**LEVIATHAN** (Heb. liwjāthān). - A fabulous aquatic monster, akin to the tannīn, to which it is equated by parallel synonymy in Is. 27:1 (cf. DRAGON), applied to the crocodile (Job 40:25 [Vulg. 40:20]; cf. Is. 27:1) and to a generic large cetacean (Ps. 104:26; 74:14; cf. Am. 9:3).
The Hebrew word derives from liwjāh "tortuous" (hence "crown": Prov. 1:9; 4:9; Hebrew and Arabic root lāh "to twist," Akkadian lamū, "to surround"), with the nominal suffix "ān, understood by the Septuagint as "dragon" (v.) and once as "large cetacean" (Job 3:8; μέγας χῆτος); the Vulgate renders it as L. (Job 3:8; 40:20 [Heb. 25]; Is. 27:1) and as draco (Ps. 73 [74]:14; 103 [104]:26; new version).
The originally popular fabulous character of the L. is demonstrated by its mention in a Ugaritic text of Lôt (probably to be read Lōtān), as a being to be "struck, destroyed" (cf. Job 3:8 alluding to the maleficent nature of the monster), "twisting serpent... crooked; the cursed (?) with seven heads"; these discoveries partly reduce, partly confirm the mythographic hypotheses first advanced by H. Gunkel (cf. P. Heinisch, *Teologia del Vecchio Testamento*, Turin 1950, p. 167).
In Is. 27:1 the L. is called "fleeting serpent... twisting serpent," a symbolic expression probably referring to the Tigris and Euphrates, and thus to Assyria and Babylon, alongside the "dragon that is in the sea," symbol of Egypt.
Here there is already an implicit reference to river monsters. In Ps. 74:14, where it is presented as a many-headed monster—Vaccari: "hydra"; cf. the cited Ugaritic text—the L. is similarly an image of the Egyptian power of the Mosaic age. In Ps. 104:26 it is usually translated simply as "whale." The L. of Job 3:8 has a particularly fabulous character, a monster (according to other authors, the personification of the darkness of the clouds) that is invoked for maleficent purposes by sorcerers. In Job 40:25 it denotes the "crocodile," of which a superbly described account follows.
The monster tannīn also has a counterpart in the Tnn of Rās Šamrah, where it is mentioned in magical contexts (Gordon, *Ugaritic Literature* [see bibliography], p. 49).