Rahab
Also called Angel of the Sea, the Rager, Rager.
In Hebrew tradition Rahab is the vast sea-monster of primordial chaos, broken by God in a battle placed before or at the beginning of the ordered world, and remembered afterwards as a byword for the sea's defeated pride.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Jewish folklore
- Region
- Middle East (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The Hero-Slain
- Symbols
- Ocean
- Kin
- Leviathan (derived from)
Kinship
Lines of descent added by hand and approved one at a time.
- Leviathan derived from
why
Rahab belongs to the group of chaos-monsters that Hebrew poetry sets against God at the making of the world, alongside Leviathan and the figure called Tannin.
Near this figure
and 1 more
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Ocean is image-domain The ocean denotes the primordial unfathomable waters, chaos and source of life at once, holding every possibility unmanifest and mothering what crawls from it.
why
That flexibility is why the same word can point to a monster, to the ocean, and to an empire, and why comparisons with the Mesopotamian and Canaanite sea-battles are made so often.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Body of cosmic immeasurable size
why
The figure is consistently on the losing side, and consistently enormous.
Behaviour
- Defeated by a god or hero restoring order
why
The episode that recurs is a combat in which God pierces, crushes, or cuts the monster in pieces, and by that victory establishes or calms the sea.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Serpent carries
3 citations
- Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, s.v. "Rahab."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Rahab."
- Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews.
- Shadow carries
3 citations
- Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, s.v. "Rahab."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Rahab."
- Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews.
- Water carries both readings
3 citations
- Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, s.v. "Rahab."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Rahab."
- Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews.
- Death meets
3 citations
- Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, s.v. "Rahab."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Rahab."
- Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews.
- Father meets
3 citations
- Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, s.v. "Rahab."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Rahab."
- Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews.
- Hero meets
3 citations
- Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, s.v. "Rahab."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Rahab."
- Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews.
- Threshold meets
3 citations
- Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, s.v. "Rahab."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Rahab."
- Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews.