Leviathan as mystic beast would be closer to that other mystic beast, the Kraken, than a whale. The European whalers were over dramatic.
I have a small Inuit bone-carving of an Inuit whale hunter, complete with his equipment - equipment I saw in real life in a tiny museum on Baffin Island. My little hunter is in his kayak with his bone harpoon attached to a sealskin float, and a long blubber knife. The Inuit museum guide said a hunter would hit the whale with the harpoon at a point in the skull where a major artery runs. The whale would start swimming away, but the bobbing sealskin float allowed the hunter's kayak - made from sealskin over a whalebone frame - to follow. When the whale bled out, the hunter, and the other kayaks with him, would use the blubber knives to cut up the carcass. The Inuit hunted whale for millennia this way. Whale ribs were frames for their houses, runners for their sleds, and the blubber was both cooking and heating fuel for their hearth stones. For that, the Inuit thanked each whale they killed and they only killed what they needed. Then European whalers showed up off Baffin Island with rugged ships and harpoon guns to hunt the whale for lamp oil and baleen - the Inuit guide remarked, "We lit the streets of Boston and London" - and eventually left the Inuit without any natural source of fuel or construction material, making them dependent on imported wood and oil.
I recall first encountering the concept of the Leviathan as a ten-year-old boy and being utterly captivated. But I hadn't heard of the Behemoth until now!
This is a topic that’s long fascinated me, but - “To prevent the two from breeding and filling up the earth with monsters, God slew the female and reserved its flesh for a banquet at the End of Days” - holy crap, I’ve not heard that detail before…!
I hear that in ancient maps, when the cartographer wasn't quite sure what to draw, he put a note "Hic sunt dracones" (here be dragons) at the edge of the map. That's where leviathans, krakens, sea serpents and giant squid lived. Also the dog-headed people and such. That's a topic for Cosmographia!
Then I think those creatures moved further and further away from us, as the world got explored.... interestingly, the existence of giant squid was confirmed in the recent years, and there's even youtube videos! but no leviathan, to my best knowledge. Probably because of God's unwise decision to slash that female, that's why leviathans got extinct. Bad idea, God.
Leviathan as mystic beast would be closer to that other mystic beast, the Kraken, than a whale. The European whalers were over dramatic.
I have a small Inuit bone-carving of an Inuit whale hunter, complete with his equipment - equipment I saw in real life in a tiny museum on Baffin Island. My little hunter is in his kayak with his bone harpoon attached to a sealskin float, and a long blubber knife. The Inuit museum guide said a hunter would hit the whale with the harpoon at a point in the skull where a major artery runs. The whale would start swimming away, but the bobbing sealskin float allowed the hunter's kayak - made from sealskin over a whalebone frame - to follow. When the whale bled out, the hunter, and the other kayaks with him, would use the blubber knives to cut up the carcass. The Inuit hunted whale for millennia this way. Whale ribs were frames for their houses, runners for their sleds, and the blubber was both cooking and heating fuel for their hearth stones. For that, the Inuit thanked each whale they killed and they only killed what they needed. Then European whalers showed up off Baffin Island with rugged ships and harpoon guns to hunt the whale for lamp oil and baleen - the Inuit guide remarked, "We lit the streets of Boston and London" - and eventually left the Inuit without any natural source of fuel or construction material, making them dependent on imported wood and oil.
I recall first encountering the concept of the Leviathan as a ten-year-old boy and being utterly captivated. But I hadn't heard of the Behemoth until now!
Great article. Unfortunately we took the Leviathan to the bring of extinction, but many whales populations are thankfully recovering now.
What, no Hobbes? Lacking the heavenly aspect, I'd imagine! I remember reading Revelation as a kid and thinking Leviathan was scary business.
Once again, great stuff! Thunderbirds are a common motif in rock art in the area where I grew up.
This is a topic that’s long fascinated me, but - “To prevent the two from breeding and filling up the earth with monsters, God slew the female and reserved its flesh for a banquet at the End of Days” - holy crap, I’ve not heard that detail before…!
I hear that in ancient maps, when the cartographer wasn't quite sure what to draw, he put a note "Hic sunt dracones" (here be dragons) at the edge of the map. That's where leviathans, krakens, sea serpents and giant squid lived. Also the dog-headed people and such. That's a topic for Cosmographia!
Then I think those creatures moved further and further away from us, as the world got explored.... interestingly, the existence of giant squid was confirmed in the recent years, and there's even youtube videos! but no leviathan, to my best knowledge. Probably because of God's unwise decision to slash that female, that's why leviathans got extinct. Bad idea, God.