Behemoth

Behemoth
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(left image)
Behemoth and Leviathan, an engraving by William Blake

For other uses, see Behemoth (disambiguation).
Behemoth is a creature mentioned in the Book of Job, 40:15-24. In Hebrew it can be rendered as בהמות, Bəhēmôth, Behemot, B'hemot; in Arabic بهيموث (Bahīmūth) or بهموت (Bahamūt) .
The word is most likely a plural form of בהמה (bəhēmāh ("animal")). It may be an example of pluralis excellentiae, a Hebrew method of expressing greatness by pluralizing a noun; it thus indicates that Behemoth is the largest and most powerful animal.
Metaphorically, the name has come to be used for any extremely large or powerful entity.
Contents[hide]
1 Characteristics
2 Meaning
3 Other cultures
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
//

[edit] Characteristics
The text from the Book of Job 40 (King James Version Bible) is as follows:
15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.16 Lo now, his strength [is] in his loins, and his force [is] in the navel of his belly.17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his thighs are wrapped together.18 His bones [are as] strong pieces of brass; his bones [are] like bars of iron.19 He [is] the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach [unto him].20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.22 The shady trees cover him [with] their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, [and] hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.24 He taketh it with his eyes: [his] nose pierceth through snares.
The passage describes a large powerful animal that appears to be herbivorous (40:15).
In Jewish belief, Behemoth is the primal unconquerable monster of the land, as Leviathan is the primal monster of the waters of the sea and Ziz the primordial monster of the sky.
There is a legend that the Leviathan and the Behemoth shall hold the battle of the end of the world. They shall kill each other and a huge number of other creatures in the epic battle. The two will finally kill each other, and the surviving men will feast on their meat. According to midrash recording traditions, it is impossible for anyone to kill a behemoth except for the person who created it, in this case the God of the Hebrews. A later Jewish haggadic tradition furthermore holds that at the banquet at the end of the world, the behemoth will be served up along with the Leviathan and Ziz.

[edit] Meaning
Behemoth can be interpreted as a mythical animal. However, some have attempted to identify it with real-life animals.
In the book of Job, both Behemoth and Leviathan are listed alongside a number of mundane animals, such as goats, eagles, and hawks, leading many Christian scholars to surmise that Behemoth and Leviathan may also be mundane creatures. Suggested animals include the water buffalo and the elephant, but the most common suggestion is the hippopotamus.[1] Some readers also identify a hippopotamus in Isaiah's bahamot negeb or "beasts of the south" (30:6). Indeed, one of the Russian words for hippopotamus is "behemoth," which does not carry the same mythical connotations in Russian. Although the animal's tail "moves like a cedar" (40:17), an unlikely description for any of these animals, "tail' could be a euphemism for an elephant's trunk. [2] Moreover, some suggest that "tail" is a euphemism for male genitalia. Support for this is based on another meaning of the Hebrew word "move" which means "extend" and on the second part of verse 17 describing the sinew around its "stones" (the Vulgate uses the word "testiculorum"].
Others disagree, pointing to the fact that Behemoth is called "chief of the ways of God" (40:19), indicating that it is not a mere animal.
Another proposal is that the Behemoth is a dinosaur. Some sort of sauropod is usually proposed since large sauropods had tails "like a cedar". Adherents to this viewpoint hold that it is more consistent with the literal application of the text. However, critics usually point out that according to paleontology, sauropods, unlike Behemoth, were tree-browsers that became extinct 65 million years ago, predating the appearance and rise of people or grasses. Additionally, opponents of this theory argue that the text is probably allegory at best.
There are modern rumors of a sauropodlike animal called Mokele-mbembe living in Africa. As both creatures are rumored to be dinosaurs, some believe that Mokele-mbembe and Behemoth may be one and the same.[citation needed]

[edit] Other cultures
The Hebrew behemoth is sometimes equated with the Persian Hadhayosh, as the Leviathan is with the Kar and the Ziz with the Simurgh.

[edit] See also
Behemoth in popular culture
Water buffalo incident
Akdamus
Behemoth (band)
Tarasque
Leviathan

[edit] Notes
^ Metzger & Coogan (1993) Oxford Companion to the Bible, p76.
^ Mitchell (1987)

[edit] References
Metzeger, Bruce M. (ed); , Michael D. Coogan (ed) (1993). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504645-5.
Mitchell, Steven, 1987. The Book of Job. San Francisco: North Point Press. Cited in R. T. Pennock, 1999, Tower of Babel, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[edit] External links
Jewish Encyclopedia: Behemoth.
Putting God on Trial- The Biblical Book of Job contains a major section on the literary use of Behemoth.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behemoth"

Bahamut

Bahamut
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For the dragon of the role-playing game, see Bahamut (Dungeons & Dragons). For the Final Fantasy creature, see Bahamut (Final Fantasy).
Bahamut (Arabic: بهموت‎ Bahamūt) is a giant omnipotent being in Arabian mythology. Bahamut rides on a giant whale creature called Liwash that resides in a vast sea, the Adwad. He supports a huge bull named Kujuta who supports a rock of ruby, atop which stands an angel who supports the seven heavens.
Contents[hide]
1 Origin
2 Bahamut in fiction and popular culture
3 See also
4 References
//

[edit] Origin
It was said when a prophet looked unto it he fainted for three days losing control of all his senses.[1]
Bahamut is originally an aquatic figure of Arabic mythology.[1] Bahamut is an enormous overpower that resides in a vast sea.
Kuyūthā is the bull which rides atop the giant sea creature Liwash in some versions of one medieval Islamic cosmology. Kuyutha is described as having 4,000 eyes, ears and feet and it would take a journey of 500 years to go from one eye to another, or one ear to another. Several variations exist on the position of Kuyutha in the legend, but this is one order:
Seven Heavens
The First Earth (Inhabitants: man, genie and animals)
The Second Earth (Inhabitants: wind of suffocation)
The Third Earth (Inhabitants: stones of hell)
The Fourth Earth (Inhabitants: sulphur of hell)
The Fifth Earth (Inhabitants: serpents of hell)
The Sixth Earth (Inhabitants: scorpions of hell)
The Seventh Earth (Inhabitants: devil and his angels)
An Angel
A rock of Ruby
Kuyutha
Bahamut
Fathomless sea
Realm of Air
Realm of Fire
Falak, the omnipotent serpent

[edit] Bahamut in fiction and popular culture
Fantasy fiction derived from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game reimagines Bahamut as a heroic dragon.
tri-Ace's Valkyrie Profile has a two-handed sword called "Bahamut's Tear", which deals exceptional damage to dragons. In Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, at the Seraphic Gate, there is a boss named Bahamut who contained the Demon Sword Levantine.
Bahamut is featured as both the "King of Dragons" and the "King of the sky" in Square Enix's Final Fantasy games, as a summon. He is one of the strongest summons available, and typically received in an optional side-quest. His attack is called Mega-Flare, a powerful non-elemental attack which targets all enemies on the battlefield.
Bahamut also appared in the movie "Final Fantasy VII Advent Children".
Super Mario RPG contains a dragon called Bahamutt that is summoned by a Magikoopa. The reference may be intentional, since the game was also made by Squaresoft, now Square Enix.
Battle Bakraid has a boss named Bahamut, which is a gigantic tank. The game's bosses are all named for mythical creatures, although the fight with Bahamut takes place in a desert, despite its namesake's aquatic nature.
Bahamut appears in the games Bahamut Bahant Senki, Bahamut Lagoon, and Realms of Despair.
"Bahamut" is the name of a huge motorcycle in the anime Megazone 23.
Bahamut is the IRCd (Internet Relay Chat Daemon) used by the DALnet IRC network.
In the cyberpunk DOS and Sega CD game Rise of the Dragon, released by Dynamix, Bahamut is a powerful and demonic dragon worshipped by the game's villain. The villain eventually transforms himself into a dragon to become an avatar of Bahamut.
In the game Brigandine, Bahamut is the evolved form of Couatl which evolved from the Basic Stage, Wyvern.
"Bahamut" is the title track of the first CD from the eclectic blues band Hazmat Modine. http://www.hazmatmodine.com/sound.html#
"Bahamut" is the name of a fish-like monster that lives in the subaquatic map of Atlans, in the MMORPG Mu Online, by Webzen.
In Fablehaven, Bahamut appears as a powerful demon who was chained up in order to build the preserve.

[edit] See also
Behemoth

Yggdrasil

Yggdrasil
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For other uses, see Yggdrasil (disambiguation).

This illustration shows a 19th century attempt to visualize the world view of the Prose Edda.

In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil (Old Norse Yggdrasill, IPA: ˈygˌdrasilː; the extra -l is a nominative case marker) is the "World Tree", a gigantic ash tree, thought to connect all the nine worlds of Norse cosmology. Sometimes it is called Mímameiðr or Lérað. According mythology, Ásgard, Álfheim and Vanaheim rest on the branches of Yggdrasil. The trunk is the world-axis piercing through the center of Miðgarðr (often called Midgard), around which Jötunheim is situated, and below which lies Niðavellir, also called Svartálfheim. The three roots stretch down to Hel, Niflheim, and Muspelheim, although only the first world hosts a spring for Yggdrasil.
Contents[hide]
1 Etymology and alternative names
2 Yggdrasil in the Edda
3 Germanic sacrifices
4 Ragnarök
5 Germanic veneration of trees
6 Parallels
7 Potential origins
8 Modern popular culture
9 See also
//

[edit] Etymology and alternative names
The most commonly accepted etymology of the name is ygg "terrible" + drasil "steed". Yggr is taken to be an epithet of Odin, giving a meaning of "Odin's steed", taken to refer to the nine nights Odin is said to have spent hanging from the tree in order to find the runes. The gallows are sometimes described in Old Norse poetry as the "horse of the hanged." Another interpretation of the name is "terrible horse", in which case the association with Odin may be secondary. A third interpretation, with etymological difficulties, is "yew-column", associating the tree with the Eihwaz rune ᛇ
Fjölsvinnsmál, a poem in the Poetic Edda, refers to the World Tree as Mimameid (ON: Mímameiðr, "Mímir's tree" ). Most probably, the tree is also identical to Lærad (ON: Læraðr) a tree whose leaves and twigs reach down to the roof of Valhalla and provide food for the goat Heiðrún and the stag Eikþyrnir that both live on the roof.

[edit] Yggdrasil in the Edda
Three roots supported the trunk, with one passing through Niflheim, one through Jotunheim and one through Hel. Beneath the Asgard root lay the sacred Well of Urd (Urðabrunnr), and there dwelt the three Nornir, over whom even the gods had no power, and who, every day, watered the tree from the primeval fountain, so that its boughs remained green. Beneath the Jotunheim root lay the spring or well of Mímir (Mímisbrunnr); and beneath the Hel root the well Hvergelmir ("the Roaring Cauldron").
In the top of the tree was perched a giant rooster, or more often an eagle named Vidofnir, and sitting upon its forehead was a hawk named Vedrfolnir (Old Norse: Veðrfolnír). The Niflheim roots of Yggdrasil were gnawed at by a dragon, Níðhöggr. Ratatosk, a squirrel, scurried up and down the tree between Níðhöggr and the eagle, forwarding insults between them. There were also four stags feeding on the leaves of Yggdrasil: Duneyrr, Durathror, Dvalin, and Dainn.

This illustration from a 17th century Icelandic manuscript shows Yggdrasill with the assorted animals that live in it.
The name Yggdrasil, interpreted as "Odin's steed," is taken to refer to Odin's self-sacrifice described in the Hávamál (although the tree is not explicitly identified as Yggdrasil):
I hung on that windy tree for nine nights wounded by my own spear.
I hung to that tree, and no one knows where it is rooted.
None gave me food. None gave me drink. Into the abyss I stared
until I spied the runes. I seized them up, and, howling, fell.

[edit] Germanic sacrifices
The Germanic custom of hanging sacrificial victims from trees was probably in reference to this myth (see also Human sacrifice, Tyr). In 1950, the preserved corpse of the so-called "Tollund Man" was found in a peat bog in Jutland. The excellent level of preservation made it possible to deduce that he had been ritually hanged and respectfully consigned to the bog, not more than a hundred yards from where a ritually hanged woman had been found some decades previously.

[edit] Ragnarök
Yggdrasil is also central in the myth of Ragnarök, the end of the world. The only two humans to survive Ragnarök (there are some survivors among the gods), Lif and Lifthrasir, are able to escape by sheltering in the branches of Yggdrasil, where they feed on the dew and are protected by the tree.

[edit] Germanic veneration of trees
Yggdrasil apparently had smaller counterparts as the Sacred tree at Uppsala, the enormous evergreen of unknown species that stood at the Temple at Uppsala and Irminsul, which was an oak venerated by the pagan Saxons and which was said to connect heaven and earth. The Old Norse form of Irmin was Jörmun and interestingly, just like Ygg, it was one of Odin's names. It appears, then, that Irminsul may have been representing a world tree corresponding to Yggdrasil among the pagan Saxons.
Germanic cultural fondness for tree symbolism appears to have been widespread, with other patron trees such as Thor's Oak appearing in surviving accounts (8th century) and Ahmad ibn Fadlan's account of his encounter with the Scandinavian Rus tribe in the early 10th century, describing them as tattooed from "fingernails to neck" with dark blue "tree patterns."

[edit] Parallels
Many people have discussed the parallels between Odin's self-sacrifice in search of knowledge and the Crucifixion, particularly as Odin, like Jesus, was pierced with a spear before death.[citation needed] However, while surviving texts may have possibly been influenced by Christianity, the myth certainly has pre-Christian origins. There are other apparent parallels between Norse Mythology and Christianity: a slaying and resurrection (Baldr) and an apocalyptic battle at Armageddon (Ragnarok).

[edit] Potential origins
It has been proposed as an explanation for the World Tree myth that the Cirrus clouds – to a ground standing observer appearing to be virtually stationary on the sky – was imagined to be the branches of a gigantic tree, turned seemingly pale the same way that far away mountains do. Accordingly, rain was held to be the dew dropping from the World Tree. Two old German synonyms for clouds, Wetterbaum and Regenbaum (meaning Weather Tree and Rain Tree), are said to attest to this hypothesis.

[edit] Modern popular culture
Main article: Yggdrasil in popular culture
Although depictions vary widely, Yggdrasil is generally portrayed in modern popular culture as a large tree with great power.

[edit] See also
Axis mundi
Banyan
Irminsul
Maypole
Thor's oak
Sacred grove
World tree
Fleur de lys
Palmette
Níðhöggr
Boktai