port of Monaco.

Leviathan in Manga and comics

In the mangaYu-Gi-Oh!, Leviathan is a creature from the power of the seal of Orichalque.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, the Leviathan Dragon has a similar appearance to Leviathan.
In Kazuki Sakuraba’s Gosick, Leviathan is an alchemist who can make gold and whose secret lies in the Academy Tower.
In Namiuchigiwa no muromi-san, a character is based on Leviathan.
In the comic strip Esteban by Matthieu Bonhomme, Leviathan is the name given to the whaler, a ship that embarks the young hero towards the adventures of volume 1.
In Patrick Sobral’s The Legendaries, Razzia’s sword is called Leviathan.
Leviathan is also a manga by Eiji Otsuka (author of MPD-Psycho) and Yu Kinutani.
L’Agonie du Léviathan is the title of the first volume of a comic series called Special Branch, written by Roger Seiter and drawn by Hamo (Éditions Glénat, 2011).
In the Marvel Universe, Leviathan is the name of an evil Soviet organization.
In the DC Universe, Leviathan refers to a terrorist organization created by Talia Al Ghul.
In the One Piece universe, Kaido represents Leviathan in the last page of chapter #1046

Video games

In God of War (2018): name given to the axe of the hero Kratos because of its power.
In The Ocean Hunter (1998), the second is a megalodon named Leviathan.
In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the Leviathan is a large helicopter.
In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Leviathans are monsters that bring corruption to the planets where they land through phazon, a mutagenic product.
In Dead Space, Leviathan is a giant creature that is located in the Ishimura’s pantry. He is also the first boss of the game.
In Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Leviathan is a machine that allows Trip and Monkey to advance toward the Pyramid.
In the Final Fantasy saga, Leviathan is a recurring creature in almost every game. It can be seen as an enemy monster, or on the contrary a summoning used by characters to fight enemies.
In episode 3 of Tales of Monkey Island, the hero Guybrush Threepwood must come out of the belly of a Leviathan after the latter swallows his ship.
In Defense of the Ancients, Leviathan is one of the playable heroes in battle.
In Age of Mythology, Leviathan is a naval mythological unit of the Egyptians, in the form of a giant fish.
In The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Gyorg, Mask of the Gargantuan Leviathan, is the boss of the water dungeon.
In Gears of War 2 and 3, Leviathan is a sea monster belonging to the locust race.
In Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, the secret boss of the first level is a Leviathan, as well as the boss of stage 5 prime of its remake, Castlevania: Vampire’s Kiss.
In Devil May Cry 3, the bowels of Leviathan represent an entire level where the boss is the heart of it.
In Pokémon, Leviator, the evolution of Magicarpe, has a name and appearance similar to Leviathan. In addition, the trio of Legendary Weather Pokémon, in 3 generations: Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza, represent Leviathan, Behemoth and Ziz respectively.
In Endless Ocean 2: Adventurers of the Seabed, the Leviathan is an albino sperm whale in the Zahabb region. The latter is also at the same time a reference to Moby Dick.
In the various Monster Hunters, some monsters (such as the Lagiacrus) are classified as leviathans, a class that appeared from the third game.
In the League of Legends universe, Noxus’ warship (used by Swain during the invasion of Ionia) is called Leviathan. This boat is considered the greatest feat of naval engineering ever achieved by Noxus.
In Mass Effect, we learn, via DLC, that Leviathans are a very ancient race that created an artificial intelligence, and that the latter would have rebelled against its creators.
In Dark Age of Camelot, Leviathan is a powerful blow from flexible weapons, notably used by Arawn’s Plagues.
In StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Leviathan is the name given to the gigantic zerg creature that serves as the flagship of the Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan.
In Resistance 2, Leviathan is the name of a huge monster ravaging Chicago.
In Knights of the Old Republic, the Leviathan is Darth Malak’s flagship, an exact replica of his Master’s flagship Darth Revan. We can logically think that the latter was called the Behemoth.
In Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004, the Leviathan is the most powerful vehicle in the game.
In Subnautica, Leviathan refers to any large underwater creature, whether passive or aggressive.
In War Dragons, a mobile game (iOS or Android), Leviathan is one of the dragons that the player can train and possess.
In Sun, Leviathan is a sea monster, boss of the Root Temple, he joins the hero after he is defeated.
In Isaac Afterbirth, Isaac can transform into a tentacular monster, Leviathan.
In Robocraft, a weapon is named Leviathan.
In Stellaris, a DLC is called Leviathan Story Pack, referring to the colossal creatures and machines present in this downloadable content.
In Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, Chapter 7 is called “Leviathan Lagoon” where a huge sea blue monster represents Leviathan.
In Final Fantasy XV, Leviathan is one of six deities that Noctis can summon to help him in battle. It takes the form of a huge flying water snake.
In Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales, Leviathan is a blue sea snake.
In Destiny 2, Leviathan is a huge spaceship devouring snake-shaped planets.
In Bravely Second: End Layer, Leviathan is a multi-headed sea serpent demon, representing the manifestation of the deadly sin of Envy.
In Borderlands, Leviathan is a rocket launcher
In Borderlands 2, he is the final boss of the expansion “Captain Scarlett and his Pirate Loot”.
In Subnautica, Leviathans are a species in which most individuals are carnivorous.
In Empire Earth, battleship-class ships from futuristic eras are named “Leviathan”.
In Apex Legends, Leviathans are giant but harmless creatures, yet capable of crushing players in Season 2.
In Maple Story, a Korean online game, the leviathan is a blue monster hidden in a secret location in Wyvern Canyon in Leafre. He has a special card by combining with the Dragon Raider to unlock 30% armor penetration (Ignore defense 30%).
In World of Tanks, during the Halloween 2017 event, the Leviathan is the guardian of the underworld, a giant tank with multiple cannons and monstrous firepower. The story of the battle is that the Leviathan, with his servants, tries to reach the Portal that separates the normal world from the territory of the fallen chariots, and trigger the apocalypse.

Leviathan in Role-playing games

In the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Leviathan is the name of a Tyranid Hive Fleet with the particularity of having a “sprawling” invasion plan, hence the reference to the sea monster.
In the universe of In Nomine Satanis – Magna Veritas (INS/MV), Leviathan is the name of Baal’s most powerful baron, prince of war. His identity on Earth is Thomas Hobbes.
In the otome game Obey Me it is the third of the siblings of the 7 demons and represents the sin of Envy.

Other

Leviathan is the name that former WWE wrestler Batista used in OVW.
Every year since 2007, Monumenta, the annual exhibition of contemporary art organized at the Grand Palais in Paris, invites an internationally renowned artist to design a work exclusively designed for the nave of the place. In 2011, the Grand Palais opened its doors to a creation by Anish Kapoor. Its installation is called Leviathan and symbolizes the power and mysticism of the sea monster of the Bible.
In the universe of the SCP Foundation, a collaborative writing site, Leviathan is described as the Kether-class “SCP-169”. It is a marine arthropod whose length is estimated between 2,000 and 8,000 km, located in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

References (sources)

« Number 17: Leviathan Dragon », Yugioh.wikia.com;
« Transformations – Isaac Cheat Sheet – Platinum God », platinumgod.co.uk;
Article Léviathan, Wikipedia;
« Événement d’Halloween : l’Invasion du Leviathan », World of Tanks.