According to the SyrianApocalypse of Baruch (29 : iff.), the time precedingthecomingof the Messiah fallsintotwelveparts,
and the Messiah will appear in the twelfth. As a time-division, the number twelve points to the zodia, of which the twelfth is
the Fishes. Leviathan will then rise out of the sea. "The two great sea monsters which I created on the fifth day of creation and which I have preserved until that time shall then be food for all who are left."l Since Behemoth is unquestionably not a sea-animal, but one which, as a midrash says, "pastures on a thousand mountains/'2 the two "seamonsters" must be a dupli- cation of Leviathan. Andas a matter of fact, he does appear to be divided as to sex, for there is a male and a female of the species.3 A similar duplicationis suggested in Isaiah 27:1: "In
that day, the Lord with his sore and great strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent, and he shall slay the dragon [Vulgate: whale]
that is in the sea." This duplication gave rise in medieval alchemy to the idea of two serpents fighting each other, one winged, the other wingless.4 In the Book of Job, where Levi- athan appears only in the singular, the underlying polarity comes to light in his opposite number, Behemoth. A poem by
Meir ben Isaac describes the battle between Leviathan and Behemothatthe endof time, inwhich the two monsters wound
each otherto death.Yahweh then cutsthem up andserves them
1Charles, II, p. 497,modified.
2Midrash Tanchuma,Lev. n : i andDeut. 29:
9; cited in Scheftelowitz, pp. ggf.
3Talmud, Nezikin III, Baba Bathra (J3T, I, p. 296). The female Leviathan has alreadybeen killed by Yahweh, salted, and preserved for the end of time. The male he castrated, for otherwise they would have multiplied and swamped the
earth.
4A typical pair of opposites. Cf. the struggle between the two dragons in hexagram2, line6, inthe IChing (Wilhelm/Baynes trans., I,pp. 14-15).
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THE AMBIVALENCE OF THE FISH SYMBOL
asfoodtothe devout.5Thisideais probably connected with the old JewishPassover, which wascelebratedin the monthofAdar, the fish. In spite of the distinct
duplication of Leviathanin the later texts, it is very likely that originally there was only one Leviathan, authenticated atavery earlydate in the Ugarittexts from Ras Shamra
(c. 2000 B.C.). Virolleaud gives the following translation:
Quand tu frapperas Ltn, le serpent brh
Tuacheveras leserpent 'qltn,
Le puissant auxsept tetes.
1 2 He comments: "Itisremarkable that the two adjectives brh andfqltn are theoneswhich qualify, in Isaiah 27 : i,a particu- larly dangerous species of serpent which we call Leviathan, in
Hebrew Liviatan."6 Fromthisperiod, too, there are pictures of a fight between Baal and the serpent Ltn,7 remarkable in that the conflict is between a god and a monster and not between two monsters, as it was later.
18 3 We can see from the example of Leviathan how the great
"fish" gradually split into its opposite, after having itself been
the opposite of the highest God and hence his shadow, the embodiment ofhis evil side.8
184 With this splitting of the monster into a new opposite, its
original opposition toGod takes abackseat, and the monsteris
nowin conflict eitherwith itself orwith an equivalentmonster
(e.g., Leviathan and Behemoth). This relieves God of his own
innerconflict, which nowappears outside him in the form of a hostile pair of brother monsters. In later Jewish tradition the Leviathan that Yahweh fought with in Isaiah develops a tend-
ency, on the evidence citedby Scheftelowitz, to become "pure"
and be eaten as "eucharistic" food, with the result that, if one wanted to derive the Ichthys symbol from this source, Christ as
5Cf. theMidrash Tanchuma.
6"Note compl^mentaire surlepoeme de Mot et Alei'n," p. 357.
7Virolleaud,"Lalegendede Baal,dieu des Pheniciens,"p. ix.
8Perhaps an echo ofthispsychological developmentmay be found in theviews
of Moses Maimonides, who writes that in the Book of Job (ch. 41) Yahweh
"dwellslongestonthe natureof the Leviathan,whichpossessesa combination of bodilypeculiaritiesfoundseparatein differentanimals,inthose that walk, those that swim, and those that fly" (Guide for the Perplexed, p. 303). Accordingly Leviathanisakindofsuper-animal,justasYahwehisa kindofsuperman.
a fish would appear in place of Leviathan, the monstrous ani- mals of tradition having meanwhile faded into mere attributes of death and the devil.
l85 This split corresponds to the doubling of the shadow often metwith indreams,where the two halves appearas different or even as antagonistic figures. This happens when the conscious ego-personalitydoesnot containallthecontentsand components
that it could contain. Part ofthe personality thenremains split
off and normally mixes with the unconscious shadow, the two togetherformingadouble andoften antagonistic personality.
If we apply this experience from the domain of practical psy- chology to the mythological material under discussion, we find that God'smonstrous antagonistproducesa double because the God-image is incomplete and does not contain everything it logicallyought to contain. Whereas Leviathan is a fishlike crea- ture, primitive andcold-blooded, dwelling in the depths of the ocean, Behemoth is a warm-blooded quadruped, presumably somethinglikeabull,who roamsthe mountains (atleastinlater tradition). Hence heisrelatedtoLeviathanas ahigher,superior creaturetoa lower, inferior one, ratherlike thewinged and the
wingless dragon in alchemy. All winged beings are "volatile,"
i.e.,vapoursandgases, inotherwords pneuma. Justas inAugus- tine Christ the fish is "drawn from the deep,"9 so in II Esdras 13 : sff. the "man" cameout ofthe sea likea wind. His appear- ance was heralded by an eagle and a lion, theriomorphic sym- bols which greatly affrighted the prophet in the same way that Behemoth inspired chiefly terror in Job. The fish drawn from
the deep has a secretconnection with Leviathan: he is the bait withwhich Leviathanislured andcaught. Thisfish is probably a duplication of the great fish and stands for its pneumatic
aspect. It is evident thatLeviathan has such an aspect, because he, like the Ichthys, is eucharistic food.10 That this doubling represents an act of conscious realization is clear from Job 26 : 12, where we are told that Yahweh smote Rahab "by his understanding" (tebuna). Rahab, the sea monster, is cousin german to Tiamat, whom Marduk split asunder by filling her up with Imhullu, the north wind.11 The word tebuna comes
9Confessions,Sheedtrans.,p. 275. 10Cf.
Goodenough,V, pp. 5iff.
11Themotif ofsplittingis
closely related tothat of penetration andperforation in alchemy. Cf. alsoJob 26:13: "His hand pierced the fleeing serpent" (RSV).
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