The Labbu Myth is an ancient

Mesopotamian Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary o ...

creation epic. Only one copy of it is known from the

Library of Ashurbanipal The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BCE, including texts in ...

. It is commonly dated no later than the Old Babylonian period, although recent work suggests a later composition. It is a folktale possibly of the Diyala region, since the later version seems to feature the god Tišpak as its protagonist and may be an allegory representing his replacement of the chthonic serpent-god

Ninazu Ninazu (; DNIN.A.SU">sup>DNIN.A.SU"lord healer") was a Mesopotamian god of the underworld. He was also associated with snakes and vegetation, and with time acquired the character of a warrior god. He was frequently associated with Ereshkigal, e ...

at the top of the pantheon of the city of Eshnunna. This part is played by

Nergal Nergal ( Sumerian: d''KIŠ.UNU'' or ; ; Aramaic: ܢܸܪܓܲܠ; ) was a Mesopotamian god worshiped through all periods of Mesopotamian history, from Early Dynastic to Neo-Babylonian times, with a few attestations indicating that his cult surv ...

in the earlier version. It was possibly a precursor of the Enûma Eliš, where Labbu – meaning "Raging One" or "lion", was the prototype of

Tiamat In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( or , ) is the primordial sea, mating with Abzû (Apsu), the groundwater, to produce the gods in the Babylonian epic '' Enûma Elish'', which translates as "when on high". She is referred to as a woman, an ...

and of the Canaanite tale of

Baal Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The ...

fighting Yamm. Other similar texts include the Myth of Anzu and KAR 6. Depending on the reading of the first character in the antagonist's name (always written as KAL and may be read as: ''Lab'', ''Kal'', ''Rib'' or ''Tan''), the text might also be called The Slaying of Labbu or Kalbu Myth. This polyvalence of

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

readings allows a possible connection to the biblical monster

Rahab Rahab (; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible in Joshua 2:1-24, a Canaanite who resided within Jericho in the Promised Land and assisted the Israelites by hiding two men who had been sent to scout the city before their attack. In the New Testam ...

– more on this below.

Text

The following translation of the Labbu Myth comes from Ayali-Darshan 2020.

The cities became dilapidated, the lands .. The people decreased in number .. To their lamentation .. didno ... On their cry, he has no ity 'Who reatedthe serpent (MUŠ)?' 'Sea reatedthe serpent, Enlil in heaven designed is shape His length is 50 bēru (-measure), is widthone bēru, Half a nindanu (-measure) his mouth, one ninandu is ... One nindanu the span of ise rs For five nindanu he ..birds, In the water, nine amma (-measure deep) he drags .. He raises his tail ... All the gods of heaven ere afraid In heaven, the gods bowed down before .. And the moon's acewas darkened at its edges. 'Who will go and illLabb (Who) will sa e ...the broad land And exercis kingship ..' 'Go, Tišpak, k llLabbu! Save the broad land .. And exercise kingship ..' You have sent me, O lord, o killthe offspring of the River (nāri), (But) I do not know Labbu's ountenance ..He opened his mouth and poketo .. 'Make the clouds (and) the terrible storm arise .. oldin front of you the seal (of) your neck, Shoot (it) and ki lLabbu!' (Then) he made the clouds (and) the terrible storm .. The seal (of) his neck (he held) in front of him, He shot (it) and illedLabbu. For three years, three months, day and ni ht the blood of Labbu flowed ..

Synopsis

Extant in two very fragmentary copies; an Old Babylonian one and a later Assyrian from the

, which have no complete surviving lines – the Labbu Myth relates the tale of a possibly leonine but certainly serpentine monster: a fifty-league long Bašmu (^muš''ba-aš-ma'') or sixty-league long

Mušḫuššu The ''mušḫuššu'' (; formerly also read as or ) or mushkhushshu () is a creature from ancient Mesopotamian mythology. A mythological hybrid, it is a scaly animal with hind legs resembling the talons of an eagle, lion-like forelimbs, a long ...

(MUŠ-ḪUŠ), depending on the version and reconstruction of the text. The opening of the Old Babylonian version recalls that of

The Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of which may date back to the T ...

The cities sigh, the people...
The people decreased in number,...
For their lamentation there was none to...

The vast dimensions of Labbu are described. The sea (''tāmtu'') has given birth to the dragon (line 6). The fragmentary line: "He raises his tail..." identifies him according to Neil Forsyth as a precursor of a later adversary; the dragon of

Revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...

12:4, whose tail swept a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them down to earth. In the later version, Labbu is created by the god

Enlil Enlil, later known as Elil and Ellil, is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by t ...

who "drew picture ofthe dragon in the sky" to wipe out humanity whose raucous noise has been disturbing his sleep, a recurring motif in Babylonian creation epics. Whether this refers to the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

(Heidel 1963) or a comet (Forsyth 1989) is not clear. The gods are terrified by the apparition of this monstrous creature and appeal to the moon god

Sin In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

or the goddess Aruru who addresses Tišpak/Nergal to counter the threat and "exercise kingship", presumably over Eshnunna, as a reward. Tišpak/Nergal raises objections to tangling with the serpent but – after a gap in the narrative, a god whose name is not preserved provides guidance on military strategy. A storm erupts and the victor, who may or may not be Tišpak or Nergal, in accordance with the advice given, fires an arrow to slay the beast. The fragments of the epic are not part of a

cosmogony Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony is the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used in ref ...

as noted by Forsyth; since the cities of men are already in existence when the narrative takes place. Frans Wiggerman interpreted the myth's function as a way of justifying Tishpak's ascension to status of king, "as a consequence of his 'liberation' of the nation, sanctioned by the decision of a divine council."

Rahab

is one of the various names for the primordial "chaos dragons" mentioned in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

(cf.

Leviathan Leviathan ( ; ; ) is a sea serpent demon noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, and the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. Leviathan is of ...

/ Tehom, and

Tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widel ...

). As

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

is a complex

syllabary In the Linguistics, linguistic study of Written language, written languages, a syllabary is a set of grapheme, written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) mora (linguistics), morae which make up words. A symbol in a syllaba ...

, with some signs functioning as logograms, some signs representing multiple phonetic values, and some representing sumerograms, multiple readings are possible. The first syllable of Rahab, written with the sign KAL, might also be read as /reb/. Thus, Labbu could have also been called Rebbu (<*''reb-bu''), highly resembling the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

monster mentioned in the BIble.

Text

Synopsis

Rahab

References

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Further reading