"By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens, his hand hath
formed the crooked serpent."
Gunkel places Rahab as identical with Chaos, that is,
the same as Tiâmat. Gunkel translates "the breaking to
pieces" as "violation." Tiâmat or Rahab as the mother
is also the whore. Gilgamesh treats Ischtar in this way
when he accuses her of whoredom. This insult towards
the mother is very familiar to us from dream analysis.
The dragon Rahab appears also as Leviathan, the water
monster (maternal sea).
Psalm lxxiv:
(13) "Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
(14) "Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
(15) "Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou didst dry up mighty rivers."
While only the phallic meaning of the Leviathan was
emphasized in the first part of this work, we now discover
also the maternal meaning. A further parallel is:
Isaiah xxvii:1:
"In that day, the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent, and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea."
We come upon a special motive in Job, chap. xli, v. 1:
"Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook? or his tongue
with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put an hook
in his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?"
