The Multi-Headed Serpent (Mythology Synchroblog 5)

This post is one of many in the Fifth Mythology Synchroblog: Mythical Monsters and Otherworldly Entities (View the list of other bloggers below)

Seven-Headed Serpent of Mesopotamia

There is an Akkadian Seal impression (mid to late 3rd millennium B.C.), excavated from Tell Asmar (Iraq, near Eshnunna), that depicts two gods slaying a gigantic monster with seven serpentine heads attached to its body, from which six flames rise vertically. One of the monster slayers stands facing the creature’s heads in direct battle (approx half the total number of heads hang down as if already slain), while the other slayer stands to the back of the creature, penetrating its rear with a lance. The similarities to the Greek myth of Herakles and the Hydra (aided by Iolus), are obvious, the very reason why it is commonly referred to as the Hydra seal.

Akkadian Seal depicting the slaying of a seven headed monster

According to the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Ringgren & Botterweck: 1978), in the mythic “tradition of Sumerian poetry,” there is mention of a seven-headed serpent named Mus-sag-imin, apparently the seven-headed serpent slain by the god Ninurta. Also, further representations of gods battling seven-headed serpents, have been discovered in “Northern Syria, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia” from 1600 to 1500 B.C..

Elliot G. Smith (Evolution of the Dragon), citing Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia (British Museum Press), mentions a weapon of the god Marduk, said to consist of fifty heads, which the god likens to the seven-headed serpent of the ocean, describing it as equal in strength. Alexander Heidel (The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation) makes mention of an epic titled Andimdimma, where the weapon of the god Ninurta is identified with the seven-headed serpent, and further mentions that a similar serpent is depicted on the head of a Sumerian mace. In the Return of Ninurta, a seven headed serpent is but one of many cosmic-chaotic beasts slain by the triumphant god, brought back to Nippur as trophies.

Ltn and Leviathan

The mythical/poetic texts discovered at Ras Shamra (Ugarit: dating from mid to late 2nd millennium B.C.), specifically those related to the Canaanite storm god Ba’al (Ba’al Cycle), include a seven-headed serpent as one of the enemies of Ba’al. Addressing the storm god, Mot (the god of death), reveals that Ba’al had previously slain a seven-headed sea serpent in a battle that scorched the heavens (KTU 1.5 I/CTA 5.1), reminiscent of both the Tell Asmar seal impression (the six flames rising vertically from the monster’s body) and Yahweh’s destruction of the multi-headed serpent Leviathan:

It was you [Yahweh] who split open the sea [monster] by your power;
you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.
It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan
and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.

Psalm 74: 13-14 (N.I.V)

Also, Anat (goddess of war and Ba’al’s consort) speaks of slaying a serpent with seven heads (KTU 1.3.III/CTA 3.III.37-39). The name of the sea serpent, as described by Mot, is Ltn (Pronounced as Lotan. And again as Litanu, according to John A. Emerton in Leviathan and Ltn: The Vocalization of the Ugaritic Word for Dragon: 1982.). Mot’s depiction of Ltn as ‘agile’/’swift’ (brh) and ‘coiling’/’twisting’ (‘qltn) further corresponds with that of the eschatological destruction of the Leviathan illustrated in Isaiah:

In that day,
the LORD will punish with his sword,
his fierce, great and powerful sword,
Leviathan the gliding [Heb: bariah] serpent,
Leviathan the coiling [Heb: aqalaton] serpent;
he will slay the monster of the sea.

27:1 (N.I.V)

Herakles and the Hydra

The second labour of Herakles was the destruction of the Lernaean Hydra, a deadly water serpent with a single body and a multitude of serpentine heads (9-100 Heads; Pseudo-Apollodorus’ The Library: 9 mortal heads + 1 immortal head; Ptolemy’s Hephaestion: 9 heads-the central head was made of Gold (corresponding perhaps with immortal head in The Library)). For each head that was destroyed more would sprout up in their place. Herakles eventually overcame the Hydra with the aid of Iolus, who cauterised the creature’s severed stumps with firebrands, preventing the heads from regenerating. Herakles also cut off the immortal head and buried it under a large rock. He then cut open the Hydra’s body and extracted its deadly poison, which he would ever afterwards use to tip his arrows.

Walter Burkert (Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual), acknowledging the tremendous chronological gap between Mesopotamian depictions of a seven-headed serpent and the nine-headed Hydra myth, does, however, recognize that while there exists “a continuity of texts,” “iconography,” and an “oral tradition,” which probably bear out such a connection between the Near-Eastern prototype and the myth of Herakles and the Hydra, the evidence “remains elusive.”

Heracles and Iolus slay the Hydra

Who’s Participating (so far…)

• Our Gods, Our Monsters (Aquila ka Hecate)
• Mythical Monsters (Khanya)
• The Multi-Headed Serpent (Between Old and New Moons)
• scary monsters (Druid’s Apprentice)
• Lamia nas maaos da Sibila/Lamia in the hands of the Sibyl (Magna Mater)
• Postmodern Monsters In My Meta-Pantheon (Pitch313)
• Paleothea: the Ancient Goddess
• The Dance of the Elements
• Bubo’s Blog
• When Isis Rises
• …

Some Previous Mythology Synchroblogging

The Path of life can be a crooked one for those who, either by choice or circumstance, lack cosmic orientation: Forever blown off course, like Odysseus, unable to reach our true home, or rather our true selves.

Access Denied (Theme: Journeying to Otherworlds)

While the symbolic relationship between Mother and Earth is obvious (in the seasonal cycle of birth and growth), the symbolic relationship between Fatherhood and Sky doesn’t appear to be based on phenomenal reality, and may well be merely an subsequent and inevitable extension of the image of the earth as Mother, in a cosmogonic hieros gamos.

Vertical Dualism of Mother Earth and Father Sky (Theme: Dualism)

In the Homeric Hymn (14) To the Mother of the Gods, it is said that she enjoys hearing the sound of rattles and tympanums and the mountains and forest valleys echo with the roaring of lions and the crying of wolves.

The Great Mother from Asia Minor to Rome (Theme: Motherhood)

It is said that when the Primal Pair had finished animating all things, they pulled a feather from a bald eagle, and blowing upon it, set it in motion. Everything in creation, like the eagle feather, is in constant motion, and depends upon Holy Air for its existence. .

Chanting the Landscape (Theme: Landscapes)