Editing Leviathan (section)

==Etymology and origins==
{{See also|Lotan|Tannin (monster)|Tiamat|Tehom|Chaoskampf}}[[File:Baylonianmaps.JPG|thumb|300px|Babylon's world map. The belt shows the salt sea serpent ''Tiamat'' surrounding the earth. The triangles indicate mountains at the edge of the world, including the [[Mount Ararat|Ararat]] near the island of [[Dilmun]], where the babylonian Noah was stranded.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUxFzh8r384 |title=The Babylonian Map of the World with Irving Finkel {{!}} Curator's Corner S9 Ep5 |date=2024-08-01 |last=The British Museum |access-date=2024-09-01 |via=YouTube}}</ref> Cf. [[Epic of Gilgamesh|epic Gilgamesh]].]][[Wilhelm Gesenius|Gesenius]] (among others) argued the name {{lang|he|לִוְיָתָן|rtl=yes}} was derived from the root {{lang|he|[[:wikt:לוה|לוה]]|rtl=yes}} ''lwh'' "to twine; to join", with an adjectival suffix {{lang|he|ן-|rtl=yes}}, for a literal meaning of "wreathed, twisted in folds".<ref name="Gesenius" /> If it exists, the adjectival suffix {{lang|he|ן-|rtl=yes}} (as opposed to -ון) is otherwise unattested except perhaps in [[Nehushtan]], whose etymology is unknown; the ת would also require explanation, as Nechushtan is formed from ''neḥošeṯ'' and Leviathan from ''liveyah''; the normal-pattern f.s. adjective would be לויון, ''liveyon''. Other philologists, including [[August Leskien|Leskien]], thought it a foreign loanword.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Landes |first1=George M. |last2=Einspahr |first2=Bruce |date=1978 |title=Index to Brown, Driver and Briggs Hebrew Lexicon |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3265844 |journal=[[Journal of Biblical Literature]] |volume=97|issue=1 |pages=108 |doi=10.2307/3265844 |jstor=3265844 |issn=0021-9231}}</ref> A third school considers it a proper noun.<ref>{{cite book|last=Suchard |first=Benjamin |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004390263|title=The Development of the Biblical Hebrew Vowels |date=24 September 2019 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |doi=10.1163/9789004390263 |hdl=1887/43120 |isbn=978-90-04-39025-6|s2cid=181866874 }}</ref> [[Georg Lorenz Bauer|Bauer]] proposed לוית+תן, for "wreath of serpent."<ref>{{cite book|last=Schulz |first=Johann Christoph F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4MUAAAAQAAJ |title=Io. Christ. Frid. Schulzii ... Scholia in Vetus Testamentum (continuata a G. L. Bauer). |date=1792 |language=la}}</ref>

Both the name and the mythological figure are a direct continuation of the [[Ugaritic]] sea monster ''[[Lotan|Lôtān]]'', one of the servants of the [[sea god]] [[Yammu]] defeated by [[Hadad]] in the ''[[Baal Cycle]]''.{{sfnp|Uehlinger|1999|p=514}}{{sfnp|Herrmann|1999|p=133}} 
The Ugaritic account [[lacuna (MS)|has gaps]], making it unclear whether some phrases describe him or other monsters at Yammu's disposal such as Tunannu (the biblical [[Tannin (monster)|Tannin]]).{{sfnp|Heider|1999}} Most scholars agree on describing Lôtān as "the fugitive serpent" (''bṯn brḥ''){{sfnp|Herrmann|1999|p=133}} but he may or may not be "the wriggling serpent" (''bṯn ʿqltn'') or "the mighty one with seven heads" (''šlyṭ d.šbʿt rašm'').{{sfnp|Uehlinger|1999|p=512}} His role seems to have been prefigured by the earlier serpent '''Têmtum''' whose death at the hands of Hadad is depicted in Syrian seals of the 18th–16th century&nbsp;BC.{{sfnp|Uehlinger|1999|p=512}}

<nowiki> </nowiki>[[Sea serpents]] feature prominently in the [[religions of the ancient Near East|mythology of the ancient Near East]].<ref name="DDD"/> They are attested by the 3rd millennium&nbsp;BC in [[Sumer]]ian iconography depicting the god [[Ninurta]] overcoming a [[seven-headed serpent]]. It was common for Near Eastern religions to include a ''[[Chaoskampf]]'': a cosmic battle between a [[sea monster]] representing the forces of [[chaos (cosmogony)|chaos]] and a [[creator god]] or [[culture hero]] who imposes [[order (virtue)|order]] by force.<ref name=Gunkel>Hermann Gunkel, Heinrich Zimmern; K. William Whitney Jr., trans., ''Creation And Chaos in the Primeval Era And the Eschaton: A Religio-historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12''. (Grand Rapids: MI: Eerdmans, 1895, 1921, 2006).</ref> The [[Babylonian religion|Babylonian]] [[Enuma Elish|creation myth]] describes [[Marduk]]'s defeat of the serpent goddess [[Tiamat]], whose body was used to create the [[heaven]]s and the [[earth]].<ref>Enuma Elish, Tablet IV, lines 104–105, 137–138, 144 from Alexander Heidel (1963) [1942], ''[https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/misc_genesis.pdf Babylonian Genesis]'', 41–42.</ref>